Ag Innovations is looking for a Senior Facilitator!

Ag Innovations is a 501c3 nonprofit that facilitates systems leadership and collaborative action in California around key issues including agricultural viability, fire and forest resiliency, water stewardship, and food systems. We serve our community by facilitating transformational collaboratives that help leaders think beyond their disciplines and unlock new ideas; and stakeholder engagement, public input, and planning, which helps improve the public plans and policies that allow for a better future.

We are dedicated to serving the public interest by helping people think and work better together to solve the complex issues facing all of us who depend on our natural and working lands.

Job Description

We are looking for a full time Senior Facilitator who will serve as process designer and a prime facilitator for our collaboratives and roundtables, public engagement, and general facilitation projects. With direction from the Executive Director, our ideal candidate will act as the team lead for projects and also coordinate with staff and consultants to ensure timely and outstanding outcomes. Industries you may be working in include: consultative facilitation, organizational development, policy, public planning, community organizing, agriculture, water, fire, ecological sciences, or air quality.

Ag Innovations values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply.

TYPE OF WORK THIS PERSON WILL DO

• Facilitate collaboratives, roundtables, and working groups focused on key issues such as ag viability, fire resilience, food systems, integrated pesticide management and water stewardship. These groups may be at the state, regional or local level.
• Develop creative process arcs that lead groups through a clear and consistent process over time to achieve a better understanding of themselves and each other within the system they are seeking to work on.
• Lead creative public engagement efforts including outreach, surveys, workshops, and planning around water and fire planning and infrastructure for stakeholders. Stakeholders include agriculture, public agencies, land managers and land owners, residents of rural communities, businesses, environmental organizations, and disadvantaged and environmental justice organizations
• Collaborate with team members to produce written products that synthesize group work, and Supervise and support the assigned AI staff in fulfilling their role on your projects.
• Support program and partnership development, and occasionally lead relevant fund development efforts
• Manage a team and budget to achieve program and contract goals

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND PERCENTAGE OF TIME

• Serve as Project Lead and Senior Facilitator, with duties including design, facilitation (virtual, in groups, with the public, and spanning from one day to multiple years), client, contract, and team management; and development of written products that reflect group agreements, research, and actions. 75%
• Participate in learning organization goals, including strategic advising, offering and training on models of engagement, methodology, and content, and seeking to develop your own skills and your teamwork with other team members. 15%
• Support fund development, including writing about AI process approach and results achieved; Cultivating opportunities for grants, contracts, or other funding for the realization of the organization’s mission and write contracts and MOUs for new projects. 10%

CORE VALUES

1. We believe that effective process yields effective collaboration
2. Holistic: We acknowledge and operate in complex systems, and seek to help people understand themselves, each other, and the patterns and systems they operate in.
3. Neutrality: We are solutions-neutral, but process advocates.
4. Humility: We show up every day knowing that we don’t have all the answers.
5. Inclusive: We facilitate to raise up voices that can go unheard without the invitation to participate
6. Diverse: We celebrate diversity of background, race, economic status, and perspective by bringing it “into the rooms” that we facilitate.

REQUIREMENTS

• Masters level education in a related field, OR equivalent combination of bachelors’ degree and experience.
• At least 5 years of professional experience as the lead facilitator for complex groups, projects, or initiatives. Significant experience or knowledge of facilitation, multi-stakeholder collaboration, public engagement. Experience may include work in not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, academic institutions, or the private sector.
• Significant experience in California in one or more of the following areas – public engagement, sustainability, food systems, water stewardship or planning, fire and forest resiliency, or agricultural systems. Each of these areas is a great starting place for a facilitator to work with the content that Ag Innovations facilitates in.
• Training, certification, or equivalent experience demonstrating mastery of a theory-based approach to facilitating change or group dynamics.
• Aptitude and Experience facilitating collaboration in a virtual environment, using platforms such as zoom, GoToMeeting, or others.
• Aptitude and experience with a variety of technologies for supporting remote collaborations (e.g., Slack, Zoom, Kumu, Google Docs).
• Experience managing projects to a contract and budget.

