Job opportunity - Campaign Organiser

4.28.59pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 30th Jul 2007

Campaign for Gender Balance Organiser - salary £18,000 - £20,000 depending on experience

We are looking for a motivated and well-organised campaigner to deliver the campaign plan to encourage and support more women to become approved candidates and to be selected in winnable seats.

Reporting to the CGB Chair, Jo Swinson MP, and working within a diversity team in Lib Dem headquarters, your role will involve recruitment, nurturing and management of a large number of volunteers who mentor women and provide practical support.

Excellent project management skills are essential to juggle a number of outreach activities at once, including target mailings to women, training programmes, and generating publicity. See job description below for more information.

For an informal chat about the position please contact Jo Swinson MP on 020 7219 8088 or swinsonj@parliament.uk Application is by CV and covering letter to swinsonj@parliament.uk by Wednesday 22nd August.

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Job description: Campaign Organiser

1. Gender balance supporters network: expand and maintain the volunteer gender balance supporters network and facilitate grassroots activity to encourage women to come forward for approval and support them in selection

• Maintain online volunteer database, accessible to the full CGB group

• Identify skills gaps (e.g. DTP for manifestos), proactively seek out new helpers to plug gaps, and recruit many more supporters

• Communicate regularly by email with supporters and local parties and ensure plenty of ways to help are flagged up, as well as thanking for support and reporting on progress

• Meet regularly with Chair and Vice Chairs to decide on priorities, and organise wider supporters meetings (2 or 3 times per year) to seek new ideas and involve more volunteers

2. Encouraging women to go for approval: using publicity, conferences, training events and supporters network, identify women to encourage to go for approval

• Maintain an online database of women identified as potential candidates and track progress through the system (e.g. asked for form, completed form, development day, selected)

• Identify a gender balance mentor for each woman who will proactively follow up the interest expressed in approval

• Organise mailings to targeted groups of women to promote candidacy, including to new women members quarterly and another target group (to be identified in conjunction with the Chair and Vice Chairs) twice yearly

• Organise events for targeted groups of women to encourage interested in candidacy, including "Key to Success" regional training days and speaker receptions

3. Providing support for approval and selection: act as a hub to ensure help is provided to women using the resource of the volunteer network and online support resources, organise training programme at Conference and one-off events

• Match requests for help with appropriate helpers from database and set up contact, where relevant referring also to new leader's fund and other sources of help

• Manage feedback process from both mentors and women to ensure needs are being met

• Liaise with lead trainers and regions / states to organise year-round training programme including "Future Women MPs" weekend

• In conjunction with Head of Training, plan conference training programme

• Communicate regularly by email with women to highlight help & resources available

• Add to website Resource Centre support materials, including selection manifestos, approval form examples, campaign tips etc

4. Publicity: develop a cost-effective publicity programme for the campaign to a) encourage more women to go for approval and b) encourage gender balance supporters to join our volunteer database

• Commission monthly articles & ad hoc letters for party publications (LDN, Grassroots Campaigner, Free Radical etc etc)

• Liaise with the CGM webmaster and provide content regularly to keep the site fresh

• Liaise with Lib Dem press office to publicise good news Lib Dem gender balance stories such as hitting key targets, women selected in winnable seats etc

• Arrange for production of literature and co-ordinate its inclusion in party mailings e.g. to local party chairs, treasurers, invitations to regional training events etc

• Plan conference activity e.g. creating stall, rota for helpers, fringe events, training

• Write 2 press releases a month for Lib Dem News and other publications as required