Arena Careers

Position Title: GRO/SCOPE Administrative Assistant

Tier / Category: Tier 2/Associate II

Reports to: Southern Crossroads Director

Employment Status: Full Time

FLSA: Non-Exempt

Location: Remote

NLRA: Bargaining Unit Member

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is a national organization that brings white people into fights for racial and economic justice. We work to build the white flank of multiracial majorities fighting for the things all communities need. We organize white people by engaging their shared interest-- what they stand to gain by joining alongside people of color. We do this through 150+ local chapters across the US and Canada, a National Membership base, and local base building projects in the South

Southern Crossroads is growing an alliance of membership-based grassroots organizations building collective power and multi-racial alliances among cash poor and working people in majority white majority small towns and cities across the region. To see this vision become reality, we expect all staff to:

• Be serious about their leadership development, personal growth, and goals.
• Have accountability to our membership base and the communities in which we work.
• Be wise and prudent with staff time and limited financial resources.

Summary of Position:

SURJ is seeking an Administrative Assistant to support planning, scheduling, and coordination for the Grassroots Organizing (GRO) Director, the Southern Crossroads (SCOPE) Director and the overall Grassroots Organizing Department and Southern Crossroads team.

A successful person in this role will become a trusted extension of the GRO and SCOPE Directors in many ways, providing real-time support and proactively anticipating the Directors’ and organizational needs. They will be highly organized, a strong communicator, and the “calm in a storm”.

This position will report to the Southern Crossroads Director. This position is included in a union-represented collective bargaining unit, and specific terms and conditions of employment are subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES — Essential duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to the following:

Priority 1: Manage SCOPE Director’s calendar and support administrative task completion (50%)

• Manage SCOPE Director’s calendar via weekly meetings and bi-weekly co-working sessions.
• Support SCOPE Director in fielding scheduling requests and send reminders about upcoming events along with any relevant documents.
• Manage all travel start to finish; finding appropriate accommodation options, creating and booking travel itineraries, managing changes as they occur.
• Ensure the Director is fully prepared for all travel, registering the Director for events, and confirming any in-person meetings.
• Track and input all receipts from travel or other expenses within deadlines set by Finance.
• At Director’s request, attend meetings and conduct needed follow up (note taking, setting up new meetings, send a task list to Director).
• Review tasks that Director assigns and send email follow ups
• Help manage Director’s Google Calendar, Zoom, and any other online tools to maintain fast turn-around times and user-friendly appointment creation
• Maintain space between meetings as needed.
• Primary point of contact for all scheduling requests for the Director.
• Respond to all requests for time with the Director rapidly, within the same day.
• Act on knowledge of the Director's priorities to balance all requests for the Director’s time.
• Schedule and protect priority work blocks and tasks. Close coordination around priorities and pushing back appropriately as needed.
• Schedule internal meetings for members of SURJ when the ask involves the Director, Deputy Director, and/or other Southern Crossroads team members
• Prepare needed information for reports, sometimes taking responsibility for writing them.
• Maintain and update Director’s task list
• Manage weekly metrics reporting for the Southern Crossroads Team
  • Send a team reminder every Tuesday and on Wednesday, move previous weeks’ metrics over to the tracking spreadsheet, refresh the week, and move people’s individual metrics to their individual tracking spreadsheets.

Priority 2 : Manage GRO Director’s calendar and support administrative task completion (30%)

• Manage GRO Director’s calendar via weekly meetings and bi-weekly co-working sessions.
• Support GRO Director in fielding scheduling requests and send reminders about upcoming events along with any additional documents.
• Manage all travel start to finish; finding appropriate accommodation options, creating and booking travel itineraries, managing changes as they occur.
• Ensure the Director is fully prepared for all travel, registering the Director for events, and confirming any in-person meetings.
• Track and input all receipts from travel or other expenses within deadlines set by Finance.
• At Director’s request, attend meetings and conduct needed follow up (note taking, setting up new meetings, send a task list to Director).
• Review tasks that Director assigns and send email follow ups
• Help manage Director’s Google Calendar, Zoom, and any other online tools to maintain fast turn-around times and user-friendly appointment creation
• Primary point of contact for all scheduling requests for the Director. Maintaining space between meetings as needed.
• Act on knowledge of the Director's priorities to balance all requests for the Director’s time.
• Schedule and protect priority work blocks and tasks. Close coordination around priorities and pushing back appropriately as needed.
• Schedule internal meetings for members of SURJ when the ask involves the GRO Director and/or other GRO Team Members
• Gather needed information for reports
• Develop process for maintaining and updating Director’s task list using Asana

