The Border Trade Alliance is seeking a new president to lead the organization.

JOB SUMMARY

Responsible for overall planning and operation of a tri-national, not-for-profit trade organization. Candidate must act in accordance with the organization’s mission and goals; provide leadership, direction and support to board of directors; manage and supervise paid staff; assist in developing organizational goals, attaining/allocating resources and establishing policies.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Guide, support and serve board of directors in establishing goals and developing policies, procedures, budgets and programs.
2. Provide leadership to staff through establishment of goals, objectives and procedures; develop administrative and operational standards by which goals will be met.
3. Manage and attain funding necessary to ensure organization and staff operations.
4. Oversee staff to include recruiting, selecting, training, supervising and evaluating paid and volunteer members.
5. Monitor and approve organization’s policy positions and statements. Direct the communication of these policies and/or statements to the appropriate government agency, organization or legislature.
6. Promote the organization and its mission to individuals, companies, other service organizations and local communities.
7. Direct and participate in organization public relations and fundraising activities.
8. Provide professional leadership to board of directors including identification, recruitment, training and involvement of members in meeting goals of organization.

SKILLS/KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED

§  Knowledge of U.S.-Mexico and/or U.S-Canada border-related community and trade issues

§  Administrative experience with a private or non-profit agency

§  Ability to travel, sometimes frequently, to border areas and centers of government

§  Demonstrated record of community-based achievement

§  Successful experience in raising funds; planning and conducting conferences and meetings

§  Strong fiscal and personnel management skills

§  Ability to operate in a “virtual” electronic environment

§  Excellent bi-lingual (English and Spanish) and/or tri-lingual (English, Spanish and French) speaking and writing skills

§  Marketing and public relations skills

§  Ability to oversee a budget

§  Effective working relationship with board of directors, staff, sponsors, volunteers and agency funding sources

LOCATION

Negotiable. Willingness to locate to a U.S. Capitol or southwestern border community or transportation hub

SALARY

$100,000 range. Final salary negotiable, depending on experience.

TO APPLY

Send (1) cover letter, (2) professional résumé, (3) list of references with contact information, (4) and salary history to btajobsearch@gmail.com. Electronic submissions preferred. For hardcopy applications, please send email with a request for the mailing address.

Electronic documents may be attached to email messages in Word or PDF formats. Applicants are asked to add “BTA President Applicant” to the subject line of the message.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

5:00 PM (Central Time), May 17, 2013.

The bipartisan group of U.S. senators known as the "Gang of Eight" that is crafting a comprehensive immigration reform package has, by anyone's measure, a tough job. Writing a bill that can pass muster with a Democrat-controlled Senate, a Republican-controlled House and that will get signed by the president is hard enough on any topic, never mind how difficult it is to do on an issue that gets as emotional a response as immigration.

But the Gang's already difficult job gets even harder with its provision that U.S. borders must be verified as secure before any plan to move the nation's estimated 11-12 million undocumented immigrants on a pathway to potential legalization can be implemented.

Determining whether security has been sufficiently achieved will fall on a commission comprised of "governors, attorneys general, and community leaders living along the Southwest border."

All of which raises these questions: How will such a commission know when the border is secure? What does a secure border look like? What should a secure border look like?

Half of the Gang recently toured the Tucson, Ariz. Border Patrol Sector, which included a stop in the port community of Nogales. It was there where the senators got a peek at just how complicated defining border security really is. While on their tour, the senators witnessed a woman scale an 18-ft. border fence from the Mexican side and shimmy down to the U.S. side. She was easily apprehended by Border Patrol agents, but the scene made an impression on New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who was making his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border.

"Senator (John) McCain and Senator (Jeff) Flake had impressed upon our group from the beginning the need to do something further on the border, and this trip certainly strengthens that view," Schumer told reporters.

As encouraged as I am that this influential group of senators is working diligently to confront one of the most challenging issues of our time, I hope that its approach to border security will not simply be to appropriate more dollars for Border Patrol and call it a day.

To his credit, Sen. Schumer indicated that he and his colleagues recognize that more Border Patrol agents, an agency that has gone from just 4,000 in 1993 to over 21,000 in 2012, isn't a silver bullet.

"What I learned today is we have adequate manpower, but not adequate technology," Schumer said after the Nogales tour.

The senator is partially right. More technological resources are needed for Border Patrol. But Customs and Border Protection at the ports of entry could use the manpower help as well as more technology. As the grip on the vast expanse between the ports continues to tighten, smugglers and drug traffickers are already taking their chances at the ports. CBP needs to be ready.

And any border security plan must pass muster with American taxpayers who, despite their eagerness to see a deal get done, aren't going to support a plan that breaks the bank. That's why, as much as I support unmanned aerial vehicles for border surveillance, they are a lot more expensive than those four-pawed, tail-wagging drug sniffers at the ports, or small twin engine aircraft.

Finally, border communities are holding their collective breath over the component in the proposal that any bill "will require the completion of an entry-exit system that tracks whether all persons entering the United States on temporary visas via airports and seaports have left the country as required by law."

If an exit system becomes a negotiating point, I would urge lawmakers to proceed with extreme caution before extending the exit system concept to the land borders. Unless border region citizens have the utmost confidence in the efficiency and efficacy of such a system, they will never support a system that turns their communities into parking lots for outbound traffic, replicating the same inefficiencies we see on the inbound side.

There aren't easy answers for the questions of what constitutes a secure border. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, also a member of the Gang of Eight, was right to urge Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy not to rush an immigration package through the legislative process. A proposal that has the potential to affect our borders so dramatically is too important not to get it right.

Nelson Balido is the president of the Border Trade Alliance

BTA urges that the post-MAP-21 highway bill restore the CBI program similar to its construction under SAFETEA-LU, while also allowing for CBI dollars to be used for freight rail projects. Read our issue brief on the topic.

Customs and Border Protection Agriculture Specialists (CBPAS) are facing diminished ability to release agricultural products into U.S. commerce. Slowdowns in pest determinations are causing delays for time-sensitive perishable shipments and increased congestion at ports of entry, leading to further delays for other non-agriculture U.S.-bound shipments. A BTA issue brief is available here.

The Border Trade Alliance supports the Cross-Border Trade Enhancement Act of 2013 (S. 178 and H.R. 1108), which would create a legislative framework for private sector or local community dollars to be used to develop border infrastructure or boost agency staffing levels. A BTA write-up on the issue is available here.