DESIRED

• Bilingual Spanish-English with the ability to facilitate in both languages is very helpful.
• Experience working with under-represented communities

Salary Range

$70,000 to $85,000 per year commensurate with experience.  Position includes health benefits, an employer match for simple-IRA contributions, and professional development. 

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

Heavy use of electronic office systems, either onsite or in remote/home setup, requiring keyboarding for long periods of time. Heavy phone communications with clients and others, including remote facilitation (video & audio). Travel within California by car or air on average 2-6 times per month, although travel restrictions are currently in place.

This is a remote position due to precautions being taken in light of COVID-19. It’s likely that the position will return to facilitating meetings in-person at some point, however it’s unclear when this will be.  This position may be considered a permanently remote position, with requirements to be in the home office 2-4x per month once the office is re-opened.

Each qualified candidate is invited to submit a resume and cover letter explaining why they would be an excellent fit for our Senior Facilitator position. Please send your resume and cover letter to us at: HR@aginnovations.org. While open until closed, priority will be given to resumes received by September 13.

FLSA Status: Non-exempt

Reports to: Lead Facilitator, dotted line to Executive Director

Last Updated: May 2019

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Project Coordinator supports our facilitation team in creating effective change processes with meeting planning (including venue management, catering, audio-visual, and on-site coordination), participant relations (including meeting scheduling, RSVPs, speaker coordination and participant communications), and meeting notes/results. The Coordinator also provide logistics, scheduling, coordination, communications and other support to the Ag Innovations programs staff and the Board of Directors. This position reports directly to a Senior Facilitator, dotted line to the Executive Director.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Duties of the Project Coordinator will include but not be limited to the following:

• Meeting logistics including securing sites, creating rosters, managing food and beverages, and creation of meeting materials;
• Participant relations including scheduling, RSVPs, and routine communications;
• Process and agenda design support including attending planning meeting and calls;
• Creating meeting notes/results documents;
• Research and data collection including preparing background presentations
• Project management assistance (calendaring, results tracking, stakeholder and participant communications and tracking, research, materials preparation, collaboration technology tools, operations, etc.)
• Coordinate virtual and in-person meetings logistics (venue, food/beverage planning, audio/visual, materials preparation, registrations, travel, presenters and speakers logistics, note taking, etc.)
• Outreach and communications assistance (participant communications, website and social media postings, mass email notifications, publicity and outreach support, PowerPoint and other presentations preparation, etc.)
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

This position is designed for someone who is interested in making community-facing work their focus and would like to develop competency in facilitation. Some of the kinds of relevant experience for a prospective Project Coordinator include:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent knowledge of research and analysis techniques.
• Minimum of two years of administrative support or project management experience.
• Demonstrated passion for and interest in food systems, agriculture, and/or environment.
• Demonstrated working proficiency in word processing, powerpoint presentations, creating and maintaining spreadsheets (Excel and Google Sheets), group calendaring, social media, project management tools, databases, and basic web editing.
• Applied skills in basic web-based research, analysis and summarization.
• Ability to manage several tasks/projects concurrently, with ease and professionalism.
• Familiarity with file organization and retention, and with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
• Strong attention to detail, including proofing own work and that of others.
• Ability to focus and complete job duties in a fast-paced, complex environment.
• Ability to communicate professionally, clearly, and concisely, orally and in writing.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, customer service skills.
• Ability to listen, take notes, and produce a set of meeting notes that are clear, organized and can be relied on as a record of the meeting, its conclusions and decisions.
• Event and meeting coordination and planning experience and skills.
• Training or equivalent experience in facilitating meetings a plus.

COMPENSATION

$20.00-$27.00 per hour commensurate with experience. Position includes health benefits, an employer match for simple-IRA contributions, and professional development.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Keyboarding on PC for long periods of time
• Some phone usage
• Local and regional travel by car or other means, mostly same-day (although travel restrictions are currently in place).
• Indoor work environment in open setting with minimal noise and distractions (when we return to the office).
• This is temporarily a remote position due to COVID-19.  Permanently, this position will be based in either Sonoma County, CA or Sacramento, CA, to be considered once shelter-in-place restrictions have lifted.