Managers and program specialists sought

Please note: This is an archived blog post, and these are not active job listings.

MANAGERS AND PROGRAM SPECIALISTS SOUGHT

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North is an Emmy-nominated documentary film which has become the basis for outreach efforts focused on advancing the cause of racial justice and reconciliation and expanding understanding of the history and legacy of the North’s role in slavery.  Thanks to a recent major grant, we are in a position to expand our work beyond the first-year of release, to pursue more systemic institutional impacts.

The various positions/function areas described below are not full-time.  We list them all together here with the hope that applicants might be interested in, and capable of, filling various roles— possibly combining small part-time positions in such a way as to create fuller part-time positions, or a full-time position.  For example, the Program Director role could be combined with the Training Coordinator position for a 20-30 hr/wk position.  We are also open to applicants who are only interested in one position.  We hope that these positions will grow with more funding.

To Apply: Please submit a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org. When emailing, please put in subject line: Candidate – last name, first name (such as “Candidate – Jones, Julia”).

Deadline: The preferred application deadline for these positions is September 1, 2009. After that date please send an email to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org to see if positions might still be available.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM AND OUTREACH:

Traces of the Trade tells the story of first-time filmmaker Katrina Browne’s New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history.  At Browne’s invitation, nine fellow descendants decide to journey with her to retrace the steps of the Triangle Trade.  The family travels from Bristol, Rhode Island where the family business was based, to slave forts in Ghana where they meet with African-Americans on their own homecoming pilgrimages, to the ruins of a family-owned plantation in Cuba.  At each stop, the family grapples with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but for themselves as white Americans.  They come face-to-face with their love/hate relationship to Yankee culture and privilege, and struggle with how to take public action given all that they now know.

The issues the DeWolf descendants are confronted with dramatize questions that apply to the nation as a whole: What, concretely, is the legacy of slavery—for diverse whites, for diverse blacks, for diverse others?  What history do we inherit as individuals and as citizens?  How does Northern complicity change the equation?  What would repair—spiritual and material—really look like and what would it take?

Traces of the Trade premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, and was broadcast in June, 2008 on PBS’s premiere documentary series P.O.V.  It is now being used as a tool for education, dialogue and action across the country.  Educational DVD distribution is through California Newsreel.  We are committed to being an anti-racist organization internally and externally.  For more info: www.tracesofthetrade.org

POSITIONS:

Managing Director (20-25 hours/week)

Member of senior management team with filmmaker & Ebb Pod President Katrina Browne, and the Program Director.  We envision the Managing Director and Program Director as leading and managing the day-to-day operations of the organization, while Browne fulfills external functions, such as public speaking, press work, and initiating program and fundraising opportunities.

• Supervise Program Director, Office Manager, and Business Affairs & IT Officer.
• Oversee strategic planning processes for creating clear deliverables and timelines.
• Manage budget, expenditures and other financial matters.
• Partner with Browne in developing and implementing fundraising plans.
• Partner with Program Director on the completion of semi-annual staff evaluations and staff development/training plans.
• Refine personnel policies with involvement of Office Manager.
• Manage board of advisors and accountability group to anti-racist people of color.
• Handle routine senior administrative and legal matters.
• Provide leadership and handle other responsibilities as they arise in order to meet on-going organizational needs.

Program Director (10-15 hours/week)

• Supervise all program-related staff/consultants (Training Coordinator, Faith-Based Coordinator, Education Coordinator, Public History Coordinator, Event Coordinator), assisting in creation of clear timelines and deliverables.
• Hire an independent evaluation consultant; work with them and program staff to develop tools to measure impacts; ensure that tools are utilized, data collected, and reports generated.
• Manage partnerships for on-going organizing of “general public” events with the film (vs. events for specialized audiences/professions handled by the specialized program staff).
• Pursue re-broadcasts of Traces via local public television stations, in collaboration with P.O.V., such that they can serve as focal point for organizing local dialogues with local partners.  Explore potential of city-wide post-airing dialogues similar to “Big Read” concept.
• Manage regional partnerships, such as focused efforts in Connecticut and Michigan with various collaborators.

For the four program-related positions that follow, all of the following apply as duties:

• Develop strategic plan and program deliverables for impacting particular field based on organization’s goals.
• Bring anti-racism goals and perspectives to all aspects of the work.
• Work with Training Coordinator to develop dialogue/training models for program area and maintain best practices.
• Work with Events Coordinator to determine which “Traces family” members to match with which events and provide event design/technical assistance as needed by event hosts.
• Work with Program Director to develop evaluation tools and implement their use.
• Work with Managing Director to manage budgeting and expenses.
• Write programming text when necessary for fundraising proposals and foundation reports.
• Maintain relationships with relevant orgs/partners for respective content area; attend professional conferences to present, network and generate new opportunities.

