Internships

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General Description: For such a large organization, SDS has a surprisingly small national organization. This is because it is all-volunteer and can seem nebulous at times. This presents a great opportunity for interns to take initiative and really make things happen, gain experience, and help build a national student movement. We are continually developing our internship program, and all of the following internships are open for critique and improvement. They may or may not be open at any given time, but since, in general, we need more people to help out, there will be something you can plug into.

Each intern is responsible for their own specific tasks, and are encouraged to take initiative, challenge themselves and build more effective ways of doing things. Internship time requirements vary between types of internship, but most require no more than 10 hours a week, perfect for a student, or unemployed young person looking for activist experience. Internships are attached to the different national bodies of the organization, called working groups (Working Groups are all volunteer groups without a formal internal structure. Decisions are made by consensus. Work is done by members and people they can rope into helping). Interns will be members of these working groups, and will be managed by the working group (ever wanted to be your own boss?). Ultimate authority over interns rests with the National Working Committee, but it will be working groups that decide on hiring their own interns. For a description of sds structure go to the description on the main sds website.

For the purposes of receiving college credit for this internship, we are generally pretty flexible and can accommodate any demands a college makes so that our interns can get credit.

Benefits: Helping build a national student movement. You will get significant experience organizing and problem solving. You will get "in the know" about tons of news from across the country. But the largest benefit is that you will become connected to an amazing network of awesome activists that spans the nation (the thing sds is best at, in fact, is connecting us with each other).

To Apply: Send a self-revealing letter to will.pasley.sds@gmail.com Please include a description of any activist experience you have, which internships you are interested in, and where you will be located (school, town, etc).

General Intern Responsibilities:

  • Interns must be on all the conference calls/chats of their respective working group.
  • The first person to hold a given internship is also charged with writing a detailed but short manual on how to do the internship so future interns can have an easier time starting the job.
  • Interns should update the manual for their position on an ongoing basis as parts of it become out-of-date.

Internships by Working Group:

Welcoming Committee

The Welcoming Committee receives sign-ups from an online form. We contact these people and see if we can help them with whatever they need. We connect them with other people in the region and help them form chapters.

Regional Organizer

(alteast one for each region: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Northwest).

  • Welcoming Regional Organizer Internship Manual
  • If you want to be a part of a country-wide network and like helping people, this internship is perfect for you. You will give tons of advice on how to start chapters and gets lots of experience connecting people.
  • Requirements: Must have some experience with networking and good people skills. Local organizing experience a MAJOR plus.
  • Duties:
    • Contacting new sign-ups
    • Helping them get connected to other SDSers and sign-ups
    • Building communication and friendship networks across the region
    • Maintain good contact with counterparts in Chapter Comms and the regional rep on the NWC, and any city organizer in the region.
    • Checking-in with old sign-ups to see if they need any help
    • Update chapter database with forming chapters and put them in touch with the Chapter Comms regional organizer.

City Organizer

  • Some of the larger city chapters may want to have a welcoming person for their city. This position will allow you to really help build up a city chapter into a robust chapter making machine.
  • Duties:
    • Welcoming people from specific cities
    • Helping new chapters form
    • Building communication and friendship networks in cities.
    • Maintain good contact with city chapter, attend city chapter meetings, and stay in contact with regional organizer
    • Checking-in with old sign-ups to see if they need any help
    • Update chapter database with forming chapters and put them in touch with the Chapter Comms regional organizer.

Chapter Recruiter

  • There are thousands of small organizations that would work really well as part of sds. The chapter recruiter finds them and tries to convince them to affiliate.
  • Duties:
    • Find other similar organizations
    • Work to convince them to affiliate
    • Be in contact with the Outreach/Alliance building working group so that groups that don't join atleast get put down as friends.

Chapter Comms

Chapter Communications: We try to keep chapters within a region in contact with each other and with us. We spread national news and try to weave the sds network as broadly as possible. We update the chapter database so we know what chapters are around, and most importantly we offer help to local chapters. We are the face of national sds to the chapters.

