Executive Director (Volunteer to Start; Paid Soon, We Hope)

Greetings. I'm Jeff Hall, founder of OUR NATIONAL CONVERSATION, or ONC for short.

I'm a former vice president at the Los Angeles Times and a media entrepreneur. I went to some fancy schools and worked at the White House as a member of the White House Fellows program.

It's hard to believe, but even though I'm 39 in my mind, I'm actually 74, and it's time to find an executive director to work under me, with the goal of having the right candidate take over in 6-18 months.

This is a volunteer situation to start; we need to raise money before we can pay people. Raising money is "Job One," because so much of our ability to do what we want to do will require financial support.

Several of our experienced mentors want to get paid a reasonable consulting fee and our students would like to receive modest stipends, as well. We also need to market ourselves, and this will take money.

I think our idea is sound -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan media outlet run by America's future leaders -- but it took us longer than expected to build the foundation. It's now time to build the house and having money to work with would be a huge plus.

The ideal candidate will be excited about, and knowledgeable about, journalism, media, democracy, community-building and fundraising.

We want to attract a charismatic leader who truly buys into our nonpartisan mission. We want our young (18-25 years old) interns to look up to you. We need someone diplomatic who can make inclusive political conversations interesting and welcoming.

It would be nice to find someone who values old-fashioned journalistic values like fairness, truth and balance; at the same time, we need someone very social media-savvy with a guerrilla marketing mindset.

If you want to go into politics or media one day, I can't imagine a better launching pad.

Given our student team -- we have 65 interns at any one time (over 900 since we started) -- we think there is much more we can do on campuses across America. We can discuss all that when the time comes.

Lack of pay will be a deal-killer for many, I get it. But all I need is one right applicant.

This site is called "The Idealist." The idealist in me tells me someone perfect will reach out to me as a result of this ad.

If you simply can't work without pay, check in with me in six months or so, let's see how things are going.

Maybe you'd like to be a very part-time volunteer or board member. If so, get in touch. Maybe you know someone else who would find this situation appealing. Please make the introduction.

If you ARE in a place where you can afford to work without pay (20 hours a week? 30 hours a week? 40 hours a week?) for six months to a year, I hope your leap of faith will pay off. I've been doing this for five years now with no pay.

Even though there is no pay, I'd like you to be able to commit to six months to a year. This won't be easy and it could take a while for us to really stand on our own two feet. I can paint a bright picture of possibilities, but it will be up to you to really get us to the promised land. It's time for a breakthrough.

I'll be rooting for you, our students will be rooting for you -- and soon, I hope -- America will be rooting for you, too.

I am going to keep this posting up for a while to see what comes in. But if you get in touch soon and we click, I can move quickly.

Hope to hear from you. I can be reached by email: jeff.hall@ournationalconversation.org.