Call for volunteers: experience in journalism or PR?

We don’t have a CrossLeft publicity team yet, but we're swiftly moving to the point where we should have one. As we launch our thinktank, speakers' bureau, college network, local forums, and further summits, conferences, and events, we'd like to make others beyond the internet aware of our activities. We envision a world where CNN covers not fanatics and sparrow-blasters but Christians who speak out against third world debt, against racist violence, the corrupt prison industry, the distracting tactics of right-wing politics, and the selfish, isolationaist, materialist consumerism of American life. To get there, we are gradually building a series of institutions capable of regular and sustained broadcast of our message. But we also need a PR team with some experience with putting announcements of actions into language that the media industry finds juicy.

Thusfar as Communications Director, I’ve been pushing CrossLeft on the ‘net, making sure we were linked in to webrings, blog directories, search engines, and other sites. But I very much would like to see us make this transition, and I will offer all the resources in my power to make the vision a reality.

We desperately need people with media experience who are interested in helping CrossLeft. We need to turn them into a publicity team with whom we can work when Crossleft releases some new statement or new effort. We do currently have brilliant folks like Gary Vance who are good at getting their articulate articles placed; what we need is a few folks who are good at taking our collective statements and helping us turn them into a newsworthy “event� such that the media would want to cover it.

So I want to turn to you, readers of CrossLeft, and ask whether you can think of people in your congregations or networks or list of acquaintances who would be interested in working with us. At the Cathedral, we interviewed a woman (whose name I can’t remember) who was a former journalist turned rector. She strikes me as the model of the person we should recruit: capable, experienced, articulate, sure of her own values, and willing to dedicate her energies to the cause of something important. We humbly beg your help in putting out this call. Do you know someone with similar experience who has felt a call to greater action but doesn't know where to employ their talents? Send them to CrossLeft. Let's help to redress the media religion imbalance.