GatherBay Community Coordinator

GatherBay’s Community Coordinator will help hundreds of Jewish 20- and 30-somethings in the East Bay connect to Jewish opportunities, build lasting friendships, and discover meaningful Jewish identities. GatherBay is a new project addressing the specific needs of the Jewish young adult community in the East Bay.

We are looking for a personable, enthusiastic individual who is early in their career and excited to join a creative, grassroots Jewish nonprofit organization. This position comes with a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. This is a full-time, non-exempt position.

TITLE: Community Coordinator
SALARY: $57,880–$63,660
LOCATION: Oakland/Berkeley, CA preferred; open to Alameda and Contra Costa Counties
APPLICATION DEADLINE: November 11 at 11:59pm PDT
ANTICIPATED START DATE: January 9, 2023

Frequently cited statistics show that historical biases in hiring lead to less applications from women and underrepresented groups unless they have 100% of the qualifications. Gather is committed to removing bias in hiring; as such, we encourage you to break that statistic and apply. No one ever meets 100% of the qualifications! We look forward to your application.

WHO WE ARE:

Growing from the success of hyperlocal GatherDC’s relational engagement methodology, GatherBay is a new relational project serving the 20- and 30-somethings of the East Bay’s Jewish community. GatherBay emerged from GatherDC’s 8+ years of successful community engagement and continued on-the-ground learnings, as well as the 20+ years of relational expertise behind Gather, Inc.’s team. Gather, Inc. is a national organization that supports, among other program areas, our local city projects in Washington, D.C. and the East Bay.

WHO YOU ARE:

The Community Coordinator will work closely with GatherBay’s Community Director to help connect thousands of Jewish 20s and 30s to their people and space in the Jewish Bay Area. This person will help build GatherBay from the ground up, which means connecting with unengaged folks, those new and new-ish to the East Bay, and those who have been historically left out of Jewish life. You will be an integral player in welcoming and connecting new community members to the area, and spend your days identifying new ways to help young adults connect with Jewish life in the region and what it means to facilitate the exploration of more meaningful Jewish identities.

You likely have a year or two of professional experience, but are in the early stages of your career and are excited to take on a growth role at a dynamic organization with substantial opportunity to try new things and flex creatively and professionally.

As a small organization and a fledgling team, we need to be able to count on this person to contribute in big and small ways, especially as we navigate our “start-up” chapter. This is a growth role—as such, you’re excited to learn a lot and do a number of different things. You are able to think critically about the Jewish landscape; comfort with ambiguity and openness to change is a huge plus!

WHAT YOU’LL DO*:

Hold GatherBay’s 20-somethings engagement portfolio — 50%

• Conduct extensive coffee dates with (primarily) Jewish young adults in their 20s, including people new to the East Bay and those who have lived here for years.
• Serve as the main engagement touch point for these community members.
• Take the lead on piloting new initiatives in various forms, including ideation, implementation, follow-up, reporting, and evaluation.
• Support social media and newsletter content, in partnership with the Community Director and an external agency.
• Act as key liaison to feeder institutions (e.g. universities, Hillels) to ensure a smooth pipeline to post-college Jewish life in the East Bay.
• Work with the Community Director to bring creative projects to life.

Immerse yourself in the Jewish Bay community — 30%

• Build connections with Jewish institutions, organizations, and professionals in the region.
• Stay up-to-date on formal and informal Jewish happenings in the East Bay.
• Organize a recurring gathering/experience (ideally recurs monthly) for young adults in the Jewish community.
• Serve as a representative of GatherBay within the community and attend events hosted within the local Jewish community (approximately 2 per month).
• Serve as primary contact for local partner organizations in Jewish communal spaces.
• Keep your finger on the pulse of community needs, shifting community dynamics, and ways that Gather can serve the community through coffee meetings, social media (including newsletters), and connections to institutions and informal groups.

General office tasks — 20%

• Maintain regular data entry to track, evaluate, and evolve engagement efforts.
• Support the build-out of new systems and communications tools/processes that help GatherBay do our work with ease.
• Champion the use of our tech tools, including Salesforce, FormAssembly, Cirrus, Asana.
• Execute office tasks as needed, including logistical preparation for events, sending life cycle gifts to community members, etc.
• Update website and blog content, including our online calendar.
• Bring fresh ideas, new insights, and creativity to everything we do.

