Hestia
Hestia's JournalDemocratic Party of Arkansas: Our search for Executive Director begins
Candace Martin, who has done amazing work for the DPA for the last four and a half years, has sadly announced she is leaving. We will be depending on her to help get us through our exciting JJ Dinner with Hillary Clinton and other immediate things. But we must plan this transition and bring a new ED on board, with the plan that he or she will be able to spend time with Candace before she leaves.
The DPA has appointed a terrific group of people who have agreed to serve on the Search Committee to find our next Executive Director. This group brings together the best of both elected and party officials. A brief job announcement is below, and you may click on this link to read the full job description.
Job Announcement: DPA Executive Director
The Democratic Party of Arkansas seeks a dynamic and committed individual to lead our staff. Candidates must have extensive experience with management, fundraising, and political skills that will compliment the existing talent within our organization.
The Executive Director works in collaboration with the state Party chair, its officers, and all its affiliates to oversee the strategic plan, programs, and fundraising activities of the state party. He or she must be reliable, honest, loyal and discreet. The Executive Director reports to the state party Chair.
To apply, candidates should email resume, cover letter and three references to jobs@arkdems.org by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, July 20, 2015. Late applications will not be accepted. Salary is commensurate with experience. The DPA is an equal opportunity employer.
To read the full job description, please click here.
OP/ED: Leaving Arkansas
Leaving Arkansas
By Rex Nelson
This article was published today at 3:02 a.m.
What's now the Arkansas Economic Development Commission is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. The agency is serving a state far different from the one that existed in 1955.
Desperate to do something about massive out-migration, the Arkansas Legislature passed a bill that year creating the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. Though it was given very little money, the commission was tasked with bringing new industries to the state, expanding existing industries and upgrading the standard of living.
For years, Arkansans had been leaving the farm to find work in automobile factories in Detroit and shoe factories in St. Louis. In the Delta, thousands of sharecroppers and tenant farmers were out of work due to the rapid mechanization of agriculture. The exodus, however, wasn't limited to the Delta. In the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, the Arkansas River Valley and the Gulf Coastal Plain, people also packed up and headed out.
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"Unfortunately, good land soon ran out, leaving many of the state's rural areas overpopulated in relation to arable soil," Holley wrote. "The earliest out-migration, beginning in the 1890s, was in part a response to this fundamental problem. Population losses continued in the first two decades of the 20th Century. In the 1920s, Arkansas lost almost 200,000 people, a record high to that point. Migration slowed slightly during the depressed 1930s, but by the 1940s, when the national economy shifted to war production, the migration stream that had previously been a steady leak turned into a torrential flood. Arkansas, in fact, lost population in every decade between 1890 and 1970."
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Holley wrote that the magazine's headline had asked "a valid question, and the answer was easy--the lack of well-paying jobs. Arkansas' most significant export was not lumber, cotton or bauxite, but people." Stemming that tide was the first task for Rockefeller and the AIDC six decades ago.
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/jun/10/leaving-arkansas-20150610/
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Very interesting article from today's paper. It may be behind a paywall, so sorry in advance if you cannot read the entire article.
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Natural Steps, AR
Current location: Natural Steps, AR
Member since: Sun Jan 8, 2006, 07:02 PM
Number of posts: 3,818