Chapter Comms and the Welcoming Committee are tightly intertwined and we have been considering merging them. Chapters will be divided up among organizers by the Chapter Comms Working Group.

Regional Organizers

(atleast one for each region: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, Northwest).

  • Be the face of national SDS to the chapters and help build a powerful student movement. In this internship you will get to know people from across your region and build hopefully build lots of friendships. You will keep people in contact with each other, weave networks and help local chapters flourish.
  • Requirements: Must have some experience with networking and good people skills. Local organizing experience a MAJOR plus.
  • Duties:
    • Contacting chapters once a month to find out what is going on, and if they need anything.
    • Posting info about what chapters are doing
    • Keeping the chapter database up to date
    • Helping chapters navigate national SDS, and getting them the help they need
    • Keeping chapters informed of national/regional news, and interesting tidbits from other chapters
    • Recruiting people to do national work.
    • Building communication and friendship networks across the region
    • Maintain good contact with counterparts in the welcoming committee and the regional rep on the NWC

City Organizer

  • Some of the larger city chapters may want to have a welcoming person for their city.
  • Duties:
    • Contacting chapters once a month to find out what is going on, and if they need anything.
    • Posting info about what chapters are doing
    • Keeping the chapter database up to date
    • Helping chapters navigate national SDS, and getting them the help they need
    • Recruiting people to do national work.
    • Building communication and friendship networks across the region
    • Maintain good contact with counterparts in the welcoming committee, the regional organizer, and the regional rep on the NWC

Coordinator

  • To facilitate communication with chapters, the coordinator provides support and resources for Regional and City Organizers. They smooth the process of communicating with chapters and maintain a general knowledge of all things SDS.
  • Duties:
    • Compile talking points for Chapter Comms organizers to when contacting chapters.
    • Compile news and announcements to send to chapters
    • Compile lists of national needs that chapter might be able to help with
    • Think about the big-picture of Chapter Comms work, and try to make things work better.
    • Must be on all the major listservs of SDS and stay aware of what is going on across the country.

Website

The website working group maintains the website, updates it, and tries to make it a more useful too to build our movement. It also tries to expand our presence on the web, and maintains the online institutional memory of SDS.

Main Website Management Intern

  • Get some serious IT support experience and help SDS's website not crash every two months.
  • Requirements: Must have knowledge of website management (or be willing to take a class at your school on the topic). HTML, PHP, FTP - know what all these mean.
  • Duties:
    • Keeping website functional
    • problem-solving glitches
    • posting relevant news on the main page of website
    • backup website regularly

Social Media Intern

  • Love Facebook? Then this is the internship for you! You will be managing SDS's presence on social networking sites like Facebook, and expanding out presence on the inter-webs.
  • Requirements: A Facebook account. Love of the written word.
  • Duties:
    • Facebook duties:
      • Checking the Facebook SDS group and fan Pages
      • Updating the Facebook pages
      • Contacting people who post stuff on our wall
      • Posting stuff on Facebook occasionally
      • Soliciting other SDSers to respond to people.
    • SDS blog duties
      • Make a central list of blogs by SDS chapters, working groups and SDSers
      • Posting the occasional blogpost
      • Bugging working groups to update their blog if it has been awhile
      • This internship may eventually be split into different parts if it turns out to become alot of work.

News Achiever

  • This is for news-junkies and people who like to be in-the-know. It involves updating and maintaining the SDS news archive on the SDS wiki. This news archive is a big part of the institutional memory of SDS and a huge resource for us to see what has happened in the past.
  • Requirements: Understanding of wikis or a willingness to learn (cause it is super easy). Ability to use googlenews. Fascination with history and the news.
  • Duties:
    • Keeping the News Archive up to date
    • Searching 2006-Oct 2008 for news stories about SDS and SDSers.