**These are considered the essential functions of this role. Please note that this role will require a fair amount of in-person meetings, in addition to Zoom/virtual meetings.*

QUALIFICATIONS:

• You have 1 to 3 years of professional experience; outreach, community organizing, communications, or related work a plus.
• You’re self-motivated, working equally well independently and as part of a team.
• You’re a self-described “people person” and believe in the power of community.
• You have Salesforce (or equivalent CRM) proficiency (preferred).

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

• You’re a savvy connector. You are able to build and maintain strong relationships with both peers and colleagues. You bring genuine energy and enthusiasm to your interactions and relationships and are able to propel dynamic conversations to connect with anyone you meet.
• You “get” the Gather approach. Gather prioritizes people over programs and understands that cultivating genuine one-on-one relationships is the key to building connection, community, and meaning-making. You’re able to shift your paradigm to our people-first philosophy and let that guide every aspect of your work.
• You’re an independent self-starter. You are able to ideate and take action with minimal direction, and are highly motivated by successfully achieving your objectives. You’re comfortable with sitting in discomfort while you work through problems, and you’re able to move past roadblocks or difficulties to find alternative solutions to reach your goals.
• You’re detail-oriented. You are thorough, accurate, and organized, and things rarely fall through the cracks. You’re able to see all pieces of the puzzle, and are not afraid to ask follow-up questions to get to the root of a problem.
• You’re a nimble learner. You may not know everything, but you're able to learn what you need when you need it. You pick things up pretty quickly and use both successes and failures as learning experiences. When faced with a challenge that calls for doing a task a different way, you dive in and try different ways until you land on a successful solution.

PLEASE APPLY IF:

• You genuinely love connecting with people in authentic ways.
• You’re excited to get in on the ground floor and play a key role in shaping an exciting new project as it grows.
• You’re passionate about co-creating and weaving communities.
• You are an awesome human being.

BENEFITS & SALARY:

• We offer a competitive salary ranging from $57,880–$63,660, commensurate with experience based on Gather, Inc.’s organizational salary bands.
• We provide amazing benefits, including robust employer-sponsored healthcare options, generous discretionary and sick leave, retirement matching, an annual professional development stipend, and more.
• We are fully set up for remote work and are ready to set you up with a comfy home base for when you’re not out and about in the community!

WHAT TO EXPECT:

We know the job application process is never a walk in the park, but we try to make our hiring process as transparent and painless as possible. While we cannot have a conversation with every applicant, we commit to reaching out to every single person who crosses our screen to let them know where they stand in the process within a timely manner (this usually looks like one business week). We recognize the time and effort it takes to prepare and submit this application, and we appreciate your consideration of this role.

For everyone looking for a peek behind the curtain, here’s what our general process will look like:

• Mid-October: Role is live and accepting applications through November 11, 2022.
• Late October: Candidates with applicable experience will have a 15-minute phone call with Gather, Inc.’s internal screener.
• Early November: Candidates who advance to the interview stage will have a 60-minute Zoom conversation with the GatherBay Community Director.
• Mid-November: Candidates who advance to the second stage will have a final interview with Gather, Inc. CEO and Chief of Staff; Hiring Manager will check references.
• Early December: Offer will be extended!
• December 26th–30th: Winter Break—Gather offices closed
• January 9: First Day!

Feel like a long process? We know. It does to us too. Between coming out of a month of the high holiday season’s closures, Thanksgiving, and the winter holidays—we’ve got a lot of out-of-office time to work around! We promise we’re working as hard as we can to move through this process as quickly as we can while giving both your applications & our staff’s energies during this season the time and attention they deserve.

So, you’ve made it to the bottom. Ready to apply!?

Please submit your resume and cover letter by November 11 via bit.ly/BayCoordinatorApp. Contact Julie Silber at julies[at]gatherbetter.org with any questions or if you need any specific accommodations during the hiring process.

Note: In accordance with Gather’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known and preventable hazards, all employees are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and maintain updated booster shots per official CDC guidance. Barring reasonable accommodations for documented medical exemptions, proof of vaccination is a condition for employment.

We deeply value the diversity of insight, perspective, and experience brought by people from backgrounds typically underrepresented in Jewish organizations. This includes Black, Latinx, and Asian people, Black Jews, Jews of Color, Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender non-conforming people, and people with disabilities. We also welcome applications from people of diverse religious, spiritual, and cultural backgrounds.