In order to increase the religious, cultural, and overall diversity of Contributing Scholars, State of Formation is introducing Regional Recruiting Directors (RRD's).

RRD’s will work closely with the Associate Director, and occasionally with the Managing Director, to identify and recruit scholars to the SoF forum. RRD’s will have the ability to pre-approve scholars from within their geographic region to write for SoF, based on their own discretion. The goal will be to ensure representation from across the country -- and set the stage for in-person programming, which is presently being honed.

Key Responsibilities:

1. A year’s commitment: RRD’s need to be able to commit at least an academic year to recruiting Contributing Scholars for SoF.
2. Understanding the context: RRD’s are encouraged to audit the diversity within their region and intentionally do outreach to potential scholars to increase the diversity of the forum.
3. Recruit Scholars: RRD’s may recruit and approve qualified scholars to become part of the State of Formation online community. Ideally, each RRD will recruit 10-12 scholars per year.
4. Building community: as regions grow in numbers of scholars, RRD’s will be asked to help establish regular meetings of SoF scholars.  This can be accomplished through playing a direct leadership role in organizing meetings or finding others to do so.
5. Collaboration with other RRDs: Every month, a joint one-hour conference call for RRD's from across the country will be held. RRD's are asked to take part in these calls and share concerns, progress, and best practices with their colleagues.

If you are interested in shaping State of Formation as it expands to cities across the country, please contact the Managing Director of State of Formation, Honna Eichler (honna@irdialogue.org) and send her a one-page statement of interest. If you are not presently a State of Formation Contributing Scholar, please also submit a current copy of your resume and a writing sample, as well.

Photo by thejester100, via Flickr Creative Commons.