SCOPE Distributed Field Organizer

Position Title: SCOPE Distributed Field Organizer

Tier / Category: Tier 3 / Organizer III

Reports to: Southern Distributed Organizing Manager

Employment Status: Full Time

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Tennessee

NLRA: Bargaining Unit Position

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) organizes majority-white communities across the country to work for racial and economic justice. Our work encompasses: supporting a network of 150+ chapters across the US and Canada; growing and mobilizing a national membership body for individual members; running place-based organizing projects in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia; and working alongside POC-led partner organizations in the broader social justice movement ecosystem. We work to build the working-class white flank of multiracial majorities fighting for the things all communities need. We organize white people by engaging their shared interest-- what they stand to gain by joining alongside people of color

We ground our organizing in a framework of shared interest and have an inclusive, open-hearted approach to organizing - calling people into this work rather than creating barriers to participation - while maintaining a clear political line. We believe that together, as part of a powerful multi-racial, cross-class movement for collective liberation, we can force the systems of white supremacy and racialized capitalism to crumble.

Southern Crossroads (SCOPE), a project of SURJ, is a growing alliance of membership-based grassroots organizations building collective power and multi-racial alliances among cash poor and working people in small towns and cities across the region. To see this vision become reality, we expect all staff to:

• Be actively working on your leadership development, personal growth and goals and work plans.
• Be accountable to the communities we work in and membership base.
• Be wise and prudent with how staff time and limited financial resources are used.

Summary of Position:

SURJ is seeking a SCOPE Distributed Field Organizer to create a distributed infrastructure to recruit and train a large base of majority white members who can win campaigns to improve material conditions at the local level and statewide in Tennessee while aligning with multiracial fights in solidarity. This will include implementing our program to scale our work through mass absorption, online-to-offline recruitment techniques, social media, and cultural ways to bring people in. The field organizer will frequently travel to small and mid-sized cities throughout Tennessee to help renters launch new local tenant projects, campaigns, or unions and provide coaching and campaign strategy guidance to existing tenant unions, projects or campaigns participating in the TN Renters United network. The areas we organize in are politically right wing and this is intentional. We seek to bring in a base that has been ignored and caught by the Right to organize together around mutual interest. This work includes using skills, technology, mass trainings, and developing plans with local tenant groups to build a broader distributed organizing program. This includes creating online and on-the-ground meeting spaces, managing data integration, and supporting phone and text banks with members.

The SCOPE Distributed Field Organizer may collaborate with SURJ’s organizing projects in Georgia and in Kentucky (Appalachian People’s Union) and with Kentucky’s Distributed Organizer. This collaboration may involve developing shared systems and approaches to this work and collaborating on shared campaigns.

We work to build the working class white flank of multiracial majorities fighting for the things all communities need. We organize white people by engaging their shared interest-- what they stand to gain by joining alongside people of color. This role will also participate in Southern Crossroads and SURJ wide work.

Reports to: Southern Distributed Organizing Manager

This position is included in a union-represented collective bargaining unit, and specific terms and conditions of employment are subject to negotiations for a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES — Essential duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to the following:

Priority 1: Maintain and help expand Tennessee distributed infrastructure through organizing and leadership development (80%)

• Under the supervision of the Southern Distributed Organizing Manager, implement the strategic plan to build a distributed infrastructure focused on recruiting and building a mass base of poor and working-class members to win organizing campaigns.
• Generate new leads through online and on-the-ground outreach to identify leaders interested in helping form local tenant groups affiliated with TN Renters United.
• Support identified leaders in establishing tenant groups through online and in-person trainings and coaching, and ongoing trainings and coaching after groups are launched.
• Facilitate strategy development and execution with local tenant groups to execute campaigns at the building, corporate, or local government level to materially improve renters’ conditions.
• Co-develop with the Southern Distributed Organizing Manager a series of online and in-person trainings, and/or use existing curricula, to lead a series of training sessions for potential and existing members.
• Support members in taking on increasing leadership, applying SCOPE’s distributed organizing leadership ladder.
• Participate in SCOPE’s statewide renter rights work under the direction of the Southern Distributed Organizing Manager.
• Manage distributed organizing tactics such as virtual phone banks, virtual one-on-ones, and webinar trainings.
• Support organizing in rapid response moments, and coordinate among other teams within the organization as needed.
• Ensure this approach is rooted in SURJ’s values, and is culturally responsive and engaging to Tennesseans living in rural communities and mid-sized cities tied to those communities.
• Leading this key programmatic work requires making important decisions around program design, staff roles, member roles, and cross-team coordination

Priority 2: Tracking and Coordination (10%)

• Oversee the integration of data from phone and text banks, social media, and other lead generation into SCOPE’s EveryAction database.
• Follow data tracking systems that are integrated and coordinated with local SCOPE projects and projects across SURJ.
• Maintain a high level of teamwork, collaboration, and mutual accountability within SCOPE, the Grassroots Organizing Department of which they are a part, and with other departments across SURJ.

