Category Archives: On Stage

Job Title: Chief Relationship Officer
Department: Administration
Supervisor: Executive Director
FLSA Status: Full-time, exempt
Prepared By: HR Director
Prepared Date: 3/31/2017
Approved By: Executive Director
Approved Date: 3/31/2017

Organizational Overview
The Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) is a professional organization for theatre education with over 100,000 members nationwide. EdTA’s mission is shaping lives through theatre education by:Honoring student achievement in theatre and enriching their theatre education experience; Supporting teachers by providing professional development, networking opportunities, resources, and recognition; and Influencing public opinion that theatre education is essential and builds life skills. EdTA operates the International Thespian Society (ITS), an honorary organization that has inducted more than 2 million theatre students since its founding in 1929.

Summary
EdTA seeks a Chief Relationship Officer (CRO) who develops member, chapter, and industry partnerships by working to create and promote resources of value for stakeholders; communicates these resources to the appropriate constituents; listens and acts on stakeholder needs; and ensures that all members and supporting organizations have easy access to all things EdTA.

The CRO provides strategic and operational oversight for EdTA’s membership initiatives including the engagement, expansion, and retention of the member base and the development and implementation of member benefits and services.

The CRO oversees Chapter Relations and volunteer management to provide support and resources to enable volunteers to deliver a large part of the Association’s mission.

The CRO is responsible for the Association’s business development activities, oversees the operations of the business development function and monitors all member and industry relationship activities through coordination with staff, appropriate committees and the Board of Directors.

The CRO will mine the intrinsic value in relationships for, between and among individuals, divisions of the organization and the associated industry partners to facilitate win-win solutions.

The CRO also provides consistent leadership needed to facilitate the cultural changes that are necessary to achieve strategic growth outcomes and improve EdTA’s future growth prospects.

The Chief Relationship Officer serves as a member of the Senior Executive Team with the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director, and Chief Operating Officer and has responsibility for supervision of two direct reports and eight total staff members.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Membership and Chapter Relations

• Oversee and manage the work of the Director of Membership and Director of Chapter Relations, and coach the managers and support staff to personal growth.
• Develop a high-level strategy for establishing the Association’s relationship ecosystem and plans for growth.
• Guide the building of member engagement.
• Develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to engage Thespian Alumni in the organization and leverage their talent and resources to grow the Association.
• Oversee Alumni events
• Create a plan for forging and building specific relationships, for example college professors as ambassadors.
• Partner with the Deputy Executive Director to conduct research and market assessments for the launch of new programs, products and services to existing member constituencies and entirely new audiences. Build on the significant work invested in surveys to transform membership recognition of the value of EdTA.
• Nurture a culture of stakeholder engagement and investment throughout the Association, ensuring that all team members participate in and support member volunteerism and revenue-generating initiatives and goals.
• Collaborate with Human Resources to create the most effective organizational structure and volunteer structure to support membership.

• Formulate, implement and enforce proper member data collection policies and procedures.
• Partner with IT to define and develop tools and technology for Chapters to enable their success.
• Evaluate dues structure and increased infrastructure required to support growth in the chapters.
• Develop international expansion models and oversee the new chapter in China.
• Develop structure for leveraging influencers, celebrities, and VIPs — stakeholders that can promote school theatre and connect EdTA to resources

Industry Business Development

• Design and implement strategies that support revenue generation and programmatic goals.
• Partner with the Business Development Manager to create sponsor, advertiser, and exhibitor strategies, relationships and plans.
• Research, target, and network with potential prospect companies.
• Identify and direct the implementation of activities that generate non-dues revenue, such as a re-envisioned store with Thespian gear.
• Formulate and implement policies as they affect the administration of sponsorships and royalty agreements, e.g. stewardship procedures.

KEY SKILLS DESIRED:
Proactive, strategic thinker and problem-solver with excellent team building skills.

Ability to build member and corporate relationships across multiple generations; and connect, build, trust and inspire members and industry to view their investments in the Association, economic or volunteerism, as expressions of their values.

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• 10 years of relevant membership, development, and volunteer cultivation experience.
• Experience in a membership-driven trade or professional association, or national nonprofit organization ideal.
• Track record for successful corporate development initiatives.
• Self-motivation and discipline to regularly set and achieve goals.
• Clear understanding of membership and industry relationships and engagement building.
• A strong business orientation and the ability to make data-driven decisions.
• Superb written and oral communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong commitment to, and passion for, the mission of the Association and ability to articulate the importance of the organization’s work to prospective and current members and industry partners
• Passion for or experience in theatre preferred
• Ability to travel as required.

Please submit cover letter and résumé by email (Subject Line: EdTA CRO) to:  HRManager@schooltheatre.org.  Include desired salary.

First consideration will be given to applications received by April 14.

No phone calls, please.

Additional Insights:  Upside opportunities in the next 5 years for CRO

• Member growth – develop strategies and plans to reach the 80% white space in the high school market, 96% white space in the middle school market, thousands of individual educators, teaching artists, acting coaches, private academies, after school programs, and elementary schools
  • Sales funnel – create a process for generating leads, delivering content, converting to membership, growing involvement, securing donations, lifetime value of a member growing along the engagement curve. Help EdTA staff leverage our database tools for analysis and decisions.
• Alumni – formulate strategy and organization of Thespian alumni, leading to local events and fundraising to support the Foundation
• Stakeholders beyond alumni – structure the tracking and opportunities with celebrities, influencers, VIPs, etc to promote school theatre and connect EdTA to resources
• Volunteer engagement – grow involvement beyond chapter boards and International Thespian Festival, define roles and structure, committees, launch Volunteer Central on website with database of job descriptions, contact person, time commitment etc.
• Support for chapters – partner with Infrastructure team to build resources required to support growth in chapters, e.g. new tools and technology, new dues structure, paid employees in chapters
• International expansion – ensure success in China and reapply learning to other regions e.g. Japan, Taiwan, Australia, UK
• Define goals for scholarships and awards to build stature and outreach, and redesign structure of these programs to meet external goals
• Explore the idea of a college membership; explore partnership or merger with Alpha Psi Omega and/or American Alliance of Theatre & Education (AATE) and/or Create an Affiliate Model for smaller organizations like MTEA, AATE, Lenaea Festival, NYSTEA, to access our infrastructure and join under the EdTA umbrella
• Relaunch the store, making it friendly like Amazon and expanding offerings in Thespian gear e.g. clothing, backpacks, blankets, coolers, etc. to build revenue and an iconic brand