Field Programming Manager | NESAWG

Future Harvest, Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture (FHCASA) provides education, networking, and advocacy to build a sustainable Chesapeake foodshed from farm and fishery to table. We seek a full-­‐time, energetic, self-­‐motivated, highly organized, and visionary manager to operate field programming for FHCASA’s Foodshed Field School.The Foodshed Field School offers peer-to-peer and expert-led education programming on growing and sourcing locally and sustainably produced food and fiber in the Chesapeake region.  The school consists of our annual conference, year-long Beginner Farmer Training Program (BFTP), and field programming that consists of about 20 workshops, field days, trainings and other educational events on farms and in food businesses around the region.

The position would primarily manage the field programming component of the Foodshed Field School, but also help, as needed, with the conference and BFTP. The Field Programming Manager will report directly to FHCASA’s Executive Director and work in tandem with the Beginner Farmer Training Program Manager and the Communications and Outreach Manager. She or he will also form a field programming advisory committee of board members and other stakeholders to help with the development, execution, and evaluation of the programming. The manager has the option of working at home or at our office in Cockeysville, MD.

FHCASA is in the process of developing a strategic plan, of which field programming is an essential component. The field programming manager will be responsible, in consultation with other staff and the field programming advisory committee, for developing and executing short-, medium-, and long-term goals to grow the program geographically and topically. The manager will oversee program expansion and supervise a part-time program assistant.

Required Qualifications
• Minimum of two years’ work experience in food and farming systems and sustainable agriculture in the non‐profit, government, or farming sectors; specific knowledge of the Chesapeake region food and farming community – which covers Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington DC – is a plus.

• A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in education, agriculture, or related field;

• Training in small event planning key (the manager is responsible for successful field event planning and execution, which involves a great deal of relationship building over the phone and in person); marketing and communications experience a plus;

• Experience with, and demonstrated ability in, easily working with diverse stakeholders in the regional food economy – from farmers and fishers to retailers, wholesalers, chefs, and consumers;

• Demonstrated superlative organizational skills to plan and execute about 20 educational programs per year, which includes parts of the annual conference;

• Demonstrated event organizing and event staffing experience;

• Demonstrated ability to work in a team, both internal and external, to create and strategically implement a vision for the school’s field programming, step-by-step;

• Fundraising experience a plus;

• Some exposure/experience with program evaluation via surveys, establishing metrics, and other analytical and evaluative systems;

• Demonstrated ability to easily pick up and master a variety of online tools for promoting and running the school; we are a virtual team and want to automate systems to keep our overhead low. Important applications: Excel, Word, Drupal, event registrations. InDesign, Photoshop, plus graphic design and/or photography experience a plus;

• Demonstrated ability to use traditional and new online communications platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. Experience with Drupal or other web content systems a plus;

• A car for frequent travel, smartphone with unlimited data plan, laptop computer with adequate memory for InDesign; color printer – all kept in good working order.

Salary
$43,500, with a variable lump-sum stipend to partially cover health insurance and other costs.

How to Apply
Submit résumé, two writing and/or marketing samples, and three references by May 8, 2015, to Dena Leibman at [email protected].