Listserv Czar

  • Ever wanted to be a Czar/Tsar? Good, then you will love this internship. There are hundreds of old SDS listservs that are now defunct, and a couple dozen that are active. And they need some organization.
  • Requirements: Understanding of listserv management, or ability to learn it. Data management skills would be helpful. Love/hate relationship with data-entry is a plus ;)
  • Duties:
    • Cataloging listservs and updating the old listserv database
    • Moderating abandoned listservs until new moderators can be found
    • Maintaining various listservs (i.e. if there is a spammer on the list, bugging the moderator to remove them... this has happened alot lately)
    • Occasionally backing up listserv address lists in case they get taken down
    • Maintaining/moderating the national announcements listserv and the friends of sds listserv.
    • Attempting to get every willing person in sds on the national announcements listserv
    • Decommissioning listservs that are dead (finding the old moderator, and shutting them down, getting a list of the people on them and seeing if they want to be on the national announcements listserv)

Wikiteer Intern

  • Wikipedia is awesome because it is participatory and educational. What more exemplifies SDS? SDS has its own wiki, and a Wikiteer will help build and manage it. The wiki recently crashed and we lost most of the original wiki. So it needs some serious rebuilding.
  • Requirements: Understand wikis or be willing to learn. Love the idea of wikis. Can handle repetitive tasks.
  • Duties:
    • Rebuild and grow the wiki
    • Add content to wiki
    • Convince others to add to the wiki
    • Help create effective navigation structures for the wiki
    • Keep an eye out for things that would make the wiki more useful and try to implement them or find people to do so.

Database Manager

  • Title is pretty self-explanatory... Manages our various databases
  • Requirements: Understanding of website management, SQL, GoogleDocs, and spreadsheets. Good at problem-solving skills. Consider yourself awesome at computers.
  • Duties:
    • Fix problems with databases
    • Regularly back them up.

Trainer

  • Trains local chapters on how to manage their websites
  • Requirements: Understanding of website management and ability to teach it to others over chat or phone.
  • Duties:
    • Keep in contact with Chapter Comms and the welcoming committee in case they know of people who need help
    • Teach people how to manage their websites.

News Bulletin

The News Bulletin working group publishes a newsletter every 2-3 months. It solicits articles, proofs them, and then publishes the newsletter online. It also maintains the News Bulletin blog. These internships are perfect for people considering doing journalism in the future. All interns are expected to help decide which submissions should be published.

Copy editor/proof-reader intern

Layout intern

  • Requirements: Knowledge of, or ability to learn publishing software (like the open-sourced Scribius)
  • Duties:
    • Take approved submissions and artwork and lay it all out in a nice-looking way.

Artwork intern

  • Requirements: Knowledge of, or ability to learn photo-editing software (like the open-sourced GIMP)
  • Duties:
    • Find/create artwork for the NB
    • Solicit pictures from people

Publicity intern

  • Requirements: People person
  • Duties:
    • Soliciting submissions from the SDS network.
    • Making sure the bulletin is distributed to all SDS chapters
    • Maintain contact with Chapter Comms for distribution, and be on all the major SDS listservs

Media

The Media working group has two key functions, to facilitate contact with the media for large national events, and to train local chapters in how to do this on the local level.

Press Outreach

  • The press contact (or one of the press contacts) for national SDS.
  • Requirements: Be somewhat articulate and confident when speaking
  • Duties:
    • Collect news from SDS
    • Write press releases
    • Send press releases to the media
    • Bother the media to cover us
    • Develop professional relationships with people in the media?

Trainer

  • To help build the skill level of our org.
  • Requirements: Experience dealing with media
  • Duties:
  • Train local chapters to deal with media.

Conventions Organizing

SDS shoots to atleast have one national convention and one regional convention per region per year. Convention working groups make these events happen.

