“Now accepting nominations and applications for next [Maxwell] Institute director”

My former Maxwell Institute colleague Dr. Kristian Heal has asked that I announce this.  So here it is:

http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/now-accepting-nominations-and-applications-for-next-institute-director/

One of the questions submitted following my FairMormon remarks late yesterday afternoon asked whether I would be submitting my name as a candidate to be the next executive director of the Maxwell Institute.

That question elicited a very vocal reaction from the audience.

I’m pretty unlikely to apply for the position — even though I’m a veteran crusader for lost causes, and, perhaps much more to the point, even though I happen to have been born with a very strong mischievous streak.

When I was an undergraduate, I ran for Social Vice President of BYU.  To my horror, although I didn’t campaign at all and spent a total of $1.37 on the effort, I survived into a run-off election with the eventual winner.  (I was the only candidate of the People’s Centennial Party to make it that far.  And thereby hangs a much-longer tale that I might include in my posthumous memoirs, although a small portion of it has already appeared in at least one published history of BYU.)

On a more serious note, I hope that several good and faithful scholars will apply for the position.  I would especially hope that at least one or two who understand what the organization once was, and who are sympathetic to the intentions and the self-sacrificing efforts that built it, will throw their hats into the ring.  I’m not at all optimistic, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised.