Should you apply to be a director or organizer?
The intrusion of oppressively theocratic themes in the 2012 political campaigns creates a new urgency for Secular Americans to exploit the power of the ballot to reaffirm secular government as our nation's most effective vanguard of freedom of conscience. The American Secular Mainstream will provide secular voters with resources and endorsements regarding the 2012 candidates for President, Vice President, Congress, and state legislatures. By creating and maintaining this new Internet venue to serve and guide the secular electorate, we hope to expand the influence of the Secular American voting bloc and our secular-friendly religious allies to mobilize an American Renewal Through Reason and Democracy.
The American Secular Mainstream project is unfunded and unstaffed. As with its sister site the American Secular Census, one person working alone is handling all project development and daily operations. Secular Mainstream will have impact only if qualified volunteers step forward to do the research, blogging, and social networking necessary to achieve the above goals. We recognize that not every state will be able to assemble a team, and that some teams will have to limit their focus to just one region or issue, but let's get started and make a difference wherever we can. Is it possible you might play a role?
The vision
- A section for each state's candidates, issues, and events, led by a State Director (or Co-Directors) coordinating one or more Assistant Organizers. States that generate these teams will have voter resources. States that don't, won't.
- A section for the presidential candidates, issues, and events, run by a similar team.
The tools available to volunteers
- Blogger-level access to the site, and tech support.
- Statistics (both public and internal) from the American Secular Census as relevant to specific campaigns or issues. [No identifying information about Census registrants will be made available to volunteers.]
- Space in the American Secular Census e-mail update for communications to Census registrants.
- As needed, e-mail filtered to specific state or U.S. Congressional district residents only.
- The American Secular Mainstream Platform (based on American Secular Census data) to guide research and endorsements.
Expectations of volunteers
- Research, writing, social networking, or organizing experience and/or skills.
- Desire and ability to mobilize secular voters to identify, support, and elect candidates committed to secular government and civic equality for Secular Americans.
- Ability to work as a team member and to network for team growth.
- Availability 5-10 hours a week, no set schedule (possibly more in October and early November).
- Your own computer and Internet connection.
- Strict observance of confidentiality with certain information.
- Reliability and professionalism.
