We’re recruiting a Fun Palaces Co-ordinator – the person who keeps the admin, logistics and finance processing running steadily behind a busy national campaign.
Fun Palaces is a campaign to make the cultural sector fairer, more inclusive, richer and more fun, via year-round campaigning and an annual Weekend of Celebration. We strive to celebrate everyone’s cultural life, everyone’s voice, everyone’s uniqueness. So, we take care of each other at work, develop our roles around the people in them, and respect people’s lives beyond the workplace.
We are very aware of the structural disadvantages faced by marginalised communities across the sector. If you are someone who experiences racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia or transphobia, then we actively want to hear from you.
The role at a glance
Fun Palaces Co-ordinator
- Pay: Freelance daily rate of £185.40 per day
- Contract: Fixed-term freelance until 31st October 2027
- Hours: Part time, two days a week: Tuesdays (in the office) and ideally either Thursday or Friday
- Location: Our office at the Albany, Deptford. Fun Palaces is a national campaign, so some travel across the UK (with occasional overnight stays) is part of the role, usually on or around your working days and agreed in advance.
- Contracted by: The Albany, Douglas Way, Deptford, SE8 4AG. Fun Palaces is a ring-fenced project within the Albany, so the Co-ordinator will be contracted by the Albany.
- Hiring manager: Orla Nicholls, Executive Producer, Fun Palaces
- Deadline to apply: 9.00am Monday 30th November
Access
Need this in a different format?
Contact us at hello@funpalaces.co.uk or send a voice or text message to 07383 515326.
We will meet the access requirements of all candidates invited to interview.
Who we’re looking for
We’re looking for someone who is:
- Highly organised and accurate, able to manage and track multiple moving parts
- An excellent communicator, able to clearly articulate what you’re working on and what others need to know or do
- A thoughtful planner with foresight, who understands what’s realistic to achieve within time and budget constraints
- A meticulous record keeper, someone who enjoys keeping track of details, maintaining logs and coding invoices
- A speedy prioritiser, skilled at juggling multiple projects while managing deadlines
- Someone who cares about making the world better, both in how you do your work and through Fun Palaces’ broader aims
- A supportive and collaborative colleague, comfortable sharing work and ideas, and thriving in a close-knit, dynamic environment
What skills will you need?
You don’t need an arts background
Your background doesn’t need to be in the arts, charities or community work. We are looking for someone with:
- Strong administrative, organisational and detail-oriented abilities, with a knack for keeping track of multiple tasks and deadlines independently
- Warm, clear and effective communication skills (both spoken and written)
- Proficiency in book-keeping and managing budgets, invoices and receipts
- Experience booking group travel and accommodation, and preparing itineraries
- A natural eye for logistics: organising people and projects efficiently, and always thinking a step ahead
- The ability to work autonomously, take initiative and stay on top of priorities
- Experience collaborating with and supporting a busy team
What will the role involve?
The Co-ordinator keeps the practical side of Fun Palaces running: our office, our finance processing, our data and the logistics of getting the team and our Maker network to where they need to be. The responsibilities below are a guide. Other admin duties will come up as the campaign’s needs change, and the balance shifts across the year between travel and venue bookings, finance and data work.
