COLAGE Seeks Skilled and Passionate Leaders to Join National Board of Directors!
- Download this announcement
- Download the application (.pdf) (.doc)
- Apply online now!
COLAGE (www.colage.org) is the only national, youth-driven network of people with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) parent. By connecting with others who share our experience, COLAGE helps us come to the realization that our difference is our strength. With this realization, we become leaders and advocates for the policies that matter most to LGBTQ families.
COLAGE offers an integrated array of local, regional and national programs. With nearly 20,000 member contacts, a network of chapters across the U.S, and over 20 years of expertise in youth empowerment and LGBTQ family matters, COLAGE helps children of LGBTQ parents gain the rights, recognition and respect that all families deserve.
The COLAGE Board of Directors is an multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-talented group of dedicated volunteers that includes youth and adults with LGBTQ parents, LGBTQ parents, and allies from across the United States. The Board convenes for in-person meetings twice annually in addition to participating in ongoing conference calls and committee meetings. The Board provides crucial guidance and oversight for COLAGE while performing important fundraising and governance duties.
This is your opportunity to join COLAGE’s Board of Directors during a very exciting time for the organization! COLAGE is looking for strategic, passionate and active leaders to join the Board of Directors and help take the organization to its the next level of development and impact.
To ensure that all organizational decisions and actions are guided by and reflect COLAGE’s diverse membership and constituencies, we are currently seeking people who have one or more of the following backgrounds or identities to apply:
- Do you have one or more transgender parent(s) and/or identify as trans?
- Are you a person of color and/or active in communities of color?
- Are you from/Do you reside in the Midwest or a rural area of the U.S.? Or from the cities of NYC, DC, or LA?
- Are you male-identified?
- Are you between the ages of 15 and 18? Or 30-45?
COLAGE especially seeks dedicated board members with skills and experience in:
- public relations, marketing, media communications, and e-communications;
- financial management, investment & oversight or non-profit accounting;
- fundraising, especially event planning and individual donor program development
BASIC REQUIREMENTS:
- Uphold COLAGE’s mission, vision, values, and methodology
- Commit to a two year term starting in May/June 2011
- Volunteer average of 10-20 hours per month (some months more, some less)
- Attend in-person three-day meetings twice per year. Spring meeting is in SF Bay Area, Fall meeting location rotates. This fall the meeting over a weekend in October 2011 and a spring board meeting in March or April 2012
- Participate in all-board conference calls every 6 weeks
- Actively participate on at least one board committee, including monthly calls
- Make a personally significant annual financial contribution to the organization and actively participate in fundraising
- Be an ambassador for COLAGE and LGBTQ families, including being publicly ‘out’ about your family, in your community
- Have a deep understanding of COLAGEs stance on issues of oppression and feel comfortable having conversations about difference, commonalities and a diverse range of identities. (see social justice statement below and visit our website www.colage.org)
APPLICATIONS DUE: Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Committee Interview, April 2011
Board Votes, May 2011
New Board Members start, June/July 2011
FIRST IN PERSON BOARD MEETING FOR NEW RECRUITS
FALL 2011 (October, Location: TBD)
TO APPLY:
Please submit completed COLAGE Board Application Form to COLAGE Board Development Committee via nominations@colage.org
Find Application Form here - http://www.colage.org/about/board.htm
When your application is received, you will be notified and may be asked to participate in an interview with one of our current Board members or Executive Director.
QUESTIONS?
Email our Board Development Committee at nominations @ colage.org, the Committe Chair, Crystallee.crain@gmail.com or contact Beth Teper, Executive Director at 415-861-5437 or director@colage.org.
SOCIAL JUSTICE STATEMENT
COLAGE is committed to the justice and liberation of all people. We realize that families with LGBTQ parents and guardians are diverse and multifaceted and we celebrate every person and family’s right to express and explore their differences freely. Just as we view our families’ differences as our greatest strength, so too do we recognize our community’s diversity, richness, and uniqueness as a wonderful and important part of COLAGE’s work.
Because of this understanding, COLAGE believes that all forms of oppression and injustice are connected and systematic and is committed to addressing discrimination in all its forms. We understand that in order to create justice for all of our families, it is necessary for our board of directors to to actively include and seek to understand the different identities, cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds of our constituents. We seek not only to fully include and engage people from all races, social and economic classes, gender identities, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, and abilities but to also work as an organization to dismantle and eliminate oppression on the basis of any of the above.
Implicit in this commitment is the understanding that all leadership roles with COLAGE, including board members, will share these same values and goals. Board members, once accepted, must continuously expand and increase their knowledge and understanding of power, privilege and oppression.
Thank you!