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[chracatoa]

One of my possible "dream jobs" is asking for letters of reference from my contacts (a good sign). However, 1 of my 5 references is missing (one of my three best references). s/he's just got his tenure and is unreachable at the moment. S/he's probably in a fantastic beach somewhere in the world. As far as I know, s/he'll only be back in mid-March.

What can I do? Even if I can reach him/her, s/he will only be able to send an e-mail or perhaps a letter from a remote location that would take perhaps one month to get there.

Any advice is welcome.

[jonas_salk]

I think that when a school asks for 5 references they expect that one might not be available for chatting when they decide to call.  That is why they ask for such a large pool.  Surely someone on SC will post to verify or contradict this.

Perhaps the chair of the ref's department has your reference's contact info in the remote location.  You could contact her/him and explain the situation and ask his/her advice.  Or do you have the reference's cell phone number?  I have called one of my references in urgent situations like this and s/he wrote an email to the search chair explaining the situation and giving alternate contact information to the SC chair.  I suppose it depends on how comfortable you are with contacting your reference (provided you can obtain the contact info).  In any case, I hope you have at least emailed your reference to explain the situation.  Even if s/he is not responding to emails s/he might still be reading email.

In my experience search committees are willing to accept emailed letters of reference provided they come directly from the reference.  In your case it sounds like they prefer to speak to the reference directly, but they might be willing to accept a letter. 

[chracatoa]

Perhaps the chair of the ref's department has your reference's contact info in the remote location. 

In this case I think I have more information about his/her whereabouts than they.

Or do you have the reference's cell phone number? 

I have one number. I was talking to him/her in the beginning of this month (s/he was already away). Then s/he told me s/he was leaving soon and that was it. I hope s/he checks e-mail at least once a week, but who knows...

In your case it sounds like they prefer to speak to the reference directly, but they might be willing to accept a letter. 

No, I think they only want the letter. Too bad they did not ask by e-mail...

[dr_vfhc]

It might be better to find another referee to fill up the number of letters.

The fact that they let you know one letter is missing probably means that they are ready to have you on board as soon as "the requirement" is done.

It happened to me twice. I had to rush to find the replacement for one letter and as soon as they got it, they called me to invite for on-campus.
The other one, they did not even have one of my letters, but still invited me for on-campus. Later on, administrative assistant called me to send one missing letter.

[chracatoa]

I have finally contacted him/her. Hu said it was a personal record - 14 days w/o reading e-mail. Hu'll contact the SC. Hu may only send e-mail from where hu is.
In fact, 3 of my 5 references turned out to be in remote locations at this time. I have also contacted the SC about it and they told me I should ask them to send e-mail as well. I think the SC is  meeting soon, that's why the hurry.