Finance processing
- Code, process and log incoming invoices and receipts, check them against purchase records and liaise with the Albany finance team for payment
- Track payments in and out against our budget trackers and flag anything overdue or unexpected
- Process team expenses and freelancer invoices, chasing missing paperwork
- Prepare simple financial summaries for the Executive Producer and for funder reports, with support from the Albany finance team
Travel, accommodation and venue bookings
- Book team travel, accommodation and catering for workshops, conferences, events and meetings across the UK, keeping within budget and planned timelines
- Organise the logistics for our quarterly Network meetings: venue, travel, accommodation and catering for a group of 15 to 30 people in different locations across the country, and attend to make sure they run smoothly
- Prepare itineraries and joining instructions so that everyone knows where to be and when
- Co-ordinate with Albany staff on internal room bookings, catering, guests and workshop logistics in Deptford
Data and records
- Maintain our databases and contact lists, including Maker sign-ups and demographic data, keeping them accurate, tidy and compliant with GDPR
- Enter, clean and reconcile data from sign-up forms, evaluation surveys and ticketing platforms
- Support our evaluation work by categorising and reporting on data
- Keep our shared Google Drive and Trello boards in good order
Office and team admin
- Be the first point of contact for general enquiries by phone and email, and route them to the right person
- Collect and deal with post and packages from the Albany mailroom
- Keep the shared office space, equipment and digital systems in working order
- Take notes and track actions from team meetings
- Provide admin support for our workshop programmes, online and in person
About Fun Palaces
“
Fun Palaces (…) is a campaign or – better – an idea. The idea is that people create culture because it is essential to their being in the world. When it comes to our culture and our needs, each of us is a world expert. Fun Palaces helps us make more of who we are and what we already have.
François Matarasso, Community Artist and Writer, 2020
Fun Palaces is a national and international campaign working towards a world where everyone has a say in what counts as culture, where it happens, who makes it, and who experiences it.
The first weekend of October every year is the Fun Palaces Weekend of Action. This is when community Makers run free, locally-led activities, public venues hand over their space for a community-led takeover, and events happening throughout the year are shared and celebrated as part of the Fun Palaces movement. Since 2014 more than 2,800 Fun Palaces have been made by nearly 50,000 Makers, with close to a million participants. You can see our reports and short films of past weekends.
Year round, Fun Palaces campaigns for everyone’s culture to be celebrated, funded and enjoyed: supporting cultural institutions to hand over their resources to their communities, supporting community members to have their brilliance recognised, connecting people and organisations locally and nationally, and sharing learning as widely as we can. You can read our aims.
The team
Fun Palaces HQ is a small, part-time team based in London. Everyone works two or three days a week, and Tuesday is the day the whole team is in. Our network of Makers and the team come together in different locations across the country for quarterly Network meetings, which the Co-ordinator organises and attends. Meet the team.
Whilst by some measures we are a diverse team, by others we are not. The people taking part in Fun Palaces are more diverse: the majority of Fun Palaces happen in postcodes in the most deprived third of the Index of Multiple Deprivation, and around 20% are led by someone with a disability or health condition.
How to apply
Three steps to apply
1
Send us your CV and one more thing
Upload your CV (including two referees) and one of the following, with all files named with your full name:
- a letter (as a .doc or .pdf file) of no more than 500 words
- a video of no more than three minutes
- a voice recording of no more than three minutes
- a PowerPoint presentation of no more than five slides (no more than 500 words)
If you are sharing a video via a link, please upload a named file containing that link. Everyone will be considered equally, regardless of how they choose to apply.
2
Tell us how you keep things running
In your application, tell us about your experience of admin, finance processing, logistics and data work, and give us examples of how you keep things organised and accurate. The sections above set out what we are looking for.
3
Fill in the equal opportunities form
Complete the equal opportunities form and upload it as a separate document. Equal opportunities forms are anonymous, so if you would like us to know that you experience racism, sexism, ableism, classism, homophobia or transphobia, please mention it in your application.
Key dates
| Deadline for applications | 9.00am Monday 30th November |
| All candidates contacted by | Thursday 3rd December |
| Interview in Deptford, including a short practical task | Tuesday 8th December |
| All candidates contacted by | Tuesday 15th December |
| Start date | Tuesday 5th January |
Questions?
Want to talk to someone first?
If you would like to talk about the role before applying, get in touch with the hiring manager, Orla Nicholls, or ring the office and leave a voicemail on 0208 692 4446, ext 203.
Fun Palaces is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, and we are grateful to Lottery players for their support.
#FunPalaces · funpalaces.co.uk · thealbany.org.uk · @FunPalaces · @theAlbanySE8
