Executive Director for Literacy Coalition Job Description

Executive Director

The Literacy Coalition of Herkimer & Oneida Counties

The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties

MISSION OF THE LITERACY COALITION

The Literacy Coalition connects organizations in our region to the funding, advocacy, professional development and service support they need to increase the availability of high quality literacy programs. Through collaboration, the Coalition will raise awareness of low literacy, provide links to services and encourage the residents of Herkimer and Oneida counties to become lifelong learners. The goal is that through these commitments, all residents will have the opportunity to fully participate in society and support their community as active citizens.

THE POSITION

The Executive Director of the Literacy Coalition under the leadership of The Community Foundation and principal partners will lead a community-wide collaboration of businesses, schools, community and faith-based organizations, volunteers, institutions of higher education and individuals to create and carry forward the Community Literacy Plan. The Executive Director will be an employee of one of the partners. The employer may also be the fiscal agent or another partner may fulfill that role.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Literacy Coalition and the Executive Director will work on behalf of the community to raise literacy levels to ensure that everyone in Oneida and Herkimer counties reach their highest potential for employment, self-sufficiency, inclusion in society and life-long learning. The Executive Director of the Coalition will provide leadership in developing and implementing the vision, mission, values and strategic goals.

Specific duties include:

1. Implementing the Community-wide Literacy Plan
• Work with a consultant to develop, implement and manage the community-wide literacy plan that will serve as the blueprint for all community activities supporting efforts to raise literacy levels.
• Lead the Literacy Coalition in promoting the achievement of the Community Literacy Indicators fostering significant improved literacy development in the areas of early childhood, school based, out of school, adult education, workforce development and lifelong learning.

    2.        Fund Development/Sustainability

• Develop and manage systems for resource development, impact measurement, strategic planning, decision-making and on-going communications with interested parties and literacy providers while engaging the literacy network in the community plan.
• Establish and maintain a relationship with the NYS Education Department in order to access their knowledge and expertise in the area of literacy.
• Establish and maintain relationships with elected officials, businesses and community stakeholders.
• Develop and implement in cooperation with the Leadership Council the legislative agenda for the Literacy Coalition.  
• Facilitate preparation and implementation of a long-range financial plan.
• Facilitate preparation of all fundraising materials, grant proposals and implementation of an annual budget.
• Identify types of special events appropriate to the organization’s image and purpose.

          3.        Leading the Literacy Coalition

• Oversee the work of the Literacy Action Teams that meet monthly or as determined by the needs and priorities of the Literacy Coalition to address long-term and short-term targets and specific strategies to effectively measure literacy success.
• Continue to develop the collegial relationships with community stakeholders that were developed during the planning process, such as direct one-to-one communication, public presentations, written materials and online networking tools.
• Advocate for increased literacy support through collaborative efforts and a united voice.

IDEAL QUALITIES AND EXPERIENCE

Bachelor’s degree in related field required; Master’s degree strongly preferred; at least 5 to 7 years of experience working in the education, business or non-profit field preferred. Key attributes include: inclusive and welcoming, excellent communicator, sharing the spotlight, trustworthy. Skills required: group facilitation; conflict resolution; fund development; and knowledge of literacy landscape and issues.

• Excellent written, verbal, public speaking and technology skills. Coordinate projects, prepare correspondence, produce written reports and proposals, make public presentations, and facilitate planning meetings.
• Act as a collaborator, unifier and negotiator who can build strong and effective relations with a variety of organizations in the community as an energetic team player.
• Self-starter who initiates and pursues objectives in an organized and efficient manner, working either independently or as a team member.
• Needs to be credible both with community leadership and have the respect of coalition members.
• Strong ability to persuade, advocate, develop support of 100% community engagement.
• Passionate about literacy at all levels.

Because the position will require extensive relationship building with non-profits and volunteers, individuals with strong interpersonal, oral and written communications skills should highlight these skills in the cover letter. Candidates with a sense of humor and desiring to make a difference for the community are most welcome.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

This is a full-time, exempt position. Competitive salary and benefits are dependent on experience.

