Are you passionate about oikos and its global community of student change agents? Do you have a passion for turning strategies into action and a desire to enhance your skills in a field that aligns with your strengths? If the answer is yes, your next leadership challenge awaits:
Join the Board of oikos International!
This is your opportunity to work alongside a diverse team of individuals from around the globe, acquire hands-on experience in an influential non-profit organization and make an impact!
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. Every board member has to be elected by the oikos chapter representatives at oikos legislative meeting in October 2024. Through this process, you receive the mandate to represent the oikos Community on a global scale. 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. What makes a good board member is a proactive and co-creative approach that functions effectively in a team, taking on roles that match their strengths in a way that develops our organization and community.
What are the main roles & responsibilities of a Board member?
Each Board member…
- Empowers and stays in touch with the oikos community by checking in with the chapter representatives throughout the year.
- Practices responsible leadership by taking on responsibilities and acting accountable and competent towards the organization.
- Develops strategic directions for the organization together with co-presidents and the team and oversees the implementation of everything related to their mandate.
- Regularly joins meetings to collaborate closely with their fellow Board members.
- Assesses the impact of our organization and reporting them to the community and partners
- Is up-to-date and engages with various fields, initiatives, squads etc. related to and organized by oikos International
- Representing oikos at international events and with our partners
Alongside these general duties, each Board member takes up a hands-on supportive role within a specific field that utilizes their talents best and creates experience through practice. These roles are decided upon by the Board Members themself at the beginning of the term through self-organizing and deciding which fits each individual Board member. These conversations aim at co-creating commitments that highlight our strengths while covering all fields of responsibility. One Board member can cover several of these additional roles, according to their availability and scope of commitment.
Below, you can find summaries of the current roles covered by Board members.
FundraisingThe fundraising role is diverse, challenging and rewarding. If you are a real people person and great at bringing structure and keeping an overview, then this is for you. As a board member for fundraising, you are at the forefront of supporting the oikos International team with improving and maintaining our fundraising processes. A strategic as well as hands-on mentality is key. Hosting team-internal fundraising calls and coordinating a team of volunteers fall into your set of roles.
Furthermore, getting active yourself in writing grants, running a crowdfunding campaign or approaching businesses for funding relationships will be part of this exciting field, too.
Communication & Marketing
Communication & marketing play an important role for the organization. This role combines finding strategic direction and putting projects into action together with the communications team. The team is responsible for the management of the oikos International website content, social media engagement, newsletters, content creation, and other marketing channels. You will be responsible for stewarding the team and collaborating closely with all the different teams at oikos in order to communicate the activities and the impact we make as an organization and a community. The comms team is also responsible for co-creating important documents like the annual & donors reports which are particularly important for us as a non-profit organization. Beyond that, we also want to make sure our communication always reaches the right people (our community, potential donors etc.). We put a greater focus on story-telling, over which we shape around the communication with the oikos community and beyond it. By telling stories, we aim to teach, inspire and motivate, but also extend the reach of the impact oikos creates.
Impact Measurement
Measuring our impact is really important to us, this is a new area of focus for oikos and it has already brought so much value to our organisation. We use the Impact Matrix to track and display the milestones of our work at oikos International while giving insight into the broader impact we have as a community of student change agents. We also send quarterly an impact report to the entire community to show our progress. Impact is not only at the oikos international level, we also extend it to the community twice a year during the Community Impact Contest which is a fun way for chapters to showcase the best projects they are developing at the local level!
Joining this growing initiative is a great way to get an overview of all of the oikos projects and initiatives and you will contribute to sharing our work within and outside our community.
Organizational, Team & People Development
Over the past years, we have established our so-called “team team” – a team of people tending to everything related to organizational, team and people development at oikos International. These fields of development are wide – and in these roles, prioritizing and having an overview is key. Together with the co-presidents and the responsible person for human relations at oikos, you might work on topics like feedback, decision making and organizational culture which all are key to the thriving of oikos. Recently, we have been working hard to “reinvent” our organization, focusing on our organizational structure and team structure. Most recent example is the development of a salary structure that is more adapted to the team member’s needs. For the upcoming board term, we envision having one board member taking a proactive lead in this area. Further prototyping, reflection and adaptation is crucial to stay close to the organization’s and team’s needs.
Legal Matters
There are many legal questions to address for an international organization with multiple layers of complexity. In this role, you help address 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 recurring 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 a legal expert to enter this role, you only need some great coordination competencies and interest in diving into legal topics affecting our organization.
IT (Information Technology)
Do you want to provide strategic direction on the use and optimization of online administrative tools, data management policies & processes, and privacy and security threats & opportunities? You have an interest in digitization and want to learn what it looks like on the IT admin side of a remote organization?
No need for having coding skills or being an IT expert for this exciting role! One of the most important characteristics are curiosity and the willingness to learn and dive into the topics. For the upcoming Board term, it is really about leading a team of dedicated IT volunteers, moving projects around data security & privacy ahead and continuously improving internal workflows for us as a remote organization. An additional project would be updating our data privacy guidelines and communicating those new guidelines in an accessible way.
What are the 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 (e.g. 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:
- Current student or recent graduate (Bachelor, Master, or PhD).
- Strong commitment to oikos’s purpose, mission, and vision.
- Minimum 4-month academic term of experience with oikos, at any level.
- Fluent in written and spoken English (B2/C1 level).
- Open-minded & curious, willing to collaborate, and embrace co-creation; oikos is a playground and we do most of our work in co-creation, and take time for teambuilding and similar efforts.
- Committed to a one-year term to oikos (excluding the handover process of 4-6 weeks); We see that long-term, honest commitments are the only thing that serve the organization, so please only apply if you are up to staying around for a whole year-
- Have the will and availability to dedicate minimum 15 h/month to oikos. Depending on your additional roles this commitment can increase substantially. 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 fulfill 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.
- Ability to attend weekly and monthly zoom calls, annual international meetings, and strategy meetings.
How to apply? 4 simple steps!
If you are interested in applying, please fill in this form until Saturday, 12.10.24, 11:59 pm CEST. 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 your motivation for certain 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);
- 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 and your vision for oikos in general and the roles you could imagine to fulfill as an oikos International Board member.
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/representatives on our Google Drive.
All applicants then are required to join the virtual Legislative Meeting on 26.10.2024. 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.
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