Priority 3: Develop and hold strategic relationships with local, statewide, and national organizations (5%)

• Develop and hold relationships with important stakeholders in our statewide housing coalition in TN
• Hold relationships with other tenant organizations in TN, regionally and nationally as needed strategically.

Priority 4: Participate in Southern Crossroads as a member of the larger program (5%)

• Participate in local,regional, and national gatherings and trainings both as staff and accompanying members.
• Attend and participate in meetings and gatherings for strategic planning for SURJ, SCOPE and TRU.
• All administrative duties required by SURJ staff.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of 3 years as a community organizer with distributed and online organizing experience.
• 4 years experience with grassroots organizing
• 2 years experience holding the big picture of an organizing campaign with very little external guidance.
• This is a field organizing position that requires frequent travel, including long-distance travel throughout Tennessee. Valid driver’s license, automobile in working condition are required, and ability to independently drive long distances required. Please consult our driving policy to ensure you meet all minimum qualifications for this role.
• Ability to get to canvassing locations multiple times per week, frequently work outdoors in hot/cold/wet/dry conditions for canvassing purposes, frequently ascend and descend stairs to access tenant units, regularly canvass from door to door for up to 4 hours at a time, frequently travel over uneven surfaces to door knock, and occasionally transport up to 20 lbs to set up for meetings and events.
• SURJ policy requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, subject to reasonable accommodation under federal, state, and local law. Accommodations may be not possible for positions that require in-person contact with other staff or members of the public.

KNOWLEDGE

• Experience running an integrated program that balances leadership development, campaign strategy, and winning change.
• Experience with phone script and text script development.
• Experience with data management and tools for campaigns including EveryAction or similar database preferred, VAN, and virtual phone bank systems and dialers.
• Experience organizing volunteers and members on issues of economic and racial justice.
• Deep understanding of SURJ’s work and theory of change.
• An understanding of the strategic importance of the South and power dynamics between the South and the rest of the U.S. that can influence organizing efforts here.
• Commitment to racial, gender and economic justice and their intersections, both inside and outside organizations.

SKILLS:

• Solid time management skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple projects at the same time.
• Deep skills in leadership development, especially integrating political analysis and concrete organizing skills.
• Demonstrated track record of organizing and leading in multiracial coalitions.

ABILITIES:

• Ability to develop leaders and programs remotely and on the ground.
• Ability to direct the work of members and volunteers.
• Ability to manage multiple projects.
• Flexible: open to new ways of doing things and experimentation.
• Reliable: follows through on what they said they are going to do.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate political analysis in program’s strategies and tactics.
• Ability to build trust and work with a wide range of individuals and personalities, and to establish and maintain effective working relationships.
• Ability to work in a cross-class environment while holding a strong class politics that centers poor and working people.
• Ability to give and receive direct constructive feedback.
• Commitment to SURJ’s strategy and approach to anti-racist work.

THIS POSITION IS EXPECTED TO:

• Attend bi-weekly SURJ staff meetings and be a SURJ team member
• Attend weekly SCOPE staff meetings
• Attend weekly meetings with supervisor to create and refine work plans with clear purpose, objectives, job roles and responsibilities, planned work hours, and metrics that build a strong tenant union and organization
• Attend OLC and other mandatory trainings
• With input from supervisor, complete weekly, monthly, yearly work planning and metrics tracking
• Quarterly review of leadership development plan to track progress and make adjustments
• Create and fulfill annual leadership development plan, including relevant trainings, conferences or classes to grow as an organizer
• Represent our work in regional, national, and state spaces, with approval and support from supervisor
• Support Tennessee statewide work as relevant, with approval and support from supervisor
• Maintain an up-to-date Fight4TheSouth Google calendar with planned work days and off days
• Complete timesheets and log all sick and vacation days in BambooHR portal
• Come prepared to work planning meetings with previous week reflection for regular check-in with your supervisor
• Regularly check commonly used communication channels on work days, including Fight4TheSouth email, SCOPE Signal threads, SURJ Slack, and BCLP member group messages
• Communicate with your supervisor when planned duties and responsibilities are unable to be met or unexpected schedule changes occur
• Give and receive direct feedback that is kind

BENEFITS:

• Annual Salary: 67,000
• Health, dental and vision insurance including available employer contribution toward spouse, children and family coverage
• 401K retirement plan with up to 6% employer match
• Twenty (20) days paid time off per year (prorated)
• Twelve (12) days of sick leave per year (prorated)
• Thirteen (13) paid holidays per year
• Three additional paid weeks off for organization-wide shutdown summer & winter breaks
• Employer-paid short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Employer-paid life insurance
• All staff work remotely from home
• Monthly technology support reimbursement (internet, phone, etc)
• Professional development resources each year