Community Organizer - Northern Plains Resource Council

While each employee at Northern Plains has individual work assignments, the entire staff works together as a team to accomplish the goals set by the Board of Directors. The position of Community Organizer is key to the success of Northern Plains because they are the staff person who finds, recruits, and then works with individual Northern Plains members to develop their leadership skills in order to build a sustainable organization with the power to make change happen. The position of Community Organizer is a full-time salaried position and is considered a professional administrative and exempt position.

The Community Organizer often works independently and is given a high level of responsibility and discretion in their work assignments. They must be able to gather information from diverse individuals and communities, consider the long-range goals of Northern Plains, and then use their independent judgment to develop collective, collaborative, coherent strategies to achieve the organization’s goals.

Northern Plains Resource Council is composed of affiliates and general members. Community Organizers are assigned affiliates and/or areas of the state where general members are clustered. Affiliates, with assistance from their Community Organizer, work on issues of local importance to their own communities. Community Organizers are also assigned to work on council-wide issues, which are coordinated through the organization’s task forces and committees.  It is important to the success of these council-wide issue campaigns that the Community Organizer ensures the active involvement of their affiliates (as appropriate) and its members as well as general member involvement.

Because the key method to accomplish these tasks involves developing personal relationships with members, member leaders, and prospective members, a Community Organizer can expect to spend approximately 30% of their work time out of the office and in their assigned area of the state. The Community Organizer is supervised by the Director of Organizing and Campaigns.