Senior Director, Association Engagement

The Water Environment Federation is seeking a Senior Director of Association Engagement to direct and oversee the services, relationships, communications, goodwill and activities related to key volunteer leader groups. This position builds/maintains a proactive, innovative and high-functioning staff team that serves as a source of best-practice advice and assistance to Member Association (MA) staff and volunteer leaders. This position also ensures WEF retains a positive and successful partnership for mutual organizational success with our Member Associations, House of Delegates, Young Professionals and other key stakeholder groups. This position works closely with the membership department to collaborate on strategies and problem-resolution for MAs, serves as a compelling internal advocate for member and MA engagement and inspires members and others about the essential role of water professionals and the value of WEF and member association engagement. 

Principal Functions:

• Leads and engages the Member Association (MA) engagement team in the creation and delivery of program strategies consistent with WEF strategic goals.
• Creates and capitalizes on partnership opportunities with MAs and provides oversight for MA-related programs, services and activities.
• Oversees the awards, students and young professionals’ programs, and the US Stockholm Junior Water Prize program.
• Directs MA activities to include assigning staff liaisons, and also functions as a staff liaison to larger MAs; provides training to state/regional leadership groups; meets with leaders to resolve issues/recommend practices; coordinates any legal requests.
• Facilitates communication between the WEF Board of Trustees (BOT) and the leadership of the MAs and the House of Delegates (HOD)
• Prepares relevant messaging from WEF Board to MA leadership, board talking points for key WEF programs, etc.
• Ensures there is active follow-up on Board Trip Reports from MA meetings
• Oversees the timely maintenance of the Board of Trustees WEFCOM site related to trip reports, presentations, and related MA and HOD communications
• Oversees the BOT/HOD/MA communication at annual meetings such as WEFTEC, WEFMAX meetings and the MA Leadership events.
• Develops and manages budgets and implements operational strategies and contributes to organization Business Plan as part of a Strategic Management Team.

• Travels to and represents WEF at a variety of events and meetings such as WEFTEC, WEFMAX meetings, MA conferences, etc.

• Prepares personal development plans with specific goals and timelines for staff accomplishments.
• Ensures that important information from his/her management is shared with his/her employees and others as appropriate.

Competencies:

Experience which demonstrates that the applicant possesses the core competencies which WEF expects of all senior management, including ability and desire to:

• Consistently exhibit high standards of personal behavior;
• Demonstrate drive and purpose and an interest in learning and development;
• Serve as a role model in demonstrating exemplary customer service and building effective relationships with MA staff and other leaders;
• Create and deliver strategies and plans to maximize the adoption of new programs;
• Encourage, support and develop linkages with cross-functional team members and stakeholders to understand and ensure adoption of improvements in organizational optimization and culture;
• Provide coaching to assist staff to shape culture;
• Be the team leader that recognizes and encourages the behaviors that contribute to teamwork;
• Achieve mutually agreeable results when faced with conflict or crisis; approaches conflict as an opportunity for resolution; encourages people to express feelings as a step in clarifying issues and defusing conflict/crisis;
• Demonstrate interest, skill, and success in getting groups to learn to work together;
• Provide support for innovation and for organizational changes needed to improve our effectiveness.
• Help others to successfully manage organizational change;
• Facilitate groups or teams through the problem-solving and creative-thinking processes leading to the development and implementation of new approaches, systems, structures, and methods;
• Take responsibility for one’s own or one’s employees’ performance, by setting clear goals and expectations, tracking progress against the goals, ensuring feedback, and addressing performance problems and issues promptly;
• Acquire a significant body of knowledge and apply that knowledge appropriately as circumstances warrant;
• Use sound judgment to make good decisions based on information gathered; assessing the importance, urgency and risk associated with each decision; and takes actions which are timely and in the best interests of the organization.