The John Muir Trust is a community focused conservation charity dedicated to the experience, protection and repair of wild places across the UK. The Secretariat is a small, highly visible team in the Trust, working in fast-paced environment as the interface between our volunteer Board of Trustees and our staff Leadership Team.

The Head of Secretariat will report to the Chief Financial Officer and play a key role providing support for the interfaces with the Leadership Team and Board of Trustees. This is a unique opportunity to play a key part in optimising the administration of the Trust to support delivery of our vision across the UK.

The role will be responsible for managing communication, scheduling meetings, preparing reports and providing high level administration support to the leadership team. The role has line management responsibility for a secretariat administrator.

The successful applicant will have experience managing upwards to support senior members of staff, as well as great attention to detail and process and a flair for problem-solving and prioritising. You will ideally have experience in ensuring and refining charity governance processes and procedures and must be comfortable taking ownership of your work to make a real difference to the day-to-day running of the organisation.

Main responsibilities

Your key duties will include providing support in the following areas:

• Oversight of all board and sub-committee meetings, and maintenance of all terms of reference and schemes of delegation.

• Managing papers, arranging logistics and minuting for Board / Sub-Committee meetings and Leadership Team meetings and setting the annual cycle of meetings for the Board and Committees.

• Responsibility for ensuring board and sub-committee papers are issued timely

• Oversight of all matters arising and actions.

• Supporting the induction process for new trustees and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

• Supporting a committee effectiveness review.

• Submission of all statutory returns.

• Ensuring compliance with the Companies Act and the Charities Act.

• Oversight of any governance related returns.

• Oversight registers such as Declaration of Interests.

• Oversight of Trustee elections and co-option including Returning Officer responsibilities.

• Conducting Trustee skillset gap analysis.

Person specification

The John Muir Trust is committed to working together to promote a more inclusive environment and we need a diverse team to realise this. Applicants are welcome from all walks of life with diverse backgrounds, cultures, perspectives, and experiences to support our work on behalf of wild places.

This role would suit someone with the following skills/experience:

Essential skills/experience:

• Experience in a charity governance role.

• Extensive experience of minute taking.

• Excellent attention to detail and high degree of accuracy whilst also able to keep an eye on the big picture.

• Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships.

• Experience in managing internal and external stakeholders.

• Experience in supporting senior management.

• Ability to work under own initiative and effectively prioritise work / balance competing demands.

• Excellent organisational and time management skills.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

• Knows how and when to exercising discretion and respect confidentiality.

• Ability to distil complex problems quickly and producing clear recommendations/reports.

• Good at problem-solving with experience in identifying what lessons can be learned, making, and taking ownership of decision and implementing improvements.

• Resilience, adaptability, and composure.

• Advance IT skills in areas such as Outlook, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Desirable skills/experience:

• Professional training in the field of charity administration / governance.

• Good Understanding of Companies Act requirements.

Other details

Type of contract:

Permanent Hours: 35 hours per week (flexible working applies)

Salary: D Band (Competitive salary)

Pension: 5% employer contribution to a group auto-enrolment pension scheme

Reporting to: Chief Financial Officer

Location: Subject to discussion (working from home possible)

Holidays: 34 days per year plus 2 ‘wild days’ or slow travel days

John Muir Trust standard terms and conditions of employment apply. johnmuirtrust.org