Northern Spark 2019 Neighborhood Volunteer Lead – AICC

Northern Spark is a free, annual, late-night, multidisciplinary arts festival that takes place in June and draws tens of thousands of Minnesotans each year. In collaboration with arts organizations and community partners, we turn the city into a surprising arts experience.  Northern Spark is produced by Northern Lights.mn. For more information on our work, visit our website: http://northern.lights.mn/.

In 2019 Northern Spark takes place in three neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul: Downtown East in The Commons (Minneapolis), American Indian Cultural Corridor along Franklin Ave. (Minneapolis), and Rondo at Hallie Q. Brown Community Center (St. Paul). Festival dates are Friday, June 14 and Saturday, June 15 from 9 pm to 2 am each night. For general information about the festival, visit here.

Job Description: Neighborhood Volunteer Lead – AICC

This position is responsible for the recruitment, scheduling and festival nights-of management of approximately 50 volunteers and survey seekers in the American Indian Cultural Corridor hub of Northern Spark.  

Deadline to apply:
Send resume and cover letter to jobs@northern.lights.mn by Feb 1, 2019.

Stipend: $1,500
Estimated hours: 5­-10 hours a week, approx 75 hours total
Duration: Mid-March through June 30, 2019
Reports to: NS Volunteer Coordinator

Tasks:

Volunteer Recruitment and Management

• Learn recruitment and scheduling tools and systems from Festival Volunteer Coordinator
• With Festival Producer and Volunteer Coordinator, determine plan for Volunteer Operations in the AICC hub including Info Tent location and Volunteer Lounge
• Recruit and schedule volunteers and survey seekers to fill approx 50 shifts for night­s-of and pre-­festival events (~25 per night) for the AICC node
• Conduct ongoing communications with festival volunteers assigned to this node
• Attend pre-­festival outreach and recruitment events in the neighborhood
• With Volunteer Coordinator, organize, attend and present at Volunteer Orientation in AICC
• Oversee all Volunteer operations in AICC on night-of festival including:
  • Checking Volunteers in and out for their shifts
  • Executing 3 attendance counts nightly
  • Maintain the Volunteer Lounge area
  • Help keep volunteers on task, engaged and informed throughout the night
  • Help to problem solve and serve as a point of communication with festival staff
  • Communicate with Production staff

Other duties

• Attendance at monthly, then weekly staff meetings in Minneapolis
• Create and coordinate a final list of all completed volunteer shifts and update festival records

Requirements:
Excellent written and verbal communications and public speaking skills; interest and enjoy working with people; ability to work independently and efficiently; keen ability to organize and track large amounts of data. Experience working with volunteers a must.  

Ideal candidate holds community ties within the American Indian Cultural Corridor and local Indigenous communities, and a broad, community-specific network from which to recruit volunteers.

Experience using Google docs is important, knowledge of Asana and CiviCRM preferred but not necessary if willing to learn these tools.

Necessary equipment:
Own computer and access to internet when not in the NL office. Smartphone w/ data plan necessary for festival nights-of communications.