Priority 3: Operations support to the GRO team and the SCOPE team as needed (20%)

• Work with SCOPE Deputy Director to prepare onboarding documents and onboard new staff.
• Work with the SCOPE Deputy Director to prepare for events.
• Plan logistics for SCOPE and GRO Staff Retreats, including lodging, meals, and meeting supplies.
• Provide on the ground logistical support for SCOPE and GRO Staff Retreats, canvassing blitzes, and other in person department meetings
• Interface and meet with members and volunteers as needed.
• Support and coordinate with SCOPE Deputy Director as needed.
• Conduct research and prepare reports for projects as needed
• Attend team meetings within GRO and SCOPE to support events and campaigns
• Work with the GRO Director to track the annual calendar of events and retreats for individual projects and department wide
• Assist with grant and or funder reports and prep
• Available upon request for Database related tasks.
• Available upon request to create graphics and to draft/schedule posts for social media
• Available upon request for updates to the Southern Crossroads website
• Coordinate with other SURJ departments when needed.
• This person will also undertake any other duties or projects that may be reasonably required, and deal with matters arising in a timely and effective manner.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of 3 years as administrative assistant experience or 3 years of equivalent work-related experience.
• Google Suite proficiency and experience with data tracking required.
• Strong relational / customer service skills are required.
• Familiarity with EveryAction and Asana preferred.
• SURJ policy requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, subject to reasonable accommodation under federal, state, and local law. Accommodations may be not possible for positions that require in-person contact with other staff or members of the public.
• Ability to travel 3-4 times a year for 2-5 days at a time for retreats, canvassing blitzes, and other in person events
• All those who drive for work must abide by our driving policy.

KNOWLEDGE:

• Experience doing organizing on issues of racial justice preferred
• Demonstrated experience proactively managing a complex and dynamic schedule.
• Must be proficient in data management and demonstrate a command of spreadsheets.
• Feels at ease and comfortable amidst rapidly changing priorities and pivots.
• Experience working remotely or comfortable working with a distributed team.

SKILLS:

• Excellent relational and verbal communication skills
• Solid time management skills
• Strong written communication skills
• Strong attention to detail
• Extremely detail oriented.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including proofreading and copy-editing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and capacity to work with people across a wide range of differences, especially lines of race and class. The ability to build trust and work with a wide range of individuals and personalities, and to establish and maintain effective working relationships.

ABILITIES:

• Flexible - open to new ways of doing things and experimentation
• Reliable - follows through on what they said they are going to do
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Ability to look ahead and anticipate needs.
• Ability to learn new technologies quickly.
• Ability to prioritize work and to balance several work streams at a time.
• Strong ability to complete complex tasks and projects quickly with limited guidance.
• Ability to handle confidential and/or sensitive organizational and personal information with tact and diplomacy.
• Ability to exercise excellent judgment, with the ability to react with appropriate urgency and take effective action, even without having the full picture.
• Ability to make grounded assessments of how long tasks will take.

BENEFITS:

• Annual Salary: $64,500
• Health, dental and vision insurance including available employer contribution toward spouse, children and family coverage
• 401K retirement plan with up to 6% employer match
• Twenty (20) days paid time off per year (prorated)
• Twenty (20) days of health and wellness leave per year (prorated)
• Thirteen (13) paid holidays per year
• Three additional paid weeks off for organization-wide shutdown summer & winter breaks
• Employer paid short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Employer paid life insurance
• All staff works remote from home
• Monthly $150 technology support stipend (internet, phone)
• Professional development resources each year
• Paid parental leave
• Paid sabbatical after 5 years

APPLICATION PERIOD:

Applications will be accepted until the position has been filled.