TO APPLY

Inquiries, applications (including a resume, cover letter and three professional references), and nominations should be directed to Marie Piayai at mpiayai@foundationhoc.org. Please list ED: Literacy Coalition in the e-mail subject line. A review of candidates will begin immediately and applications will be accepted until March 9, 2012. Only candidates who are being actively considered will be contacted.

New Name and Mission: Share Your Opinion

The Oneida and Herkimer Nonprofit Executive Directors Group is revisiting its name and mission. Share your feedback here on the following names (or suggest your own) and mission statement.

• Mohawk Valley Nonprofit Executive Directors
• Mohawk Valley Nonprofit Leaders
• Mohawk Valley Nonprofit Directors Action Group
• Nonprofit Directors of Mohawk Valley
• Nonprofit Directors Action Group of Mohawk Valley

Suggested the following mission statement for discussion

• The mission of the (name tbd) is to individually and collectively strengthen and empower nonprofit organizations; and to foster a highly valued recognition of the economic and social benefits of the nonprofit sector.

Strategic Planning Request

I received this request from Jennifer Collins at The Good News Center:

Hi Andrew,
I am currently planning our annual Strategic Planning session to be held with our board and staff this September. This would be a revisit to the plan we have had in place since 2007. I remember that a while back you coordinated some type of survey where people indicated areas of skills / expertise - and one area indicated was Strategic Planning. Do you have names of people who may have designated that as an area of expertise? Might you have suggestions of people who could serve as a facilitator for this session? Thanks for any help you can offer.

Jennifer Collins
Associate Director
The Good News Center
10475 Cosby Manor Road
Utica, NY 13502
(315)735-6210
jennifer@thegoodnewscenter.org

Interested in the skills inventory? Click here.

Local Nonprofits See Funding Yanked

There have been recent concerns raised among Oneida and Herkimer nonprofits about some recent cases of funding being pulled by New York State funders. If your nonprofit has faced this situation or been impacted, please share your feedback here or by e-mail.

Dealing with Nonprofit Negativity in the Blogosphere?

Our recent media program raised a number of issues, and is generating some great questions. Here is a recent question from an executive director about a recent online discovery:

Last night during a google search I discovered a blog that has some erroneous and damaging opinions about our organization.
At our recent media panel event, we briefly discussed the media responses to stories in this format in the newspaper and TV, but we did not really get into the whole area of the blogosphere and non-profits.

Do you know whether other non-profits pay any attention to blogs where wrong perceptions and bad information is placed out there by people who don't bother to check their facts? Is it just best to ignore these things and not give them the light of day with a response? I guess if I can find them in a random google search, others can too, and some of the items expressed in those blogs are defamatory to our organization.

This is a great question, and an issue that anyone should be aware of as you explore the blogging world or plan to launch your own agency blog. We would like to offer the following advice: 1)Set up Google Alerts to help you track news and blog posts about your organization; 2)Recognize that any coverage, positive and negative, is a good thing (and an opportunity); and 3) Don't reinvent the wheel, so we offer the following advice from two good resources out there in the Web 2.0 world:

Rohit Bhargava responds to this issue in his Influential Marketing Blog. He offers 5 steps on how to respond to a "blog crisis." There are also some additional suggestions listed in the blog comments section.

Beth Kanter's blog features two blog posts on dealing with critcism and negativity, as well as moderating, in the blogosphere. Get her insight and suggestions:

• Transparency, Social Media, and Dealing with Criticism
• When should a nonprofit organizational blog moderate comments? What are the different approaches?

ED Group Meeting Discusses Events and Staff Retention

The Oneida and Herkimer Nonprofit Executive Directors Group held the May 14th program at the Herkimer Area Resource Center (HARC). The meeting was attended by eleven directors, who began the meeting with introductions and announcements. As each director introduced themselves, he or she announced upcoming special events. The Group found that golf tournaments are especially popular this time of year. This discovery spurred a discussion about the need for a master planning calendar that would list the major special events that Oneida and Herkimer nonprofits were planning. The calendar would allow directors to try to avoid event conflicts. The calendar also could be a collecting point for staff training that organizations were planning. These trainings could be of interest to other nonprofits. The Group decided that developing a calendar was a good next step. More information about this calendar will be available shortly.