Organizer Intern

  • Help plan and pull off of 50-150 people.
  • Requirements: Foresight... ability to see problems approaching and figure out a way to fix them.
  • Duties:
    • Planning logistics for various conventions (specific interns will probably tackle specific conventions, and will have lots of help)
    • Stay in communication with other involved parties
    • Attend the conventions being planned.
    • Logistics include but are not limited to:
      • Housing for convention attendees
      • Food for convention attendees
      • Transportation for convention attendees
      • Help create the convention program and see that it happens
      • Publicizing the event

Outreach and Alliance Building

This working group maintains ties with other organizations and tries to build up a strong network of peer groups who we can work with to build a movement.

Networker Intern

  • Help expand the power of the general movement by building connections within it. SDS needs to get to know more organizations and do solidarity work with them.
  • Duties:
    • Contacting awesome orgs/people and building relationships
    • Coordinating solidarity activities
    • Spreading news to SDS about what is happening with other groups.

Trainer

  • Help our local chapters develop their allies and support network.
  • Duties:
    • Trains local groups in this work, building coalitions and such

Fundraising

Raises funds for SDS's national events and for grant-giving to local chapters.

Fundraiser

  • It may sound boring, but it is absolutely essential! Perks of the job include getting to know lots of amazing people,
  • Duties:
    • Seeks out old SDS alumni and awesome people to donate money
    • Soliciting dues from chapters.

Grant writer

  • Gain tons of experience writing grants and navigating the non-profit industrial complex.
  • Duties:
    • Writes grants on the off chance that a foundation would fund us.

Trainer

Trains local groups in fundraising

Training Working Group

Trains trainers and supports the trainers in SDS in spreading their knowledge and building leadership.

Training Tour Organizer

  • Duties
    • Coordinating an SDS training tour of our chapters.
    • Lining up dates, getting chapters to secure space and funding, finding the trainers able to make such a commitment.

Trainer

  • Building institutional knowledge and power!
  • Duties:
    • Train people

Action Camp Organizer

  • Requirements: foresight... ability to see problems approaching and figure out a way to fix them.
  • Duties:
    • Planning logistics for action camps
    • Stay in communication with other involved parties
    • Logistics include but are not limited to:
      • Housing for convention attendees
      • Food for convention attendees
      • Transportation for convention attendees
      • Help create the convention program and see that it happens
      • Publicize the event

Anti-War Working Group

Organizer

  • Ever wanted to be at the core of a national campaign?
  • Duties
    • Collect news about what is going on and disseminate it to chapters involved in the SDS anti-war working group
    • Outreach to chapters to find out what they are doing and see if they are interested in doing anti-war work. spread the news of what they are doing

Researcher

  • Duties:
    • Research relevant topics to the campaign
    • Produce well cited and academically rigorous papers, pamphlets, zines, articles, etc.

Student Power for Accessible Education Campaign

Organizer

  • Ever wanted to be at the core of a national campaign?
  • Duties
    • Collect news about what is going on and disseminate it to chapters involved in the SDS SPfAE working group
    • Outreach to chapters to find out what they are doing and see if they are interested in doing Accessible Education work. spread the news of what they are doing

Researcher

  • Our campaign needs massive information on two big fronts. First, we need information about our educational system, including costs of education, student loan rates, student debt stats, profit margins of student loan companies, general spending patterns of public and private universities. Any data that would help our campaign develop more concrete targets. This research could easily be a Thesis project that would go a long way to helping our student movement develop a better strategy for universal education
  • Second, we need a solid understanding of the history of US, and international student organizing around this issue. In order to have a firmer understanding of how to win our goals, and in order to teach the history of the student movement, we need to know its history. Not only the US history, but also the international history that might lend itself to our work here, particularly the history of countries that have education most resembling our goals. There should also be a particular emphasis on the history of student unionism.
  • Duties:
    • Research relevant topics to the campaign
    • Produce well cited and academically rigorous papers, pamphlets, zines, articles, etc.

Visibility

Trying to make SDS's national components visible.

