Are you one of our next board members? Apply for the oikos International Board 2021/22!
You love putting strategies into action and you are passionate about changing the world? Are you passionate about oikos and its international community of student change agents? Are you looking to enhance and develop your skills in a specific field that aligns with your strengths? Up for practicing your leadership in a truly global context, together with like-minded people from all over the world, while learning all about international non-profit governance?
Then this is for you: apply as a Board Member of oikos International!
What is the oikos Board & how do we work?
The oikos International Board is part of the oikos International Team and governs the strategies and actions on the international level. Representing the oikos community, the Board is given the responsibility for inspiring and empowering the community to move towards our common purpose, mission and vision and for demonstrating its core values. Next to this, expanding the organization’s resilience, and exploring systematic linkage with other organizations engaged in the pursuit of similar objectives are topics that move the Board as a whole. Each member of the Board is needed as a proactive and co-creative participant in a body that functions effectively as a team, taking on a role that matches their strengths.
As a Board member, you commit to a 1-year volunteer commitment(excluding handover period) of about 10h/week. This way, you will see that you will really have an impact and can grow in your role and together with the team. From experience, we see that long-term, honest commitments are the only thing that serves the organization, so please only apply if you are up to staying around for a whole year.
What are the responsibilities of a Board member?
As a Board member, you will…
- Empower and inspire the community through practicing leadership and exploring strategic directions for the organization
- Work alongside your fellow board members, as a body that is in constant exchange and supports each other.
- Pursue a certain thematic role and be accountable to the community for competent, conscientious, and effective accomplishment of this mandate. This includes developing strategies together with volunteers and employees and overseeing the implementation of everything related to your mandate. In other words, you might convene and manage a sub-team of oikos International, depending on your role and the situation within the team.
- Assess the impact of our organization and reporting them to the community and partners
- Stay informed and engaged with all fields, initiatives, squads etc. related to and organised by oikos International
At the beginning of the term, the newly elected Board comes together to agree on the ways of working and the official roles and responsibilities of each Board member. These conversations aim at co-creating commitments that highlight our strengths while covering all fields of responsibility. We will also set priorities and concrete goals of your role within the Board. We are looking for curious people who are eager to try out new things.
What are the available roles on the board?
Next to the general duties of a Board member, our Board works hands on to support a specific field within the organization. One Board member can cover several roles, according to her/his availability and scope of commitment.
As mentioned above, the exact roles of each individual Board member will only be agreed upon in our first team meetings. The current Board prepared a little summary of their current work within their specific roles. These fields might give you some orientation for your application – but might be restructured based on the needs of the new team. If we identify that one role is missing, we will add it on the spot.
- Fundraising
The fundraising role is diverse and challenging. If you are a real people’s person and great at keeping an overview, then this is for you. We have different fields in fundraising, like the work with foundations, the outreach to new potential partners and alternative approaches like crowdsourcing. As a board member for fundraising, you are at the forefront of coordinating a team of volunteers, coordinating their work and support of the international team. Next year, we wish to build on existing relationships, improve the collaboration with the initiative teams who have their program-related donors and need support, and finding a more effective way of reaching out to new partners.
Current BM: Mike Brodersen
- International Programs & Initiatives
Being responsible for the overall-coordination of oikos International programs and initiatives doesn’t mean to be actively involved in all of them, but rather maintaining and providing an overview and helping in the communication about and between the initiatives. This way, you can help removing barriers for project teams and help cross-pollinating ideas. In this role, you will also facilitate the ongoing, very agile process of assessing impact and turning learnings into next steps. This project is called impact matrix and will need a lot of your attention in the following term. Other projects coming up: clarifying the initiative overview and helping the team prioritize their actions.
Current BM: Darija Miletic
- Marketing
The role of marketing includes both, finding strategic direction and putting projects into action together with the marketing team. This includes oikos International’s website, social media accounts, newsletters, print media, and other marketing channels. Of course, we also have to report key performance indicators and make sure our communication reaches the right people (eg. community and team). You will be responsible for stewarding a team and collaborate closely with all the different initiatives
- Alumni
Maintaining and strengthening the alumni network with old and new initiatives, events and projects is the main role of the board member for alumni relationships. Ensuring to keep the alumni connected to oikos International as well as the current oikos community is a task that requires you to think creatively and structured at the same time, considering the big potential our alumni bring to us..
One key project (currently in preparation) will be the establishment of a network of alumni ambassadors to better engage and connect the alumni community. This further included database establishment and management. Furthermore, the alumni portraits series needs to be continued.
Current BM: Carolin Lemke
- Information Technology
You want to provide strategic direction on the use and optimization of online administrative tools, data management policies & processes, and privacy & security threats & opportunities?
You do not have to be an expert in all the IT topics to take on this exciting role. One of the most important characteristics is curiosity, the willingness to learn and dive into the topics.
For the upcoming board year the focus shall be on the optimization of the new oikos platform. Here you are going to work with our volunteer and the chapters together. An additional project would be updating our data privacy guidelines and communicating those new guidelines in an accessible way.
