Salary : $54,017.00 – $83,147.00 Annually
Location : Durham, NC
Job Type: Full time with benefits
Job Number: 23-04515
Department: Parks and Recreation
Opening Date: 10/10/2023
Closing Date: 10/24/2023 11:59 PM Eastern
Position Description
Work. Serve. Thrive. With the City of Durham
Advance in your career while making a real difference in the community you serve.
A nationally accredited team of passionate professionals devoted to building better lives and a better community through the power of parks and recreation. Our talented team at is devoted to community service and provides a diverse range of programs, services, opportunities, and experiences while being united through our core pillars of creating equitable economic impacts; advancing conservation; rejuvenating health and wellness; enhancing quality of life and sustaining social equity.
Hiring Range: $54,017.00 – $63,191.00
Hours/Workdays: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. / Monday- Friday
Frequent evenings and weekends required
We Are:
A nationally accredited team of passionate professionals devoted to building better lives and a better community through the power of parks and recreation. Our talented team is devoted to community service and provides a diverse range of programs, services, opportunities and experiences while being united through our core pillars of creating equitable economic impacts; advancing conservation; rejuvenating health and wellness; enhancing quality of life and sustaining social equity.
You Are:
A people person. You are personable and have great communication skills. You are energized by meeting and working with new people. You embrace positivity, listening, and connection. You are a conscientious communicator and understand your audience. You keep your team and supervisor in the know.
A critical thinker. You want an opportunity to take initiative and find creative solutions independently. You like puzzles and understand even if you don’t have all the pieces or a full picture, you just have to start piecing the edges together.
Organized. You may have binged a Netflix home organization show or two. You have a talent for multi-tasking and things rarely fall through the cracks because of the systems you put in place to prevent that. You like a plan, but can shift gears and adapt quickly when needed. When priorities or direction shift suddenly (and let’s face it…they will) you accept it as a challenge instead of letting it throw you off.
Someone who embraces community. You want a job where you can empower people and help connect them to information, services, programs, and opportunities to engage in their government. You advocate for community involvement and help ensure their feedback is reflected equitably in decision-making processes. You understand the significance and responsibility of being a representative of your organization and a trusted public liaison.
The Opportunity:
As part of the Culture & Community unit, you will work with the Culture & Community Manager to coordinate, facilitate, and support equitable community engagement for Parks and Recreation projects and initiatives. You will provide administrative support for communications and outreach for DPR’s events, programs, announcements, and internal culture building. You will serve as a liaison between DPR staff and the community, helping to improve our connections with underrepresented or underserved populations by identifying blind spots in our engagement and/or communications.
Duties/Responsibilities
- Provide administrative support for community engagement programs and select activities of Culture & Community unit.
- As assigned, prepare communication and public engagement materials and assist in the coordination of engagement projects and events.
- Provide administrative support for the Culture & Community unit, including internal and external branding work and staff engagement.
- Facilitate and attend, often on evenings and weekends, the activities of various committees/resident groups for and/or with the Culture & Community Manager or staff.
- Assist in the planning, development, and dissemination of communication materials.
- Maintain files and contact lists.
- Serve as a departmental point of contact. Investigate and/or elevate complaints and resolve resident issues and concerns.
- Collaborate with community partners.
- Compose a variety of correspondence independently or from oral instruction and other information as requested; maintain confidentiality of sensitive and privileged information.
- Coordinate public records request responses and public service requests.
- Maintain department’s engagement-specific email accounts, including supporting communication strategy, planning and creating messages, growing and maintaining contact lists, and monitoring for customer needs, feedback, complaints, and potential public relations issues.
- Conduct research, prepare reports, and maintain records related to engagement activities including but not limited to survey data, participation/attendance at engagement events, social media and website analytics.
- Coordinates department fiscal activities that may include budget development and budget administration; compiles data and performs basic analyses; and coordinates contract processing/administration and/or procurement activities.