1. Training Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Refine the theoretical framework for using Traces as a tool for racial justice and reconciliation.
• Refine concrete training/dialogue models for use of the documentary and DVD extras, flowing from framework, and building on existing resources (POV discussion guide; theories in the field; etc.).  Continuously update training materials so that they are dynamic, evolving, and sensitive to changing social conditions.
• Cultivate a group of lead trainers, who, along with Traces family members, will be available as trainers/facilitators of film-based trainings/dialogues at professional conferences and in various workplaces settings (non-profit, corporate, governmental, philanthropic).  Match trainers/ facilitators with events based on expertise and help design events.
• Generate content for materials that market our available services.
• Organize and conduct trainings for facilitators and Traces family members.
• Act as a liaison with facilitator networks/individuals in fields of racial reconciliation/dialogue, anti-racism, corporate diversity training, multicultural education, etc.

2. Faith-Based Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Work with current religious partners (Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalist Association), partnerships in formation (United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Reformed Church in America), and new denominational partners (to be cultivated), to use Traces to advance their white privilege and anti-racism work, and work related to history/legacy of slavery in their denominations (including possibly via resolutions).
• Expand our outreach from mainline Protestant denominations to evangelical, Catholic and Jewish religious communities, and other relevant faiths.
• Coordinate our participation in Traces screening/dialogue events at congregations, regional religious bodies, religious conferences, etc.
• Coordinate with Policy Coordinator on how to mobilize people of faith towards public policy/ action-oriented goals in truth & reconciliation, racial justice and modern anti-slavery.
• Continue to expand faith-based guides and resources (available through website).

3. Education Coordinator (10-15 hours/week)

• Either in-house, or through sub-contract(s) with partners, develop curricula and other materials for middle school and high school classroom use of Traces with sensitivity to educational standards; develop accompanying teacher training module.
• Develop professional development workshop for teachers on how to teach about slavery in ways that further productive racial identity formation for students (in demographic-appropriate ways); help teachers reflect on how their own racial identity impacts their teaching.
• Coordinate our participation in school-based Traces events in middle schools, high schools, undergraduate and graduate programs.
• Catalyze action to impact how slavery is taught in middle through high school by influencing state departments of education, school boards, independent school networks and text book companies, so that the role of the North in slavery is more systematically taught over long-term.
• Work with independent schools to use the film as a catalyst for dialogue on issues of race, class and privilege.

4. Public History Coordinator (5-10 hours/week)

• Utilize Traces as a tool for catalyzing a greater number of Northern museums (e.g. house museums) and historic sites that have ties to the history of slavery to bring that forward in their interpretive work for the public.
• Create a professional development workshop for public history staff and volunteers (e.g. docents) on the role of the North in slavery and best approaches with the public.  Help participants reflect on how their own racial identity impacts their work with the public.
• Use the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War (2011-2015) as basis for programming that “complicates” the myth of North=good guys, and South=bad guys.
• Take leadership role in a nascent collaboration between Northern public history institutions to organize programming for Sesquicentennial (which will include writing grant proposals).
• Coordinate our participation in Traces screening/dialogue events at museums, historic sites, public history conferences, etc.

GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Education/Experience:

• Background in the areas listed for the specific position (3 years or more preferred).
• Undergraduate degree required; graduate degree in relevant field a plus.
• 3-5 years experience in a detail-oriented, fast-paced non-profit office environment a plus.
• Experience with documentary film/outreach projects a plus.

Skills/Qualities:

• Ability to work as part of a team, coordinating among multiple people.
• Ability to communicate well both orally and in writing, with people representing a range of backgrounds, positions, and institutions.
• Commitment to racial justice and reconciliation; sensitivity to dynamics of race and class.
• Conscientious, detail-oriented, dependable, and efficient.
• Strong skills in project coordination and oversight.
• Innovative, quick learner, ability to adapt to new challenges.
• Ability to exercise independent judgment and assume responsibility for decisions, consequences, and results having an impact on people, costs, and/or quality of service.

Technical knowledge:

• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite of software programs.

Compensation: Commensurate with experience.

Location: Cambridge, MA

To Apply: Please submit a cover letter, resume, three references, and a writing sample to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org. When emailing, please put in subject line: Candidate – last name, first name (such as “Candidate – Jones, Julia”).

Deadline: The preferred application deadline for these positions is September 1, 2009. After that date please send an email to Madeline McNeely at human.resources@tracesofthetrade.org to see if positions might still be available.

Hiring policy: Ebb Pod is an equal opportunity employer.  Candidates of color are strongly encouraged to apply.

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