Download a pdf of the job description here
Full Time – 9 months
c. 24,000
Based in Glasgow (but probably working from home until August 2021)
Have you got the organisational skills to save the planet? Are you proactive, personable and utterly passionate about solving the climate emergency? Do you find that you actually quite like a well-ordered spreadsheet? Could you be the new COP26 Project Officer at Stop Climate Chaos Scotland?
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland are seeking a COP26 Project Officer to support the COP26 Project team. With awareness increasing of the climate emergency, and with COP26 coming to Glasgow, it’s an exciting time to be at the centre of Scotland’s civil society coalition campaigning on climate change.
This new post would suit someone who is naturally well-organised, a really good communicator and is able to demonstrate initiative. You will have an eye for detail, and enjoy the challenge of bringing order into the hectic day-to-day work and challenging delivery schedules of the team.
We are seeking someone with administrative experience, including some in finance, excellent organisational skills and computer literacy (including facilitation and organisation on online meetings and wordpress experience) You’ll be great at building effective relationships with people at all levels.
Due to current restrictions we are likely to be working from home until at least August, when we hope to take up office space within the Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. We will be a small team of four SCCS staff working specifically on COP26 work, with close connections to the core SCCS staff based in Edinburgh and other organisations working on COP-related work, specifically the COP26 Coalition and their staff based in Glasgow, with whom we will share an office. You will have key relationships to build through the SCCS members, and with civil society organisations across Glasgow, the UK and beyond. We are looking for someone who has an eye for detail, is friendly and approachable, and is incredibly organised. You’ll be a positive, resourceful person who is the kind of person that people turn to for help, and for good reason.
This is a unique opportunity to make an impact at this incredibly exciting time for climate campaigning. You will have ample opportunity for personal development within the role; to take on responsibility, to take the initiative and be challenged. If this sounds like you – we need to hear from you.
The Post
This post will support SCCS’s work to deliver facilities and venues (including supporting volunteers), events and accommodation for civil society participants coming to COP. As well as supporting work across the breadth of the COP26 project, this post will also be the finance officer for the project, responsible for paying invoices and providing monthly reporting on the budget. The post will work with the COP26 Project Manager and the Coalition Coordinator to support budget management, reporting and evaluation.
The post will be managed by the SCCS COP26 Project Manager and will work closely with the SCCS COP26 Team, as well as the SCCS Coalition Coordinator and the COP26 Coalition Coordinators.
Key Responsibilities
- To support SCCS’s COP Project work, particularly supporting work related to the volunteer programme, the accommodation platform and logistics
- To be the finance officer for the project – paying invoices, keeping track of the budget and producing monthly reports
- To set up and manage the COP26 Office Hub at Kinning Park, when we are able to start using it and coordinate visiting staff and volunteers.
- To coordinate the evaluation work for the project including monthly reporting
- To be the team’s H&S lead, ensuring risk assessments are carried out, building capacity in the team to deliver this and ensuring that we comply with relevant H&S guidance.
- To be a key point of contact for general queries from the public and from collaborators
- To support the logistics and volunteering coordinator in creating a safe and organised volunteer programme, creating rotas, helping with recruitment and management of volunteers.
- To organise events, specifically related to collaboration, training, capacity building and briefings related to the COP26 Project
- To take part in relevant working groups in the SCCS Coalition and the COP26 Coalition.
- to be our data management lead on GDPR ensuring colleagues and volunteers are trained and we are compliant
- To bring together reports for our funders and others with input from other SCCS staff
- to support the venues and events coordinator with planning, paperwork and relevant licences, to ensure that the COP26 Hub is delivered in a legally compliant and safe manner.
- To work with COP26 Project team to organise recruitment and training of volunteers who will be active, during COP to run the Civil Society Hub, and People’s Summit, to volunteer to host global civil society in homestays, and to support other work related to COP
- To do any other tasks, relevant to this role, required by the COP 26 Project manager
Background
SCCS is a diverse coalition of around 60 organisations campaigning together on climate change. Our combined supporter base totals over 1.7m people across Scotland. Our members range from environment, faith and development organisations to trade and student unions and community groups.
The involvement of civil society is a hugely important part of the official COP with many thousands of people from NGOs, unions, faith groups, and other civil society organisations taking part in the official proceedings. But COPs are also always a focus for much wider civil society activity: those accompanying official participants, campaigners and activists, and all those that come to put pressure on the talks from outside the official spaces. We are supporting particularly the elements of civil society coming together to deliver that wider activity.
As an organisation with capacity to put towards some of the resource-intensive, logistical work needing to be done locally to underpin civil society engagement at COP26, SCCS are delivering some key work. This is mainly in two areas: creating the Civil Society Hub and other venues for COP26, coordinating local hosting and accommodation work for global civil society as they come to Glasgow and managing an events website to bring together activity across civil society. We are collaborating closely wit the UK COP26 COP Coalition on this work
The role of the Project Officer will support delivery across all our work related to COP, particularly in the area of logistics and events.
Personal specification
Essential:
- Previous administrative experience including finance, reporting and book-keeping.
- Experience of organising meetings and events, from small up to very large and co-ordinate all aspects of the meeting or event logistics
- Excellent IT skills in the usual packages
- Experience organising and facilitating online meetings.
- Approachable and friendly with excellent interpersonal skills and enjoy helping others
- Highly organised with an attention to detail
- Experience of GDPR and Health and safety management
- Ability to deal with the unexpected and solve problems independently.
- Highly organised person with the ability to make the best use of time particularly when under pressure from competing priorities and working to tight deadlines.
Desirable:
- Familiarity with Glasgow, as a city, and good contacts within Glasgow’s environment and community groups
- Experience of working with and managing volunteers
- is confident working on websites with particular experience of wordpress
- Experience in budget planning and budget management
- Demonstrable commitment to action on climate change
Qualifications
The competencies and experience of the successful candidate will be more important than formal academic qualifications.
Terms and conditions
Part time position: 5 days a week
Salary: £24,000
Location: Glasgow. Occasional travel to other parts of Scotland may be required.
Hours: Full Time for 9-10 months (35 hours a week) Given the nature of the work, the post holder may be expected to work the occasional evening or weekend, for which time off in lieu will be granted. There will be no payment of overtime.
This role would make an ideal secondment – especially from SCCS member organisations. If you are interested in doing this post as a secondment please speak to your current employer to discuss and highlight on your application.
Application process
If you would like to apply, please do so by sending:
Covering letter (please set out in no more than 500 words why you are suited to this position, laying out how your experience and skills meet the essential -and desirable- criteria
CV (no more than 2 pages)
to Kat Jones, SCCS Coalition Manager at kat@stopclimatechaosscotland.org
Closing Date 5pm on Tuesday 23 March.
Short-listed applicants will be invited to attend an online interview on Thursday 1 April (if attending on that date is not possible please advise at the time of applying).
This role is supported financially by the European Climate Foundation