- Conducts basic research, maintains statistics, performs basic analysis and/or statistical calculations and formulates preliminary recommendations.
- As assigned, serves as a lead worker, coordinating, assigning work, and monitoring work completion for planning internal engagement programs, retreats, workshops, and implementing hiring, discipline and termination procedures.
- Provides logistical support for politically sensitive and high-visibility programs and events, including programs and events involving the city council; serves as escalation point for resolving customer services issues/inquiries; ensures follow up communication and quality assurance.
- Gathers and compiles data; extracts information from data systems; drafts reports from others notes or own research; prepares documents, reports, presentations, confidential correspondence and policy/procedure manuals.
- Serves as lead user for specialized databases and software systems; participates in database and/or software testing; coordinates workflow and implements improvements to processes.
- Provides general administrative support to the city’s top executives including receiving and processing calls, visitors and correspondence; calendaring; records management; customer service; mail processing; quality assurance and follow-up.
- Performs other duties of a similar nature and level as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications & Experience
- Associate degree in business or related field
- Three years of advanced administrative support experience.
- Some assignments may require a North Carolina Public Notary registration
Additional Preferred Skills
- Professional experience organizing and coordinating workflow, office and/or meeting logistics.
- Willing to work some evenings, weekends, and holidays for community events and public engagement activities.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office suite and experienced with modern office technology, including virtual communications platforms.
Benefits – General Full-Time Employees
- 11-12 paid holidays per year
- 12 standard work days of vacation per year
- 12 standard work days of sick leave per year, which accumulates indefinitely; sick leave may be used toward early retirement
- 2 weeks paid military leave per year
- Medical, dental, vision, and supplemental life insurance plans
- State and City retirement plans
- Short and long term disability plans
- Paid temporary disability leave for specified conditions
- City contribution of 10.15% into the N.C. State Retirement System
- Paid funeral leave
- Employee Assistance Program – personal and family counseling
- Paid life insurance equal to annual salary
- 48 hours for volunteer work each year*
- 4 hours parental leave each year
- Workman’s Compensation Insurance
- 457 Deferred Compensation Plans
Benefits – Part-Time (1,000 hours or more per year)
- 401(k) retirement plan (5.0% of salary)
- State retirement plan
Benefits Part-Time (Average 30 hours per week over 12 month period)
- 401(k) retirement plan (5.0% of salary)
- State retirement plan
- Health Insurance
01
Where did you first hear about this opportunity?
- City of Durham Website
- Walk in
- Job fair
- Employee referral
- Professional organization ***Please list the organization in “other” box below***
- Internet posting ***Please list the specific web site in the “other” box below***
- Craig’s List
- GlassDoor
- governmentjobs.com
- Monster.com
- Indeed.com
- Employment Security Commission
- Magazine/Newspaper
- Other
02
If you listed “other” above please give specific web site, organization, or publication.
03
Please select your highest level of COMPLETED education.
- Less than a High School Diploma or Equivalent (GED, HiSET, TASC)
- High School Diploma or Equivalent (GED, HiSET, TASC)
- Associates Degree
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Master’s Degree
- Doctoral Degree (PhD , Juris Doctorate
04
How many years of advanced administrative support experience do you have?
- No related experience
- Less than 1 year of related experience
- 1 year but less than 3 years
- 3 years but less than 5 years
- 5 or more years
05
Check all that apply:
- I am willing to work some evenings, weekends, and holidays for community events and public engagement activities.
- I am proficient in Microsoft Office suite and experienced with modern office technology, including virtual communications platforms.
- I have professional experience organizing and coordinating workflow, office and/or meeting logistics.
- I worked previously in local government, public administration, or in a community engagement role.
- I am familiar with basic strategies, methods, or practices for community engagement.
- I have experience with handling politically sensitive and/or high-profile customer service issues/inquiries with tact and diplomacy.
- I have no skill/ability stated above.
Required Question