This full-time salaried position is responsible for the development of a volunteer membership base and the campaign work for a local chapter of Pennsylvania Stands Up. This is a political leadership position, responsible for helping to develop the overarching strategy for the chapter together with the local leadership team and statewide staff, growing the base of dues-paying members, running issue campaigns and doing electoral work on the local and statewide level.
The position will be based in one of our regions in Central or Eastern PA. This position will work closely with other members of the organizing team, Movement Politics team, and with other members of the statewide staff.
Reports to: Regional Organizing Manager
PA Stands Up is a union shop, this position is within the union’s bargaining unit.
Build a base of member-leaders. The local organizer is responsible for building a base of member leaders. They use strategies including canvassing, petitions, town halls, tabling and participation in rallies and protests to grow the organization's contact list. They conduct one-on-one meetings, recruit new leaders, and invite people into core leadership roles, including building a local leadership team that takes a leadership role in designing local issue campaigns. They design and conduct training on key skills to develop the leadership of members together with other staff and leaders at PA Stands Up.
Design winning issue campaigns at the local and state level. Together with the local leadership team, the local organizer helps design and run issue campaigns at the local level. This includes selecting issues that will grow the organization's base, conducting a power analysis of the terrain, making a clear issue cut, and designing a series of tactical interventions needed to win, including events, power meetings, communications, coalitional activities and more. In addition to local campaigns, local organizers will also collaborate with other organizers to design and run campaigns at the statewide level.
Support local electoral work. Local organizers work with the Movement Politics team and their leadership team to support local electoral work in their chapters, nonpartisan civic engagement campaigns, field plans, and canvassing efforts to elect candidates at the local, state and federal level of government.
Advance local communications and narrative efforts. The local organizer is responsible for recruiting leaders to the local Communications Team and working with those leaders and the statewide Communications Team to build the public presence of the local chapter in the media, online, and at in-person events.
Expand the dues-paying membership. Dues-paying members are the lifeblood of the work Pennsylvania Stands Up is doing to build a multi-racial working class force for change across the state. The local organizer works with their supervisor to design a plan to recruit new dues-paying members, renew lapsed members, and solicit additional donations from existing members.