Burnt Orange Report

Joining the BOR Team...

By Byron LaMasters

While I will be posting much less frequently, all BOR writers want this blog to build on the success that we have had over the past two years. In order to do this, we will need fresh faces and energy to ensure that BOR continues to be professional, progressive, Democratic and student-led. We are seeking 2-4 people that can join the BOR team, and blog on a regular basis. Here are some of the things that we are looking for in potential candidates. These are not necessarily requirements, but rather things that we are specifically looking for:

• Candidates should have a passion for writing. Blogging should not be a chore, but rather should be something that is fun and enjoyable. Bloggers joining our team should commit to writing a minimum of 3-4 posts most weeks, and perhaps as many as several posts a day.
• Candidates should be a Democrat. Although our bloggers vary in our ideology, we are all Democrats and BOR is a Democratic blog.
• In addition to being a Democrat, candidates should regularly follow Texas politics. Candidates with experience attending political events, fundraisers and volunteering are preferred.
• Candidates should also be in Texas. Our niche is Texas politics from a student Democratic perspective. Ideally, candidates should be students (UT or UT system students preferred) as well.
• Candidates should be interested in writing primarily about Texas politics. We cover national politics, but our main focus is Texas politics.
• Candidates should have basic HTML skills. While blogging does not require a great deal of HTML knowledge, candidates should know the basics – links, posting images, blockquotes, italics, bold, etc.
• Previous blogging experience is a big plus. Whether it be a previous or current blog, or simply Kos or MyDD diaries, this experience is valuable to anyone interested in writing for BOR. Absent blogging experience, regular readers, people who have previously written for their high school or college newspaper and BOR commenters will also receive strong consideration.
• Candidates with specific interest and detailed knowledge of local politics are strongly encouraged. I would like to find someone to take my place writing frequently about Dallas, and we can certainly use people with in-depth knowledge of local politics in San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, the valley and west Texas.
• Women and minorities are strongly encouraged. We are all aware that the blogosphere is overwhelmingly White and male. This shouldn’t be intended to discourage anyone from applying to write for us, but we would simply like to strongly encourage female and minorities that have an interest in blogging to consider applying.

If you believe that this may be you, then we hope that you will apply to join our team. Writing for BOR is a great opportunity to become more involved in politics and activism. BOR is read by about 60,000 visitors a month, and blogging for us is certainly one way to get yourself read and known by leaders and activists in the Texas Democratic Party.

If you would like to apply, please email the following to:
Apply@BurntOrangeReport.com

• Please tell us about yourself in a paragraph or two. This should include your name, age, hometown, school attending/attended, major, party affiliation, political experience, blogging/writing experience and interests (political and otherwise).
• Please tell us why you would like to write for BOR, and what you believe that you can specifically add to our community.
• We would also like candidates to include a minimum of two writing samples. If you have previously blogged or have articles online, send us the two or more that you believe are best reflective of your work. If you do not have any of your work online, we would like you to write at least two samples of the type of posts that you would contribute to BOR. These samples can be quoting a news article and including commentary, writing an opinion piece about a specific issue or writing your thoughts on any recent event – the end of the legislative session, school finance, the looming 2006 GOP primary in Texas, news and results from local municipal elections, or anything else.

I hope to see a lot of applications, and I don’t want to put up a deadline yet. We would like to be able to start making some decisions by next week. We’ll make an announcement in the coming days on when we will be closing the application process. If we have more quality submissions than we are able to ask to join our team, then we may ask our readers to get involved by posting the samples and asking our readers to share our thoughts via comments or email.

If you have any questions about the process, please email us at: Apply@BurntOrangeReport.com. Jim, Karl-Thomas, Andrew and I all have access to this account, so all four of us will be reviewing applications.