The Strong seeks an energetic, diplomatic, and enthusiastic professional to work in partnership with the President and CEO. The responsibilities of this role encompass both organizational and administrative functions. The executive assistant supports the president and CEO in schedule management, Board liaison duties, communications, and gatekeeping. This position provides correct, timely, and relevant information that supports executive strategic initiatives, oversees heavy calendar management, schedules travel arrangements, and routinely interfaces with Board members, senior leaders, and other museum team members.
This position operates in a fast-paced and collaborative environment where adaptability, accuracy, and attention to detail with a positive demeanor is required. The incumbent is expected to provide complex and diversified administrative support with minimal supervision . The executive assistant is required to expend such personal efforts as may be needed to keep up with advances in subject matter information related to this position. The employee must learn the constraints, with consideration of the budget, within which this job must be performed and work within those limitations.
Responsibilities Include:
- Establish a comprehensive understanding of the museum’s mission and actively factor organizational goals into decisions and work completed for the office of the president and CEO.
- Provide overall administrative and clerical support to the president and CEO including, but not limited to, managing calendars, booking travel, overseeing timelines for special projects, preparing meeting materials, formatting and finalizing reports and presentations, and managing correspondence.
- Regularly meet with the president and CEO to provide information and deliverables that contribute to the latter’s productivity and efficacy.
- Handle scheduling for the president and CEO for all internal and external meetings and provide support for any external committees.
- Support the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) by assisting with their regular weekly and monthly meetings, coordinating special project meetings involving SLT, tracking PTO, managing the Long-Range Plan action register, and providing support for various special projects as needed.
- Schedule and prepare the agenda for weekly and monthly senior leadership team (SLT) meetings and take meeting notes. Communicate with leadership to keep the most essential, time sensitive items at the forefront of agendas.
- Conduct and manage, as assigned, various research and special projects for the president and CEO and SLT related to museum operations, communications, tourism, visitation, and guest experiences. Research and benchmark other museum and commercial programs for comparative purposes.
- Field phone calls, take requests for meetings, and draft correspondence and presentations from the executive office, as appropriate.
- Maintain a guest-focused culture and model relationship-building skills in all interactions. Greet, welcome, and escort the president and CEO’s guests within the museum, as needed. Ensure these guests’ experiences are based on hospitality and readily adapt to last-minute requests or changes.
- Prepare informational documents for special guests, including prospective donors, external museum professionals, and others.
- Schedule and support the logistics of quarterly SLT/Director and staff meetings, as well as other museum-wide meetings as necessary.
- Manage the yearly calendar and scheduling of all Board, Executive, and Board Committee meetings. Lead the preparation for all meetings: send invitations and maintain the RSVP list; coordinate the hospitality, set up, and AV; and take meeting minutes. Draft minutes, manage the approval process, and upload approved minutes to the board platform, Govenda.
- Serve as chief administrative liaison with the Board for meetings, minutes, by-laws, and committees that directly involve the president and CEO, and maintain all files and records related to the Board.
- Work with the president and CEO and key staff to gather relevant information to prepare extensive Board materials and ensure meeting documents are uploaded to the board platform, Govenda in a timely manner.
- Maintain Board and Committee member rosters including honorary and emeritus trustees.
- Perform a wide variety of general administrative support l duties as required, including, but not limited to, maintaining the executive office’s supplies inventory, preparing expense statements for the president and CEO, sorting and delivering the president and CEO’s daily mail, and developing and maintaining appropriate filing systems.
- Develop and maintain written procedures for all activities within the scope of responsibilities.
- Assist with organizing the logistics for the annual conference of The Association for the Study of Play (TASP), which is held at the museum every few years. Oversee, in conjunction with the president and CEO and designated TASP contact, the content of the TASP website.
- Represent the museum at onsite and offsite events, some of which may be outside of regular working hours, as needed.
- Attend general staff meetings, and others, as needed.
- Upload blogs to the website on a weekly basis, ensuring that captions and images are properly formatted and visually appealing.
- Manage editorial tasks for American Journal of Play , including sending out books for review, creating and obtaining signed agreement letters, mailing printed journals, emailing PDFs of reviews, notifying publishers’ publicists about book reviews, obtaining U.S. copyright for each issue, and maintaining storage of printed issues.
- All other duties as assigned.
Qualifications:
- The candidate may have any combination of education and experience but should possess the required skills and knowledge for successful performance.
- Bachelor’s degree in English, Communications, or strongly related field that emphasizes research, writing, and editing is preferred.
- Three to five years of executive level administrative support experience.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with organizational leadership and staff, and ability to maintain effective working relationships with others.
- Strong ability to be proactive and excellent follow up skills.
- Ability to effectively handle last-minute requests while balancing long-term projects.
- Strong proofreading skills for reviewing final drafts and proofs of materials as needed.
- Ability to maintain highest level of confidentiality. Sharing information on a need-to-know basis, redirecting people to the appropriate contacts to receive information relevant or necessary to be effective in their roles.
- Accountability: Takes responsibility for decisions, performance, and outcomes. Behaves in a responsible manner with a positive attitude and shows self-awareness and openness to feedback.
- Clerical: Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems, such as word processing, managing files and records, and preparing reports. Knowledge is sufficient to create desktop aids or guides in the execution of common administrative procedures and processes.
- Hospitality: Knowledge of customer service principles and practices in museums. Social perceptiveness to assist in executing successful interactions with special guests and high-level members of the community.
- Integrity: Ability to maintain a strict level of discretion, judgment, and sensitivity in all matters.
- Interpersonal Tact: Frequent contact with individuals within and outside the museum in situations where considerable tact and initiative are needed to impact business results. Excellent listening skills, a high degree of diplomacy and maturity, and the ability to balance empathy and objectivity. High degree of social intelligence and comfort level in interacting with a variety of museum professionals and stakeholders.
- Organization: Demonstrated ability to effectively pull together sensitive and moderately complex data and information into an organized and cohesive product. Pay close attention to each detail to ensure that all procedures are properly executed, and all work contains appropriate and accurate information.
- Process Improvement: Pursue and implement more efficient processes to optimize results. Demonstrate resourcefulness and identify ways to improve the productivity and efficacy of the office of the president and CEO.
- Collaboration: Work in a team-oriented environment, as is vital that our employees maintain effective interpersonal relationships. Team members must be good at active listening, conflict management, cooperation, facilitation, negotiation, and be open to feedback.
- Communication: Communicate and act in a respectful manner when working with others, including those from outside the museum. The ability to handle difficult and stressful situations with professional composure is vital for this position. This job requires the ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written form using the English language.
- Guest Service: Provide extraordinary service to our guests as needed People are filled with anticipation when they visit. When they leave, they feel enriched, are glad they came, and look forward to returning. The executive assistant’s work should contribute to these sentiments every day.
- Problem-Solving: Things don’t always go as planned. This job requires the ability to understand and follow instructions while recognizing, analyzing, and solving a variety of problems. The employee should exercise sound judgment in making decisions and be able to independently perform all the duties of the position efficiently and effectively.
- Time Management: Working well under pressure and handling several projects at once to meet the varying needs of the museum is fundamental to this role. The employee must be self-motivated, well-organized, and flexible. A strong ability to multi-task and work with competing deadlines and varying priorities without compromising attention to detail or quality of work is essential.
- Computer Proficiency: This position requires work on a computer, on databases, and with related equipment. A high degree of comfort and proficiency with computer technology and software is important, especially Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, Excel). Demonstrated ability to use all day-to-day and core functionality of all relevant systems.
