(no subject)
October 15, 2009
Greetings,
Food For Thought Books is currently looking to fill a position in our collective. We are sending this letter out to organizations and community members we believe share our political orientations and values in the hopes that you might help us spread the word. Here's what we're looking for:
The requirements:
1. A minimum time commitment of 2 years.
2. Weekend availability (weekend shifts are shared by all collective members).
3. Enjoys working and engaging with the public. Please note that this is fundamentally a retail job. Large amounts of your time will be spent helping customers find and purchase books.
4. General knowledge of and commitment to the political ideals we seek to promote.
The following are all pluses:
1. Bookstore experience (especially in bookbuying &/or the textbook trade).
2. Experience in organizing community-oriented political and educational programs, such as book signings, lectures and arts/cultural events.
3. Past participation in a workers' collective.
4. Website design and maintenance experience.
5. Knowledge of budgets, interest in financial management.
6. Knowledge of contemporary progressive children's literature.
7. Merchandise buying experience (specifically cards, bumperstickers, posters, etc.).
This position is 32-40 hours a week. We are all paid on the same scale: the annual salary is $28K for 32hrs/week and $36K for 40hrs/week. We do not profit share. Any profits made above that of our salaries and expenses go into the further development of our projects and toward donations to local non-profit groups. Benefits include individual health insurance, 4 weeks of paid vacation a year, sick leave, maternity leave, funeral leave, and lots of cheap and free books. (Please note, re: health insurance, that we are committed to creatively supporting families in this regard)
Due to the nature of a worker-owned organization, where all members are full owners of the business as well as workers, hiring a new member is a big commitment for all parties involved. As such, our hiring process includes a trial period of six months in which we try to determine whether the arrangement is a good fit for everyone involved. After successfully completing this trial period, the new hire is offered full collective membership. During the trial period the new hire is still paid the same rate and receives the same benefits as the rest of the collective.
As we are committed to providing a venue for a diversity of voices to be heard, we wish also for our collective to represent such diversity as much as it can. We will therefore follow the general principles of affirmative action in our hiring process. Women, people of color, GLBT/queer folks, and members of other underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to apply.
Resumes & references can be mailed, dropped off in person, or emailed to matthew@foodforthoughtbooks.com. Please include a cover letter describing why you want to work here & what you think you'll bring to our collective. We will be accepting resumes until November 9, 2009. Interviews will start November 16, 2009. We will keep accepting applications until this position is filled though applications submitted by the deadline will be given preferential treatment. No phone calls, please.
Thanks in advance for your help with this process.
Hi there, my name is Nathan Scarborough and let me say, sincerely, that I am very excited to see your craigslist ad. I've only visited your bookstore once, having lived here less than two months and not had much to spend since I got here, but I loved it and very nearly asked about a chance to work with you on the spot.
Since your ad mentioned that "GLBT/queer folks are strongly encouraged to apply" I'll explain how I got here. I'm a queer vegetarian, and I moved from Arkansas in late August in large part out of desperation, having had a rather disappointing life in the bible belt. Finding my father had signed a petition that became a law banning anyone in the LGBTQ community from eligibility for foster care or adoption (an issue close to my heart) was sort of the last straw, and I was on a train with almost no money and everything I owned in a duffel bag shortly thereafter. I've been living with someone I met online (who fronted me the train ticket just to get me out of Arkansas) and working as a Personal Care Assistant (both my room mates are disabled.) However my friend/client Michael is achieving more independence all the time and I'd be glad to continue helping him as a friend, with a different full time job. I love the pioneer valley and my primary goal here is to connect with people and support causes I believe in. Living in an accepting and progressive area means the world to me.
After an eye opening bout of study in Sociology I've become convinced that relocalizing our economic infrastructure is one of the most important steps we can take for promoting social justice and real change, so again I would be thrilled to work with a local worker's collective. Personal heroes of mine include Vandana Shiva, Ammon Hennacy, Monica Richards, and pretty much anyone involved in eco-feminism, permaculture, or the anti-war movement. Favorite authors include Whitman, Salmon Rushdie, Umberto Eco, Khalil Gibran, Tolstoy, Emerson, Thoreau, and I'm also somewhat obsessed with Sufi poetry including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Dard, Ramprasad Sen, and of course Rumi. Some authors I'd like to become more familiar with include Saki, Pablo Neruda, Harry Hay, Michael Warner, and various classics. I'm also particularly interested in Dharmic philosophy and that of the African diaspora (being able to afford trips down to NYC to be more involved with my friends in Candomblé there would be amazing. I am passionate about engaging with marginalized faith-groups and believe in their power as instruments of social change, to say nothing of my personal involvement. However, having grown up as the gay son of evangelical missionaries, I can definitely understand those with no draw to religious expression, am sensitive to their perspective, and I'm not pushy.)
Gaps in my work experience since I first started full time at 17 (having gotten a GED due to disillusionment with the "good grades mean nice cars" tack they took with us, and difficulties as a gay highschooler in Little Rock) are all filled with school. Though I'm "college aged" I'd be more than happy to make at least a 2 year commitment to work with you, and I care more about bottom-up learning of the sort bookstores and community organizations facilitate than top-down education, which I've had mixed experiences with. I'm more comfortable in coffee houses and bookstores like yours than at huge parties, and can count on one hand the number of times I've had to call in sick to work. I'm available essentially any time the bus is running, and only about a mile and a half away in the event it's not and walking is necessary.
I'm happy to say I meet the 4 requirements you listed, and as far as your "pluses", I've had some experience organizing political and community-service oriented groups, though nothing directly arts/culture related. However I do have a great deal of interest in the arts. I have very basic experience with websites (primarily through blogging), though no formal training (outside of now-obsolete QBasic and Visual Basic I barely remember) or familiarity with programming languages beyond basic HTML. As for the rest, I'm a quick study and more than willing to learn.
If it's at all relevant, my tumblr gives a fairly good overview of the sorts of political, artistic, and intellectual areas I lean towards. I'd be happy to provide you with anything else that could help evaluate whether or not I'd be a good fit. (I honestly think I would.)
http://feralnostalgia.tumblr.com/
Again, I'd be beside myself if I could work at Food For Thought, and I'll be collecting letters of recommendation as soon as possible, but I wanted to email you and express my interest right away.
Thanks!
Nathan Scarborough
cmon cmon cmon!