I’m a Quaker from
South Jersey with a love of
outreach and ministry.
More bio and my contact information in my
about Martin
post. My other sites: QuakerQuaker.org, a
social networking site for Quaker bloggers and
MartinKelley.com, my
technology blog and freelance web services site.
The activist un-resume
I recently applied for a position at a well-known Quaker social justice organization and decided to put together something of an activist resume. The resume I usually circulate understandably focuses on my tech work and professional experience and tries the impossible task of downplaying the Quaker connection (I've almost heard the application being crumpled on the other end of a phone interview when I've tried to explain what an "Advance and Outreach Coordinator" does!). I should have known that in the Bizarro World that is Quaker peace activism I wouldn't even get a sit-down interview for a job I'm professionally over-qualified for, but putting together this alternative time line was kind of fun so I'll share it here.
1987: Internship, United Farm Workers. Staffed petition drive out of NYC office, planned Philadelphia-area appearances by Cesar Chavez. I even got to do a little ghost writing for Cesar!
Late 1980s: Core member of Students Against Sexual Stereotyping, Villanovans Against Racism, VCACA (Central America solidarity) and other college-based social justice initiatives.
1988-9: Editor, The VACUUM, an alternative weekly for Villanova University. Most notably raised campus awareness around issues of acquaintance rape. Such a proto-blog publication, I should repost some of those articles someday! Right: vintage picture from the yearbook.
1991: Intern, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Peace Committee. Participated in anti-recruitment counseling, preparation of Camden NJ's Newton Friends Meeting for tutoring program.
1991: Member, Corn Rice and Beans affinity group. Street theater, etc., started vigils for first Gulf War on west side of City Hall.
1991: Founding member, Philadelphia anti-war coalition.
1992: Organizer of responses to Christopher Columbus re-enactment ships' arrival in Philadelphia. Participated in various actions that acted as core of Philadelphia Inquirer coverage (article behind paywall but starts "Hey, Columbus, ya shoulda stayed home. Shouldn't have come to America. Definitely shouldn't have come up the Delaware. The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria... sailed into Philadelphia yesterday..., expecting a hero's welcome. Instead they got bludgeoned by the vast array of anti-Columbus forces.")
1994-6: Founding member, Philly Food Not Bombs. Collected food & served at area protests and at weekly meals in West Philadelphia.
1993: Acquisitions Editor onStopping Rape: A Challenge for Men by Rus Ervin Funk.
1994-7: Board member, New Society Educational Foundation. Served as treasurer in critical time of transition.
1995: Acquisitions Editor, With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion, and Moral Imagination by Joseph Gerson. A co-publication with the American Friends Service Committee.
1995: Acquisitions Editor, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice by Paul Kivel. Still listed as a top-40 book on racism by Amazon.com.
1995-present: Founder, Nonviolence.org. One of the first peace-focused internet portals. Through this project served as webmaster to numerous national U.S. peace groups including War Resisters League, Fellowship of Reconciliation and Pax Christi USA.
1996: Fellowship, Friends Institute of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to support Nonviolence.org development.
1997-8: National Committee Member, War Resisters League.
1998: Profile, New York Times, "Iraqi Crisis Increases Activity on Peace Network" (Feb 21). Headlining article in CyberTimes edition. Still have desk and bookshelves, cat was old girlfriend's.
1998: Featured Op-Ed, USAToday, "Missiles Aren’t the Answer" (Nov 16th).
1998: Featured Guest, Oliver North Radio Show (Nov 16). To my everlasting regret, Ollie had a guest host on Mondays and I was eviscerated by his fill-in!
2000: Video/Web Transfer Editor, Philadelphia Independent Media Center. Edited and transfered raw footage of the Republican National Convention to the Philadelphia Indymedia.org website. I should dig up my protest videos and post them sometime.
2005: Fellowship, Clarence and Lilly Pickett Endowment for Quaker Leadership Program. Named after long-time AFSC Executive Director and his wife, fellowship supported development of new online magazine.
2006: Organized media campaign to support members of Christian Peacemaker Teams kidnapped in Iraq. Created syndicated news feeds for both activist and Quaker audiences.
Related: professional resume, workshops and publications list, list of organizations I've worked with, LinkedIn profile.
5 Comments
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I think you must be in the wrong field if all of the above are not relevant experience! (Here's how I dealt with the same challenge: http://lotusmedia.org/about-ruby/resume .)
I'd love to hear more about how to set-up the first web site for FOR! I am about to overhaul our current site. (BTW, your FOR link above goes to WRL.)
@Rudy: oh yeah I'm in the wrong field! I applied to that job not expecting much, previous experience and stories I've heard made it unlikely despite lots of connections and what should be an obvious resume.
I wrote a short history of Nonviolence.org a few years ago. I was a regular at FOR conferences and had worked with Richard Deats and other staffers in book projects for New Society Publishers in the early 90s. FOR produced good materials but I was surprised how unknown they were even among younger progressive friends of mine. I thought the web would be a good way of getting their work, and the work of the rest of the established peace movement, out to a wider audience. Archive.org seems to be down right now, but this link should get you the archive once it's back up.
Martin, I didn't know you were a recipient of the pickett endowment, that's the one I am applying for as well! Any advice?
I'm the last person to ask advice of. I was only awarded a small fraction of what they advertise to be their average grant--so small it felt like there was a message in it, but I never could get a satisfactory explanation out of them. They seem to prefer funding travel for well-connected 20-25 year olds going off on exotic service projects or spiritual quests. Good luck.
Hey - I didn't get a Pickett grant either! I asked for money to support a writing project - mostly to cover childcare costs over the summer. No dice. The person I know who did get a grant is a 25 year old who is going on a spiritual pilgrimage from the US to Chile.
Wess, I'd be happy to tell you more. But if you want to see my commitment to Quaker faith and values, I posted it last February.