CompPile Associates will be responsible for journals in her or his scholarly area (we've identified 19 "areas" for now, but the boundaries are very fluid).  Associates will identify, recruit, and coordinate the work of a group of volunteers, who will update and maintain the indexing for journals in that group's area. 

The Associates' task does not end with the logistical work of recruiting, coordinating the indexing, vetting entries to be sure formating is consistent, and sending them on for uploading into the main CompPile database.

They will also review and when necessary create the search terms for each record. This is not a light task, and requires a comprehensive grasp of disciplinary issues and concepts. In short, the CompPile Associates will be colleagues with deep understanding of the scholarship in her or his area. 

In addition, the Associates will be responsible for identifying and evaluating new journals as they appear, helping to determine if these journals should be part of CompPile.

Finally, Associates will be helping us maintain the professional integrity of the CompPile database: ensuring that only relevant materials are indexed; ensuring that records are complete and accurate; and refining search terms to make materials as accessible as possible for searchers.

We will define and promote the Associate role as more than "professional service." In the official letters to Associates that we will send from CompPile, Inc. (a not-for-profit organization with legal status in Texas), we will make the case that being a "CompPile Associate" involves important intellectual work, having the same professional status, for example, as "Research Associate" in some academic consortium.  Tailoring these letters for individual Associate's local contexts and T&P expectations will help give the role of CompPile Associate "professional clout / capital." 

(Note: We will offer similar letters to volunteers, using detailed descriptions of their work to broaden and deepen the understanding of the intellectual work involved in being a CompPiler.)