If you are interested in becoming the next coordinator of the XRUK Operations circle, read the below then apply or reach out to brianspurling or andrewharding on Mattermost. Elections are scheduled for the 27th January.

About Ops

The XRUK Operations Circle is responsible for the majority of the work done by the UK-wide XR teams. The Hive delegates responsibility for our strategy to the Strategy Team, and then delegates responsibility to Ops to deliver the strategy. The purpose the Hive has given Ops is simply, 'The XRUK Strategy is successfully delivered to its fullest extent'.

Ops is unusual in XRUK because:

• It is a large team - a typical meeting has up to 16 people.
• Although the Hive is its parent circle, its priorities are largely dictated directly by the Strategy Team.
• It holds very few of its accountabilities directly, instead delegating them out to its ten subcircles.
• It spends the majority of XRUK’s budget.

The subcircles change depending on the needs and priorities of the strategy. Currently they are:

• Actions,
• Local & Grassroots Support,
• Media & Messaging,
• Rebellion Broadcast (Internal Comms),
• Relationships,
• Political,
• Pathways,
• Outreach,
• Data Analysis & Insights, and
• Fundraising.

There are link roles to Strategy, the Hive, and Digital.

About the IC role

The Internal Coordinator(s) Responsibilities

• Designing the optimal team structure, mandates and policies to deliver the strategy
• Turning the strategy into an operational plan (the “Operations Tactical Plan” or OTP)
• Defining and constantly reviewing the priorities of each subcircle
• Working closely with the coordinators of each subcircle to align them with Ops’ priorities, then supporting them to deliver
• Collaborating with Systems & Culture to embed their work into XRUK’s operations (e.g. Healthy Teams, Regenerative Cultures, P&Vs, etc)
• Protecting the positive and professional culture of the circle
• Deciding the meeting agendas and maintaining minutes and action points
• Preparing agenda items to ensure meetings run efficiently and constructively
• Writing mandate and policy proposals to bring to the team
• Maintaining the highest standards of SOS and governance, and supporting subcircles to do the same
• Monitoring delivery and reporting progress to the Hive (via the Ops EC) and Strategy
• Working very closely with Strategy to input into and understand the strategy

The IC of Ops holds a considerable amount of power. The role is a balancing act between leveraging that power to ensure XR delivers the strategy, versus empowering subcircles to get the most out of their volunteer teams.

Skills

• Team leadership
• Strategic and flexible thinking
• Experience in XRUK ('central') circles
• Good communication and problem solving skills
• Planning and coordination
• SOS and mandates

Time commitment

The Ops IC role is a big job - it can work well as a job share between two people.

Ops meets twice a week: 14:30-16:30 on Mondays and 12:30-13:30 on Fridays

In addition, the role benefits immensely from regular “coordinator” meetings with the ECs (and possibly ICs) of each of the ten subcircles, plus link roles. These might be weekly or fortnightly

Taken together, this can amount to 15 hours a week of meetings.

Outside of meetings, the ICs need to:

• Prepare and circulate meeting agendas and associated meeting minutes
• Prepare agenda points, e.g. consulting on proposals in advance, creating presentations, etc
• Review subcircle mandates and propose updates or new mandates as needed
• Support their subcircles with a wide variety of interesting, rewarding and challenging items, and pick up tasks for which there is no mandate or capacity elsewhere

It is close to a full time role.