Catching up with a couple of announcements from the Republican National Convention:

Seeking Volunteers: The RNC has selected Monster, the online jobs site, to help in its effort to recruit 10,000 volunteers for the convention in St. Paul. Monster has created the online application for volunteers, which can be found at the convention’s website: www.msp2008.com.

The RNC press release says, “Volunteers will perform key duties in the areas of transportation, information services, hospitality and special events before, during and after the Convention. Prospective volunteers will complete a secure, online application consisting of personal information and a summary of their skills and experience.

“All applicants must be 18 years of age or older and must be willing to undergo a security background check as well as attend orientation and training sessions conducted by Convention organizers.”

Platform chairman appointed: A freshman congressman, Kevin McCarthy of California, has been named chairman of the Republican Party’s Platform Committee.

McCarthy will head the committee and “develop a forward-looking platform – grounded in Republican principles – that advocate common-sense solutions to our nation’s challenges,” said Republican National Committee Chair Robert M. “Mike” Duncan.

The platform committee will meet in Minneapolis the week before the GOP convention opens in St. Paul. McCarthy will be joined in leading the committee by a governor and a U.S. senator to be named later. The committee consists of a man and a woman from each state and territory.

McCarthy, 43, is a go-getter from Bakersfield, Calif. He was elected to the California Assembly in 2002 and in his first term was chosen as the GOP minority leader, the first freshman ever to be named to that post in California history, according to his biography. And now, in his first term in Congress, he’s been selected to head the platform committee.

Here’s his congressional website.