TEN
Tenant Education Network

Organizing Director

Based in Illinois

 

What is Tenant Education Network? Tenant Education Network (TEN) is a power building 501c3 founded in 2020. We organize in a unique context of laws and bureaucratic oversight that apply to a specific type of subsidized building. We’ve developed an organizing model that prioritizes supermajority tenant participation, and harnesses that context to win tenant-landlord agreements that closely resemble collective bargaining agreements. These agreements guarantee material improvements in tenants lives, can bring onsite services or other tenant benefits, and provide ongoing funding for the tenant union. TEN is supported by a full-time tenants rights attorney.

Salary Range: $64,000 – $69,000 depending on experience, need, and skill
Benefits: Healthcare, Dental, Life Insurance; generous PTO and sick time policy including office closures for holidays
How to Apply: Send résumé and cover letter to: kira@tenanteducationnetwork.com.

TEN is seeking a disciplined, hard-working, communicative and detail oriented organizing director who shares our vision for a national, democratic tenant union representing thousands of members. They must be open to the uncertainty and unpredictability of a startup organization and able to take initiative to move our mission forward. They must bring a willingness to learn and execute our organizing model. They must be a teamplayer and bring creativity to be able to adjust our model to new circumstances if needed.

The Organizing Director will be responsible for planning and running organizing drives. In a given week, this might include the following tasks:

• Identifying tenant leaders
• Canvassing, House visits and 1-1s
• Creating, coaching, and supporting an organizing committee
• Collecting documentation of unit issues, responding to retaliation, and planning direct actions

To effectively complete these tasks, this director will:

• Train and supervise frontline staff organizers and tenant leaders.
• Learn applicable tenants law and how to apply them
• Learn which m city, state, and federal agencies are relevant to their campaign, and how to get them to act in support of tenants

Requirements:

• Demonstrated history of:
  • building, training, and sustaining winning organizing committees
  • self-sufficiently owning, designing, and executing organizing campaigns from start to finish.
• Training, developing, and holding new new organizers accountable
• Experience in writing, using, and training on organizing “raps” or scripts
• Willingness to travel throughout Illinois on a monthly basis
• Willingness to work non traditional hours including nights and weekends, a total 40 hours/week.
• Must be honest with tenants, co-workers, donors etc.
• Fluency in Spanish is a plus.
• Car & Valid Driver’s License
• Must live in Illinois
• Must have at least 2 years of supervision experience

Requirements specific to our tenant organizing model:

• Excellent data management and collection skills. Must be detail oriented. For example, this includes taking photos and videos in buildings and uploading them to an online database, appropriately titling, filing and organizing them.
• Experience with excel spreadsheets, google drive, and other spreadsheet and data management tools. This is how we document issues and organize our documentation
• Comfortable using a smartphone to collect photos and videos of and transferring them to an online database.

Requirements specific to tenant organizing in general

• Excellent and empathetic listening skills
• Non-judgemental approach to tenants’ issues and circumstances
• Pro-tenant disposition in any tenant landlord dispute.
• Responding in a timely fashion to tenants and staff who reach out about questions and issues
• Following through on commitments made to staff and tenants

Tenant Education Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, medical condition, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law. We are committed to building a diverse and passionate team, and especially encourage women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, people with disabilities, and other interested people from historically marginalized communities to apply.

To Apply:
Interested? Email résumé to: kira@tenanteducationnetwork.com.