Overview

Role: Operations Manager
Hours: Full-time 5/7 (5 days a week including some weekends and evenings)
Contract: 5-year fixed-term contract
Salary: £27000
Holiday: 20 days per year plus Bank Holidays
Based: Andover, Hampshire
Probationary Period: 6 months
Reports to: Board of Trustees

ABOUT ANDOVER TREES UNITED

Andover Trees United (ATU) was set up in 2011 by a group of local residents committed to engaging with their local community, especially young people, to better connect to the natural world and take practical action to address current environmental crises. The organisation set up by the founding group of friends has attracted the support of 25 local schools, countless members of the local community, local businesses, local government, nationally recognised organisations and a regular volunteer team of 50. As the charity has grown, its leadership team has worked hard to retain a friendly, family-like atmosphere and now invites you to join them to lead a new, small team of paid officers.

https://www.andovertrees.org.uk/

Andover Trees United is a volunteer-led charity working in partnership with schools, local authorities, businesses, specialist environmental organisations, artists and other creative practitioners to promote conservation and improve responsible access to natural wild spaces. National collaborators currently include The Woodland Trust and Dr Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. The charity’s main site ‘Harmony Woods’ represents a 10-year planting project, giving all the children and young people in our community the chance to turn 12 acres of farmland to the north of Andover into a natural urban woodland, increasing biodiversity and providing a wealth of opportunities for learning about the environment.

Harmony Woods sits within a total of 44 acres of new woodland which forms the major part of Hampshire’s Diamond Wood, being one of 60 new 60-acre woods planted in 2012 to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

In 2021 a new 5-year strategic plan was unveiled,‘Branching Out’, which will come into effect in 2022. You will be joining us as we enter the next exciting chapter of our story, helping us to deliver the plan: involving, informing and inspiring.

Andover Trees United’s objectives:

1) The conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment for the public benefit by the establishment and maintenance of woodland in Andover.

2) The advancement of education of the public in the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment in Andover and the Test Valley area including by promoting the woodland as a means for the community to learn about wider environmental issues such as: sustainability, climate change, ecology and the mitigating need for trees.

Community and Values:

Nature Supporting Community, Community Supporting Nature. 

At ATU we put the environment at the heart of everything we do, and we live by our core values. We are:

  • Welcoming: We are respectful, down to earth people, born out of the community, with a deep respect for all living things within the natural environment. We work together closely and care about each other’s personal development.
  • Inclusive: The health and wellbeing of our volunteers and service users are our highest priority. We strive to create a diverse, supportive and safe space for all. We’re humans, doing our best. When we don’t get things right, we learn from it.
  • Passionate: We are active, enthusiastic ‘doers’. We bring people together to learn from the natural world and empower them to get stuck in and make real change happen.
  • Creative: We are creative problem solvers. We move fast, think ahead and believe the future is bright. We provide exciting nature and arts-based opportunities to connect, educate and communicate environmental issues to our local community.

ABOUT THE OPERATIONS MANAGER ROLE

 The Operations Manager role is funded through a Reaching Communities National Lottery grant, and is offered as a five-year fixed-term contract.

As the Operations Manager, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management of a grass-roots, community-led environmental education and conservation charity leading delivery of the 5-year Branching Out strategy.

To achieve this you will manage and coordinate a programme of community environmental and arts-based projects. Working to a set budget you will need to balance the strategic aims of the charity with the set objectives of the funding organisation(s), providing evidence through regular project monitoring and reporting.

An important element of this role will be to help to devise income streams and implement strategies that will put the charity on a financially sustainable footing, thereby securing the long-term future of this role.

You’ll work alongside our volunteer management team, made up of experienced professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. You’ll collaborate with our Community Engagement & Outdoor Learning Officer, Ecology & Community Outreach Intern and Admin Officer (part-time) – teamwork and good communication will be vital.

A love of nature is essential, as is a keen desire to share your environmental passion and knowledge with others.

This is a hands-on role, you will plan and deliver interesting and exciting nature, community and arts-based projects; some days you will be office-based, writing project reports, and the next you will be outdoors helping to repair fences! So be prepared to get stuck in.

To apply – Please send an email to liz.scrace@andovertrees.org.uk, asking for the full job description and application form. Thank you.

Closing date: 24th January 2022