The Board and Staff of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is excited to announce that they are opening the search for a National Director for MFSO! Below is basic information about the position. A full job description can be found here.
Please help spread the word by forwarding this employment opportunity to all your friends and contacts within the Veteran, Troop, and Military Family support community.
Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
MFSO-Ohio
Staff Writer, VT
Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) seeks an experienced, strategic-thinking national director who is passionate about ending the war in Iraq and who can help MFSO reach its next level of growth and development. MFSO is a national organization whose mission is to end the U.S. military occupation of Iraq, bring our troops home now, take care of them when they get here, and end the policies allowing the war to happen. At least 5 years of grassroots organizing and campaign strategy experience, preferably at a national level; nonprofit management; fundraising; and nonprofit financial management. The ideal candidate has excellent facilitative and consensus-building skills, and ability to work competently with military families. Military family members and candidates of color are encouraged to apply.
MFSO’s Current Campaigns
The Change WE Need: Bring Them Home NOW!
The election of a President who opposed the war in Iraq before it started has provided hope that this may be the last holiday season that military families spend fearing for the safety of our troops in Iraq and the ongoing devastation this war has brought to the Iraqi people. But we know we still have a tough struggle ahead to bring all our troops home. President-Elect Obama has called the war in Iraq a "dumb war" — but he has also said that he plans to keep U.S. combat troops in Iraq well into 2010 and to leave tens of thousands of troops on the ground in Iraq indefinitely. This winter MFSO is leading a campaign to show the human costs of continuing the war in Iraq and to press the President and Congress to bring all US troops home from Iraq quickly and safely. This February 7-9, 2009, MFSO is organizing a series of national actions in Washington, DC designed to bring forward the voices of veterans, Iraqis, and military and Gold Star families demanding an immediate end to the war.
The Invisible Wounds of War: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Some of the deepest wounds of war are invisible — the wounds to the hearts, minds, and spirits of troops exposed to the constant horror that marks a military occupation. Those wounds can be just as deadly as physical injuries, feeding into suicide, violence and addiction. As the media and the public have finally begun to pay attention to the skyrocketing suicide rates among troops and veterans, MFSO has been bringing forward the message that military suicides are casualties of war. From the Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland to the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, members have spoken out about how the war led to their loved ones’ suicides and how the Veterans Administration denied their loved ones the care that might have saved their lives.
MFSO will continue bringing stories like these forward and are working to save lives by providing military families and the public with information about the warning signs of PTSD, and also about the need to end the war as a strategy to prevent this epidemic from continuing. MFSO is working to educate the public about the "secondary" or "vicarious" trauma that marks the daily lives of many military and Gold Star families.
On military bases and in military base towns, backlash against those speaking out to end the war in Iraq, coming from those supporting the war, can be the most intense, and result in isolation from a support system when that system is needed most. [Though this backlash may lessen given the DOD/IGs expose of America Supports You, and as a broader spectrum of active duty and guard families begin to question why the vast majority of American citizens are not asked to sacrifice in money and lives for tour national war too, alternative outreach programs for those with the intellectual abilitity to QUESTION remains a dire need. Major Hanafin]
It is the voices of base spouses and partners in particular, challenging the status quo from the heart of the military establishment, which are so powerful in the public discourse and debate. MFSO’s Base Spouse Outreach Project provides military spouses and partners living in base communities with resources and support to help them reach out to others in their communities and build this important voice in opposition to the war. [It takes more than one man (Presidents Bush) to start a war, and surely takes more than one man to end one (Presient Obama), in the final analysis, only voices from within the Armed Forces that carry the heaviest and unfair national burden can challenge the status quo working within the system. Only those fighting the war have the strongest ability to assist any leader in starting or stopping their war. Major Hanafin].
Strategic Opportunities and Challenges
· MFSO is currently exploring the possibility of expanding its mission from a primary focus on ending the war in Iraq to also include opposing the war in Afghanistan. As part of the decision-making process on this issue, MFSO is currently engaging in a self-education process among its membership and plans to conduct a vote of the membership on this issue at the end of January.
· Over the last year, MFSO has taken significant steps in moving from a founder-led
organization to one that now has a strong national leadership structure through the
creation of a member-based Board of Directors.
· In addition to its new and ongoing campaigns to end the war, over this next year MFSO will be increasing the role of [state] Chapters and its active members in its decision-making process, especially in shaping the organization’s strategic and campaign directions.
· Another priority for MFSO will be to strengthen its Chapters and regional structure in order to help build MFSO’s capacity and influence. MFSO Chapter leaders and active members are instrumental in reaching out to new military families and providing support as families new to activism come into the movement.
· MFSO will be having its first Member Assembly next summer-a time in which active
members and Chapter leaders will come together to discuss the political environment and campaign strategy for the coming year. It will also provide an opportunity for member leadership development through workshops and training.
Please do not contact the author, Major Hanafin, he has nothing to do with the hiring process, but is only the messenger. Go directly to www.mfso.org for more information about position and job application process. Cover letter, resume, salary history and requirements, writing sample, and 3 references (electronic submissions in MS Word only) to MFSO Transition Team at [email protected]
Robert L. Hanafin
Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired
MFSO-Ohio
(MFSO is not a tax payer or federal government funded propaganda or Troop and Military Family Support Program. However, check with charity watchdog organizations like Charity Navigator before donating to any non-profit outreach program.)
Readers are more than welcome to use the articles I’ve posted on Veterans Today, I’ve had to take a break from VT as Veterans Issues and Peace Activism Editor and staff writer due to personal medical reasons in our military family that take away too much time needed to properly express future stories or respond to readers in a timely manner.
My association with VT since its founding in 2004 has been a very rewarding experience for me.
Retired from both the Air Force and Civil Service. Went in the regular Army at 17 during Vietnam (1968), stayed in the Army Reserve to complete my eight year commitment in 1976. Served in Air Defense Artillery, and a Mechanized Infantry Division (4MID) at Fort Carson, Co. Used the GI Bill to go to college, worked full time at the VA, and non-scholarship Air Force 2-Year ROTC program for prior service military. Commissioned in the Air Force in 1977. Served as a Military Intelligence Officer from 1977 to 1994. Upon retirement I entered retail drugstore management training with Safeway Drugs Stores in California. Retail Sales Management was not my cup of tea, so I applied my former U.S. Civil Service status with the VA to get my foot in the door at the Justice Department, and later Department of the Navy retiring with disability from the Civil Service in 2000.
I’ve been with Veterans Today since the site originated. I’m now on the Editorial Board. I was also on the Editorial Board of Our Troops News Ladder another progressive leaning Veterans and Military Family news clearing house.
I remain married for over 45 years. I am both a Vietnam Era and Gulf War Veteran. I served on Okinawa and Fort Carson, Colorado during Vietnam and in the Office of the Air Force Inspector General at Norton AFB, CA during Desert Storm. I retired from the Air Force in 1994 having worked on the Air Staff and Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon.
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