Visibilizer

  • Requirements: willingness to learn the ins and outs of national SDS and expose them to the world.
  • Duties
    • Collecting notes from all working groups and publishing them somewhere... probably on the wiki.
    • Staying in contact with the working groups and publicizing their need of more people to help. And saying exactly how people can help, and how to get involved
    • Maintain list of NWC members.
    • Maintain list of interns
    • Work with Chapter Comms to distribute news and information.
    • Be a general contact person for people with questions.
    • Be on every active SDS listserv. And atleast scan all the emails received from them.

Caucuses and Auxiliaries

Discussion facilitator

  • Often discussions on the Aux listservs are few and far between. This should be corrected
  • Requirements: Ability to think critically, and passion for writing
  • Duties:
    • Sparking conversations on the listserv once every two weeks.
    • Blog-posting once every two weeks your thoughts, or something interesting you found.

Suggestions for other intern roles? If you have an idea for an Caucus internship, please post it!

Research Interns

To help create a body of work to bolster our intellectual position and provide for education. (possible FAQ: you can write a paper for a class and use it for this internship). Since there is no working group surrounding this internship, they will work with each other and the NWC, or whoever the NWC wants them to work with, or who their research is relevant to.

Research Intern

  • Research Internship Manual
  • Basically the same thing you do for class, but you get to choose the topic. Please make the topic of research applicable to SDS related things... which should be pretty easy considering how diverse our platform is.
  • Requirements: Ability to write, think. Willingness to publish your works under an umbrella creative commons non-commercial copyright.
  • Duties:
    • Research important issues
    • Write papers, pamphlets, zines, white papers, analyses, articles, opinion pieces, maybe even books about these issues. All must be well cited and academically rigorous.
    • Post these pieces of research on an online database that is to be created so that they can be read and used by other SDSers and people in general.

Emotional Support Team

Probably should be a working group for this... SDS, like any organization made up of people, has its issues with group dynamics, conflicts and bad vibes. To try to prevent burn-out and chapter collapse syndrome, we endeavor to support each other, talk things out, and resolve conflicts and to create a caring and supportive community.

Counselor

  • If you think burn-out is horrible and want to help people heal, this is the internship for you
  • Requirement: Empathy, kind-heartedness, patience, good communication skills
  • Duties
    • Organize people to provide this essential service for national events
    • Work with chapters that are having trouble during the year.

National Working Committee

The National Working Committee is a body of elected people who have regular conference calls to talk about issues SDS is having and how to grow SDS. They then decide how to go about executing this stuff, or hand it off to a working group to do.

NWC Rep

  • Any elected NWC rep can take on the position as an internship.
  • Reps will have tutorials in the ins and outs of national organizing and gain first-hand experience in trying to make a national organization run.
  • Duties Include:
    • Being on every NWC conference call
    • Occasionally facilitating a call and taking minutes
    • Deciding how to grow SDS
    • All NWC members are subject to immediate recall from the bodies that delegate them, but in addition to that, all NWC members are subject to being suspended by the NWC for:
      • Missing 2 consecutive NWC calls
      • Not being active members in an active chapter
      • Not being active in the working group they represent
      • Not being active in the chapter communications working group(for regional reps only)
      • This is all a loose thing, so reps should let the NWC know if they have reasons for not handling the responsibilities that were delegated to them.
  • Suspended reps can't vote, they are reinstated(or whatever) when they address whatever they were suspended for.
  • If they missed two consecutive meetings, they need to be on two consecutive calls and then they can vote on the next call
  • If they aren't active in their chapter, or if their local chapter isn't active then they need to become active or restart their chapter
  • If they aren't active in their Working Group(WG), they need to demonstrate that they've become active again(to the satisfaction of the WG)
  • If they're a regional rep and they haven't been doing chapter communications work, they need to show that they have become active in it(to the satisfaction of the WG)
  • Its the responsibility of the NWC to handle this.
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