The remainder of the program focused on the discussion of the climate assessment survey on staff retention. The Peacemaker Program's Brenda Episcopo facilitated a discussion of the summary report (available here) and her agency's experience of implementing this survey. Glenn Beville from Hospice & Palliative Care, Inc. also spoke about his organization's employee survey conducted early last year. Glenn has provided a copy of the survey here for the Group and related the following about the survey and examining the results:

The questions are not unique. We came up with some of our own,
borrowed from the internet and got some advice from a vendor company
that had previously conducted their own employee survey. As part
of the analysis process, the team categorized the responses to the 12 write
in questions into one of the following categories:

• Communication
• Leadership
• Staffing
• Wages & Benefits
• Education
• Space
  
  We used the categories as a basis to formulate actionable solutions. The second attached document is the "report card" that we used to communicate the actionable plans to staff and periodically report progress.

The Group continued discussion about action steps based on the survey data. The two most challenging areas revealed by the survey were: Factor 7 Recognition and Reward and Factor 9 Competitive Salary. The Group discussed the challenges of these factors, and Brenda shared some of The Peacemaker Program's responses. First, the agency examined salary levels, and created an informal study (available here). This information helped The Peacemaker Program restructure staff salaries. The organization also examined different ways of recognition and reward, creating the following research list:

• job switch days (shadowing, mentoring)
• job sharing
• telecommuting
• 360 degree feedback
• Exit interviews
• Surprise “spot” recognition for a job well done
• Employee sport teams
• Include family members in agency functions
• Flexible schedules
• Employee assistance programs
• Ability to use pre-tax money for medical expenses or day care
• Random days off (personal holidays)
• Pension plans

The Peacemaker Program is continuing to examine this list for possible ideas to implement. The Group finished the program meeting with a discussion about other topic ideas and next steps. The Group discussed a follow up to this program on employee recognition and reward. Another topic idea mentioned was board retention and recruitment. The Steering Committee will be holding a follow up meeting to discuss setting the next program. Please share any additional ideas by e-mailing amarietta@ccsnys.org.

May 14th Program Participants:
Kevin Crosley, Herkimer Area Resource Center
Phyllis Spinner, Herkimer County HealthNet, Inc.
Glenn Beville, Hospice & Palliative Care, Inc.
Cornelia E. Brown, MAMI of CNY, Inc.
Lorraine Kinney-Kitchen, Mid-York Child Care Coordinating Council, Inc
Sylvia J Bunce, RCIL
Rev. Bill Dodge, Rescue Mission of Utica
Sue Casanova, Smoke-Free Mohawk Valley
Gail Miskowiec, The Arc, Oneida-Lewis Chapter, NYSARC
Jan Squadrito, The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties
Brenda Episcopo, The Peacemaker Program, Inc.

Steering Committee Update and Staff Retention Survey

The Steering Committee is working to confirm the location for the May 14th meeting in Herkimer County. Also, the Committee discussed implementing a staff retention survey that was created by Steve Robinson, Director Alternative Dispute Resolution Services at The Peacemaker Program. This survey will provide a climate assessment for each participating nonprofit and the region as a whole.

The Committee will send an e-mail out to all Executive Directors in the Group inviting them to opt in to use the survey. If they agree, a survey link will be e-mailed to them to distribute to their particular staff. Steve has stated that the survey will be anonymous and this needs to be stressed to everyone. He has also suggested giving 5 days to complete the survey. The resulting data will be consolidated with Steve's help. The Committee can also provide the individual data to each participating organization if there is an interest. The individual organizations data will remain anonymous unless they agree to share their individual info. Please feel free to share any thoughts on the survey or this process.

If you are interested in implementing the survey for your organization, please let me know. I will send you an assigned letter code and the survey link for your employees. You can e-mail me at amarietta@ccsnys.org or call (607) 436-3124.