Position: Children’s Water Festival Coordinator
Organization: Friends of Ecological & Environmental Learning
Location: applicants should live in the regions of Haliburton, Kawartha or Muskoka District. Virtual work is carried out throughout the year with in-person requirements around the festival dates
Friends of Ecological and Environmental Learning is looking for a dependable, charismatic team player to work with a dedicated committee to plan, raise funds, and deliver an annual children’s water and climate change education event.
This position is a part-time annual position based on an hourly wage of $25.00/hour for one to two days per week. The total contract is not to exceed $15,600.00 from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022. Payment of contract is scheduled into four installments throughout the year. There may be some additional hours in 2021 to familiarize with yearly workplan, tasks and deliverables as well as transfer files from previous coordinator.
To Apply: Please submit cover letter and resume to the hiring committee at [email protected] by November 30, 2021. Please indicate you saw this posting at GoodWork.
Successful candidates will be contacted via email and interviews will take place over Zoom.
What is the HMK Children’s Water Festival?
The Haliburton-Muskoka-Kawartha Children’s Water Festival is a unique approach to inspire children to become wise stewards of water and related systems through educational, fun, and hands-on activities.
Mission statement from HMK Children’s Water Festival Strategic Plan 2011.
The Haliburton-Muskoka-Kawartha Children’s Water Festival (HMK Children’s Water Festival or HMKCWF) has been successfully delivering free water education to our youth on an annual basis since 2005. The HMK Children’s Water Festival is a fun filled educational event offered free-of-charge to students from the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) area.
At the HMK Children’s Water Festival, hundreds of participating students, teachers, and parent supervisors are challenged to consider the importance of water to human and environmental health as well as the role of water in economic development. In 2019, effort was made to incorporate climate change education within the festival. It is the intent of the HMKCWF committee to continue offering activities with new water focuses as well as increasing the festival’s overall climate action content.
The HMK Children’s Water Festival is traditionally a two-day event, which educates hundreds of students during a relatively short time frame, providing children with positive experiential learning. Each day of the festival is filled with interactive, stimulating activities which relay messages on conservation, technology, protection, and science. The festival’s active, outdoor, and hands-on learning environment not only complements classroom lessons and helps teachers fulfill Ontario’s school curriculum expectations but also excites and motivates students to share information that they acquire with others, thereby causing a ripple effect. Through this experience, participating students come to understand that their attitude towards water and our environment matters, their actions can make a difference and that, ultimately, we are all responsible for maintaining healthy ecosystems for healthy living.
In 2020, with heavy hearts, the HMKCWF committee made the difficult decision to defer the HMKCWF until Fall 2021 in light of the pandemic and in consideration of the health and safety of the children, parents, teachers and volunteers Due to continued unknowns surrounding the pandemic, the committee decided to further defer the festival until Spring 2022 and exercised a “re-imaging” of the HMK Children’s Water Festival to continue offering water and climate change education to our youth, with the knowledge that facilitation of large-scale events would be difficult to achieve. This “re-imagination” resulted in the development of a resource, “Water Week: In-Class Modules for Teachers” and the idea of “Mini Festivals”. Experiential learning is at the heart of the HMK Children’s Water Festival and therefore is crucially important to keep alive. The mini festival would be an important new direction for the HMKCWF, with smaller group sizes attending a similar but “mini” fun filled educational event over multiple days.
General HMKCWF Coordinator Responsibilities:
- Ensure a successful water and climate change education festival for elementary children for 2 days (large scale) or 5 days (“mini festival”) in the spring or fall
- Support HMKCWF committee:
- Set meetings, approximately 9 per year
- Prepare agenda
- Report on finances and festival planning
- Send out minutes or delegate a committee member to take minutes
- Network and maintain communications with other provincial water festival coordinators
- Report to Friends of Ecological and Environmental (FEEL) board at meetings and through emails
- Work with U-links Community Based Education Program to organize student projects
- Supervise all student projects
- Event Based Responsibilities:
- Reserve facility (traditionally Kinark Outdoor Centre)
- Work with committee to reserve necessary amenities (port-a-potties, tents, etc.)
- Work with committee & U-Links to ensure volunteer support
- With the help of committee, successful delivery of HMK Children’s Water Festival on scheduled dates
- Supervise set up and take down of festival
- Supervise return of any loaned or rented equipment
- Financial Responsibilities:
- Prepare proposed annual operating budget and present to FEEL Board
- Raise funds to cover delivery of annual festival as well as yearlong administration duties associated with festival
- Funding proposals and applications
- Seeking out other fundraising opportunities
- Work with FEEL treasurer to ensure tax receipts are sent to funders
- All invoices go through FEEL, including HMKCWF coordinators
- Keep record of Petty Cash and year-end reconciliation
- Complete any required funding end of project reports
- Program Responsibilities:
- With committee, develop annual rotation of activity centres
- With committee, ensure maintenance of existing activity centres
- Develop new activity centres
- Write volunteer descriptions for new activity centres
- Ensure proper signage and order new signage
- Supervise pick up or drop off of any loaned or rented equipment
- Promote Big Splash contest and follow up with winning school
- Communication Responsibilities:
- Update & prepare HMKCWF information packages annually
- Sponsor Package
- Volunteer Package
- Teacher’s Planning Guide
- Parent Package
- Thank you letters to all supporters
- Contact and confirm all Outside Presenters for festival days
- Contact Trillium Lakelands District School Board to “save the date” of festival and to request distribution of festival invitations to teachers
- Market festival to schools
- Maintain registration of schools
- Inform and invite media
- Manage the updating of two websites, http://www.hmwaterfestival.ca and http://www.waterheroes.ca
- Prepare annual year-end report for distribution to funders and posting on website
- Update & prepare HMKCWF information packages annually
What skills make a good HMK Children’s Water Festival coordinator?
- Strong leadership skills and is comfortable working with a committee
- Independent worker who is self-motivated
- Good organizational skills
- Good networking and communication skills
- Knowledgeable in ecology, water, and climate change issues
Qualifications and Requirements:
- Post-Secondary in Education, Environmental Science, Biology, Outdoor Education or related
- Experience with event planning or coordination
- Experience with non-profit committee work an asset
- Experience fundraising, bookkeeping, writing grant proposals and invoicing
- Experience in developing engaging children’s programming an asset
- Event Planner Insurance
- If do not have, available negotiation with FEEL for purchase
