Company description

The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) is an 80-acre demonstration, education and advocacy center and organic farm located in western Sonoma County, California. Now in our 27th year, OAEC's work focuses on cultivating ecological literacy and building the capacity of civic and social movement leaders and organizations to guide their communities toward an ecologically regenerative, economically viable and socially just future. We offer a diverse and interrelated set of programs and partnerships to achieve our mission, including modeling land-based resiliency, training change makers, policy advocacy, and building the capacity of communities and organizations to lead their own rapid transition to a more just and sustainable world.

Job description

OAEC seeks a talented and enthusiastic individual to join our experienced, highly effective and joyful staff collective. The Retreat and Office Manager is responsible for coordinating the various OAEC departments involved in hosting our workshops and the many environmental and social justice organizations who come to OAEC for a retreat each year. This position is also responsible for training and supervising our two annual Program Administration Interns in the management of OAEC’s office systems and being on-site retreat hosts. The Retreat and Office Manager reports to and assists the Executive Director.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE JOB

Office Management

• Interview and select, train and supervise the two annual Program Administration Interns who live on-site and work part-time in the office. Manage the weekly work plans of the two interns in support of all the other responsibilities of the Retreat and Office Manager listed below:
• Manage the “reception” functions of the main OAEC office: receiving phone and email inquiries, and assisting visitors and deliveries in finding the staff person they are looking for, with a welcoming and professional spirit of service.
• Manage our physical office spaces, including stocking supplies, maintaining office equipment, and holding staff to our ‘beauty way’ standards of caring for our spaces.
• Maintain the shared OAEC Calendar for all organizational activities including workshops, retreats, tours, events and staff comings-and-goings.
• Manage the intake and registration for events, including our Permaculture Design Certification course, OAEC’s annual Chautauqua Review, and other special events.
• Be flexible to occasionally support the administrative functions of OAEC’s communication, development and program staff.
• Attend weekly (Thursday) staff meetings, participate in various ad-hoc committees, and participate in our annual performance evaluations.

Retreat Coordination and Hosting

• Be a point of contact for many of the guests and groups we welcome to the Center, and inform/coordinate the whole staff on how best to support their needs.
• Receive inquiries from organizations seeking to schedule a retreat; negotiate, draft and sign contracts detailing the terms of each retreat; and work with the Bookkeeper to invoice for deposits and final payment for each retreat group.
• Manage the various online calendars and tools we use to effectively coordinate the details of each upcoming on-site workshop, retreat or event among the related OAEC departments involved (i.e. Facilities, Kitchen, Beauty Way/Housekeeping and Garden).
• Maintain communication with the organizational contact person for any upcoming retreat to assure their expectations are clear and accurate, and to ensure that they communicate to all their retreat participants what we need them to know about their stay at OAEC.
• Train and manage our Retreat Hosts (made up of Interns and other on-site staff) so that each of our Hosts do their jobs with a high-level of emotional/social intelligence, humility and care, checking-in with our guests to meet their needs, and tending retreat spaces to be clean, equipped and ready for use.
• Coordinate the schedule of the various staff Retreat Hosts, one of whom will always be on a shift during the entire time of a retreat, 24/7. For weekday shifts, 9-5, schedule yourself and the two Program Administration Interns as the primary Retreat Host on duty, and for evenings, overnight and weekend shifts, schedule other onsite staff to ensure someone is always on-call as Retreat Host.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB

(Please do not apply if you do not meet the following requirements)

• Deeply in alignment with OAEC’s values, mission, theory of change and programmatic activity (see www.oaec.org). We seek someone who is passionate about working with a land-based organization committed to the restoration of biological diversity, and to ecological, racial, economic and social justice.
• Prior office/administration experience, preferably in a mission-based non-profit organization, and strong organizational skills with meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to organize and prioritize work, and to be self-motivated and self-managing as this role will require both independent work and work with the entire OAEC staff collective.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a sense of humor and a positive attitude, and an interest in and ability to help resolve conflicts within organizational relationships.
• Emotionally and socially intelligent, culturally sensitive and highly observant/intuitive. Experience and ability to anticipate and meet the needs of the very diverse, deeply politically active groups and individuals OAEC works with and hosts.
• Proficient with the Google Drive environment (i.e. Docs, Spreadsheets, Gmail, Calendar).
• Proficient with Mac computers/OS and Office platforms (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Other software experience a plus (i.e. Adobe Suite, database systems, project management software).
• Familiar with or interested in being part of a staff collective. We have a staff-led, distributed authority, consensus-based model of organizational governance.

COMPENSATION AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

• The annual salary for the Retreat and Office Manager is set at $54,000 per year at 40 hours/week. This job is not exempt from overtime pay. Hours are tracked, and any overtime work is paid accordingly. Compensation rates and raises for all staff are set by the OAEC Staff Executive Council, which is elected by the staff collective.
• Please see our website for more information on benefits and the many perks that come with this role.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $50,000 - $75,000

Application instructions

Deadline

August 26, 2021