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"Organizing opportunities and new staff positions" - Action Alert #43 1. Stipends available for full-time volunteers Dear friends -- 1. New Mexico's "Disarmament Summer" is heating up -- stipends available for full-time volunteers We at the Study Group are very much interested in hosting visiting activists this summer, from now (June 20) through Tuesday, August 9, and for any period of time from one week on up. The core of our work occurs here in Albuquerque but work is also needed in other New Mexico communities. These invitations are for homestays, and they are offered by a growing network of hosts. We will also provide a $100/week food stipend for full-time work and will reimburse you for local work-related car mileage. Free tuition for the July 29-31 "Remembering Our Humanity: Law, Public Conscience, and Nuclear Weapons" seminar at the University of New Mexico is included. A car is not necessary but is helpful; be sure and bring your cell phone if you have one. So if you think you might want to visit beautiful New Mexico this summer and contribute to the new disarmament spirit stirring here, please contact us! Call 505-265-1200, or email Claire Long at clong@lasg.org. Background: Almost half of U.S. nuclear warhead spending occurs in New Mexico; the state's two nuclear labs (Los Alamos and Sandia national labs) are the largest in the world in dollar terms. Nuclear weapons are our state's biggest industry (in dollars) except for oil and gas extraction. New Mexico harbors more nuclear weapons (about 2,500) than anywhere else in the world (at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque). New Mexico arguably has the most influential (Pete Domenici) and most enthusiastic (Heather Wilson) advocates of nuclear weapons in Congress. For all these reasons, New Mexico is without question the world capital for nuclear weapons. Nuclear dreams born and raised here have bedeviled the world for 60 years. Until 2021 at least, Los Alamos is the only place in the U.S. capable of manufacturing plutonium bomb and warhead cores (“pits”), and Los Alamos is now being asked to manufacture pits on an ever-larger scale for existing and new kinds of nuclear weapons. This work is dangerous and dirty, and breaks U.S. treaty commitments. Not coincidentally, LANL has the largest active nuclear disposal site in New Mexico (it's also bigger than any in TX, AZ & CO). Millions of drums of nuclear waste, mostly from weapons design and manufacturing, are to be permanently buried here; more are dumped each week. There is no permit and no intent (and certainly no commitment) to ever remove any of this waste. The pending change of Los Alamos management is meant to facilitate the new manufacturing mission. One two powerful corporate consortia, one led by Bechtel and one by Lockheed, will soon run Los Alamos, a fact with serious ramifications for the lab, the state, the nation, and the world. These nuclear institutions also heavily influence our state's politics. Six decades of data strongly suggest the political economy of nuclear weapons has damaged our state's economic and social development. For we in New Mexico, and in the final analysis, political support for nuclear weapons is fiscally, morally, and politically incompatible with sustainable economic development, with providing much better education and health care, with protecting the environment, or with providing opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans now living in poverty. Progress on all these issues and others requires a politics based on human dignity, the exact opposite of political support for weapons of mass destruction. Working in New Mexico against nuclear weapons offers powerful political advantages, which arise from our intimate position at the heart of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. 2. New staff positions opening As of today, the Study Group is seeking applicants for two paid full time staff positions, Research Associate and Outreach Coordinator. The particulars follow below. To apply, please send a letter and your resume or curriculum vita by email to: Trish Williams-Mello - twm@lasg.org; or mail to Trish's attention at the Los Alamos Study Group, 2901 Summit Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106. In solidarity, Greg Mello P.S. More alerts are coming -- watch this space!! ************************************** Purpose The primary purpose of the Research Associate's work is to assist the Study Group as a whole and the Executive Director in particular to better understand the activities and impacts of the U.S. nuclear weapons program and to communicate these to the interested public as well as to specialized audiences: the news media, academic colleagues, Congress, the executive branch of government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In broad terms, the Research Associate will assist in the further evolution of the factual basis for a vital and effective disarmament movement in the U.S. – and especially in New Mexico. In more narrow terms, the Research Associate will help stop the acquisition of plutonium weapons core (“pit”) production facilities by the United States, both in New Mexico and elsewhere. Duties and Responsibilities • Conduct specific research and analytical projects using all available and appropriate methods in a variety of fields, resulting in publications of the Los Alamos Study Group (both paper and electronic) and other publications as appropriate; Skills and Qualifications Required: Preferred: Time Requirements The Research Associate is a salaried position entailing a minimum of 50 hours per week, mostly in the office (approximately 80%), at nuclear weapons facilities and private meetings in New Mexico and elsewhere (approximately 10%), and at public meetings and other outreach events (approximately 10%). Salary and Benefits Up to $30,000 depending on skills and experience, including three weeks starting paid annual vacation and up to 10 days annual sick leave.. Benefits include fully-paid health insurance after 6 months; SIMPLE IRA plan, similar to a 401(k), with employer contribution. Availability and Permanence This position is open as of today. Funding is available for the first 18 months; continuation of the job beyond this period is contingent upon successful fundraising by the organization as a whole. *************************************************** Purpose The purpose of the Outreach Coordinator's work is primarily to nurture and grow a) the volunteer program and b) the organizational partnerships of the Study Group through all appropriate means, including but not limited to events, presentations, house meetings, media outreach, fact sheets, articles and other written materials, correspondence, and web site content. Duties and Responsibilities • Coordinate outreach efforts to businesses, organizations, churches, and individuals, and coordinate volunteers to do this and related outreach; Skills and Qualifications • Passion for nuclear disarmament, justice, sustainability, and environmental protection; Time Requirements The Outreach Coordinator is a salaried position entailing a minimum of 50 hours per week, both in the office (approximately 70%) and at events (approximately 30%). Most of these events will be on weekends or in the evening. Salary and Benefits Up to $30,000 depending upon skills and experience; three weeks starting paid annual vacation; up to 10 days annual sick leave; fully-paid health insurance after 6 months; and SIMPLE IRA plan, similar to a 401(k), with employer contribution. Availability and Permanence This position is open as of today. Funding is available for the first 18 months; continuation of the job beyond this period is contingent upon successful fundraising by the organization as a whole. |
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