Call for Applications

Sarah S. G. Frantz

I'm finally getting things off the ground with both the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR) and the Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS).

If you're interested in helping in general and haven't yet emailed me, please do so.

But we're also looking for much more formal applications for a few positions:

For IASPR:
Membership Chairperson: Are you organized? Are you proficient at the use of databases and spreadsheets? What about the dreaded and dreadful Mail Merge? Are you interested in being involved in IASPR? This job might be for you!

Treasurer: Do you have experience with maintaining dues for an organization and producing the necessary yearly report of assets? Do you have experience with non-profits? Are you interested in being involved in IASPR? This job might be for you!

Neither of these jobs will be very taxing, I imagine (I hope not, at least! We're aiming for non-profit status! Badumbum!). You'll be working closely with yours truly, the current IASPR President, on setting things up. Our goal is to start advertising its existence at the Popular Culture Association conference and the Princeton conference on romance, both in April. And then at RWA in July, so things should start very quickly. Experience is not strictly necessary for either job, although some financial/business/CPA credentials for Treasurer would be appreciated. IASPR applications due by March 20.

For JPRS: The journal, as currently envisioned, will be an online, blind peer-reviewed, open access journal, available to anyone to read, although you will need to be a member of IASPR once an article has been accepted for publication. It will evaluate, analyze, and otherwise discuss all forms of popular romance, not just romance novels. This could be popular romance in music, film, soap operas, celebrity life, art, or commercials/advertising--popular romance writ large. The journal will consist of academic articles, reviews of academic books on popular romance, as well as academic reviews of popular romance. I would like to be able to have comments after each article, so there can be conversations about the ideas in the articles as they're posted.

Managing Editor: The Managing Editor will run the day-to-day operations of the journal:

• Setting up journal to begin with, including indexing and cross-listing
  
• Working with the Web Manager to make sure that the journal is running smoothly
• Receiving articles from authors
• Making sure authors are kept informed about progress of articles
• Sending articles out to peer reviewers and keeping on the peer reviewers to send their reviews back to you
• Formatting, organizing, and posting each issue (certainly one a year to start, hopefully two a year by 2011).

The ultimate executive decisions about which articles will be included will be made by the Executive Editor (currently Eric M. Selinger) and the Executive Board (TBA). The Managing Editor will work closely with the Executive Editor as s/he makes those decisions. We will eventually also have a Book Review Editor and possibly a Comments Moderator if the comments really take off, with whom you will also need to work.

Web Manager: The Web Manager will obviously run the technological side of the journal's operations:

• Coordinate with the web hosting service
• Advise on the choice of and manage the open source journal software
• Set-up comment ability and coordinate with Comment Moderator, if necessary
  
• Coordinate with the Managing Editor and the Executive Editor on the organization and publication of each issue
  

JPRS applications due by April 1, 2009. Our goal is to publish the first issue of JSPR on February 14, 2010.

Please email applications (IASPR by March 20 and JSPR by April 1) for all positions to me {sarahfrantz [at] gmail [dot] com}. (I can open all MS OfficeSuite files, including MSOffice 2007. I also accept Rich Text Format files, but NOT Word Perfect or MSWorks.)

Include your CV, any other material you feel is pertinent, and a cover letter that includes:

• Highlights and narrative of experience you have with required tasks
• Interesting/unique ideas you have for the structure/organization/implementation of the Association and/or the journal
• For the JPRS positions, any experience you have with Open Journal Systems or similar open access online software

(At this time, there is unfortunately no remuneration for any of the positions, except for a lovely line on your CV under "Service." But nothing besides time will be required of you, either. All web-hosting, etc., will be paid for by the journal and the Association. If you're an academic and get the Managing Editor position, you may be able to get a course reduction from your institution once the journal is official off the ground.)

Feel free to disseminate this as far and as wide as possible!