Head of Secretariat

The John Muir Trust is a community focused conservation charity dedicated to the experience,
protection and repair of wild places across the UK.

The Secretariat is a small, highly visible team in the Trust, working in fast-paced environment
as the interface between our volunteer Board of Trustees and our staff Leadership Team.

The Head of Secretariat will report to the Chief Financial Officer and play a key role
providing support for the interfaces with the Leadership Team and Board of Trustees. This is a
unique opportunity to play a key part in optimising the administration of the Trust to support
delivery of our vision across the UK. The role will be responsible for managing communication,
scheduling meetings, preparing reports and providing high level administration support to the
leadership team. The role has line management responsibility for a secretariat administrator.

The successful applicant will have experience managing upwards to support senior members of
staff, as well as great attention to detail and process and a flair for problem-solving and
prioritising. You will ideally have experience in ensuring and refining charity governance
processes and procedures and must be comfortable taking ownership of your work to make a real
difference to the day-to-day running of the organisation.

Main responsibilities

Your key duties will include providing support in the following areas:

• Oversight of all board and sub-committee meetings, and maintenance of all terms of
  reference and schemes of delegation.
• Managing papers, arranging logistics and minuting for Board / Sub-Committee meetings and
  Leadership Team meetings and setting the annual cycle of meetings for the Board and Committees.
• Responsibility for ensuring board and sub-committee papers are issued timely
• Oversight of all matters arising and actions.
• Supporting the induction process for new trustees and Continuing Professional Development
  (CPD).
• Supporting a committee effectiveness review.
• Submission of all statutory returns.
• Ensuring compliance with the Companies Act and the Charities Act.
• Oversight of any governance related returns.
• Oversight registers such as Declaration of Interests.
• Oversight of Trustee elections and co-option including Returning Officer responsibilities.
• Conducting Trustee skillset gap analysis

Please download the full job description from our jobs page for further information.

We look forward to hearing from you.