Current BM: Luisa Pütz
- Community & Chapter Development
This role holds the responsibility of hosting the community and making sure that new members arrive well and become an integrated part of the network. You will consult frequently with the Presidents and regional facilitators in order to ensure organizational alignment; act as a communication channel for chapters to communicate their needs and escalate any grievances to the Board. My current projects include coordinating the chapter impact dashboards of all chapters and managing the working group taking care of the community development. I am also always available to consult and advise chapters on internal management and strategy and enjoy exploring and managing new chapter applications.
Current BM: Arthur Maria
- Organizational Development
The field of organizational development is wide – and in this role, prioritizing and having an overview is key. In addition to topics and initiatives focussing on the development of oikos International as an organization, you will have responsibilities regarding team and people development, too. Together with one of the presidents and the responsible person for human relations at oikos, you will work on topics like feedback, decision making and organizational culture which all are key to the thriving of oikos. In the next year, there will be critical decisions and changes like the organizational structure, which will need you to coordinate well, communicate clearly and with a lot of encouragement.
Current BM: Carolin Lemke
- Partnerships
Are you interested in learning more about the field of student change agents, transforming education and the next generation of leadership? As a board member for partnerships you have the chance to directly work and exchange with our partners, build on old relations and discover new ones that move our organization ahead. Projects this year included the design of a new partners framework, and in alignment with this, the update of our list of partners, Partnership Guidelines, as well as maintaining our Partners engagement, and exploring new partnership opportunities.
Current BM: Ikshek Misri
- Legal Matters
There are many legal questions to address for an international organization with multiple layers of complexity. In this role, you help addressing these questions together with our legal partners, coordinating between the sub_team with the issue at hand and the legal support. One of the main tasks: preparing and co-charing legislative meetings, understanding our legal base (constitution etc) and helping to keep our governance structure up to date. You don’t have to be an legal expert to enter this role, you only need some great coordination competencies and the wish to explore this field with big responsibility.
What are Opportunities and Benefits of becoming a Board member?
There are plenty! You will, for example,…
- Join a high performing and multicultural team in an innovative and open-minded environment
- Take decisions that guide the direction of the organization with a truly international scope and impact and see our vision come to fruition;
- Enhance your networks and connections with students, faculty and sustainability professionals from all over the world;
- Develop a variety of skills that surely will last beyond your time as a Board member (eg. leadership, strategy and communication skills)
- Gain deeper knowledge of your role and areas of responsibility while having the opportunity to create and try new things
- Have the opportunity to be coached by a professional coach
- Join our international gatherings, programs and strategy sessions (onsite or online) and get to know the oikos community from a completely different perspective
What should you bring – Qualifications & Requirements
There are only a few points we wish to stress, like..
- You should be a current Bachelor, Master or PhD student or recent graduate
- A commitment to, and a clear understanding of the purpose, mission and vision of oikos;
- A minimum of one academic term (4 months) of experience at oikos at any level;
- B2/C1 level in written and spoken English;
- An open mind and curiosity to try out new things. oikos is a playground and we do most of our work in co-creation. You should be up for working together and be willing to communicate and take time for teambuilding and similar efforts.
- Availability for an one-year commitment to oikos, excluding the handover process until the end of 2022;
- You need the will and availability to dedicate approximately 10 hours per week (40 hours a month) to oikos. In view of this, we request candidates planning to go on exchange, graduate or take up a full-time job within their mandate to carefully consider if you would be able to fulfil a sustained commitment to oikos and to state possible restrictions in the application. Furthermore, from experience we see that a double commitment as a chapter president and an oikos International board member is hard to balance, so please take this in consideration, too;
- Be available for weekly and monthly calls, annual international meetings and strategy meetings.
How to apply? 5 simple steps!
If you are interested in applying, please fill in this form until Sunday, 3.10.21, 11.59 pm CET. Next to some general information about your person, you will have to upload
- Your curriculum vitae (max. 2 pages);
- A motivational letter stating why you wish to apply, how you want to make a difference, the skills and experiences you will bring to oikos, and a brief summary of your time availability over the next one year. You can also share the roles you might be interested in, knowing that you won’t be elected for any of them, but as a Board member in general (max. 2 pages);
- Your vision for oikos in general and the roles you could imagine to fulfill in the Board (max 2 pages)
- A short 100-word biography and a picture to be put on the oikos website.
- A 3-to-5-minute video to introduce your candidature to the Legislative Assembly
Once the application deadline closes, we will share all information with our community as a preparation for the Legislative Meeting where the new Board will be elected. Documents (except the short biography) won’t be published on our website and are only accessible to community members on our drive.
All applicants then are required to join the virtual Legislative Meeting on 17.10.2021 via zoom in order to take part in a panel conversation, defend their application and run for election. The election of the Board members is a democratic process involving all chapters holding the status of a full membership. Results will be announced at the oikos Conference in St. Gallen (20-24.10), where the new board will step together for a first time and kick off their term.
Any questions? Please contact us at election@oikos-international.org or reach out to any board member.
We are looking forward to your application!
The oikos International board
Apply for Board Member
Mehraj Aliyev
Darija Miletić