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Exempt Job Description
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Manager, Convocation & Alumni Relations
X-214
6
0114
External Relations & Advancement
Director, Alumni Affairs
Last Reviewed:
June 16, 2015
Job Purpose
The Manager of Convocation and Alumni Relations is responsible for developing, co-ordinating,
supervising, and implementing all activities related to annual Convocation and significant
institutional events such as Presidential Installations and Chancellor Lectures, and for leading
certain alumni relations programming intended to strengthen alumni engagement with the
university. For Convocation, the Manager is responsible for consulting and interacting with all
internal and external stakeholders, including Academic Departments, Vice-President Academic’s
Office, Registrar's Office, President's Office, colleagues in External Relations & Advancement,
Donors, Community Members and Groups, Secretariat, Information Technology Department,
Food Services, Parking & Security. For Alumni Relations, the Manager is responsible for
recruitment and engagement of alumni through volunteer roles. This will also involve
coordination with other university departments including Colleges, Career Services,
Development Office, among others.
Key Activities
Organize Convocation;
1. Planning: Oversee all the planning for Convocation and related events.
2. Order of Ceremonies: Responsible for developing the Order of Ceremonies and stage
directions for the President, Chancellor, Deans and faculty.
3. Personnel: Responsible for recruiting/hiring, training and supervising a Convocation
Assistant, 5+ audio visual technicians, sign language interpreter and 100+ volunteers
consisting of staff of all levels, faculty, students, retirees and external community
groups.
4. Budget: Responsible for the development and management of the Convocation budget;
petition and report to CASSC annually regarding the Convocation fee. Seek to maintain
reasonable and appropriate costs, and mitigate increases where possible.
5. Communications: Prepare and co-ordinate communications material for Convocation
(website, programs, information for visitors and university community, invitations).
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Respond to inquiries from the public, graduates, guests, and the community,
representing Trent in an official, warm and appropriate manner.
Honorary graduates: With support from the Executive Assistant, ERA, liaise with
honorary graduates, arrange presenters and hosts; review citations and negotiate edits
in advance as necessary.
Awards: Responsible for communicating with student medal and faculty award winners,
manage inventory of medals and certificates and arrange for presenters.
Regalia: Purchase, inventory, and manage regalia for students, President, Chancellor,
Board of Governors and special guests and the gown rental service for faculty.
Recommend hood colours and order new regalia as required.
Receptions: Arrange hospitality for graduate receptions (approx. 2,000
people/ceremony), Chancellor’s Luncheons and volunteers.
Services: Direct and coordinate internal services such as Food services, parking and
security, yearbooks, Alumni, bookstore, and other event needs.
Contractors: Negotiate contractual agreements and act as primary contact with external
organizations including audio visual company and individual contractors, photography
companies, rental items, decorations, St. John Ambulance, including negotiating free
bus transit with the City of Peterborough.
Administration: Conduct post-event evaluation, make recommendations and advise on
Convocation proceedings. Build positive professional working relationships internally
and externally to enhance the profile and effectiveness of Convocation.
Event Execution: Ensure success of Convocation ceremonies by developing appropriate
back-up plans and contingencies for potential issues (weather, security, illness etc).
Trouble-shoot issues and make immediate decisions as required to adapt to unforeseen
challenges. Stay abreast of other university convocations to learn from their
experiences.
Archival records: Maintain historical Convocation files for the University including
information, speeches and citations of Honorary Degree recipients working with the
Archives and confidential information
Organize significant institutional events to further the University’s mission and promote the
University’s reputation and raise profile;
1. Responsible for overseeing activities in planning, executing and evaluating institutional
events such as Chancellor and Presidential installations, Chancellor events and
anniversary events.
2. Develop and manage budgets for events Responsible for determining the need for
assistance for events and hiring casual help.
3. Ensure co-ordination and monitoring of all logistics related to the successful execution
of event plans including organizing dinners, room bookings, registration, developing
agendas and writing speeches, and organizing audio-visual needs. Consider University
policy, participant expectations and organizer requests. Attend event and respond to
issues as they arise.
4. Promotion of events through preparation and coordination of communications material,
arranging the design of print and email invitations and posters to attract as large as
possible an audiences for public events. Participate in anniversary planning and
collaborate with colleagues to ensure success of key signature events.
5. Provide leadership, training and support across the University for event processes, room
booking, online event promotion, and associated policies
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Administrative and Managerial Duties;
1. Responsible for the hiring and supervision of casual assistants and volunteers to manage
convocation, university functions
2. Participate in ERA Team meetings and Honours Sub-committee meetings, as required.
3. Oversee the day to day work of the Alumni Affairs Assistant
4. Maintain Raisers Edge database (coding of volunteers, ensuring up to date contact
information, etc.); develop reports as required
5. Acting Director of Alumni Affairs in the absence of the Director due to business travel,
vacation, etc.
Strategic Alumni Chapter Development;
1. Develop strategies to connect with and strengthen alumni engagement throughout the
world
2. Identify and prioritize key chapters
3. Partner with the Alumni Association Council to update and maintain the Chapter
Handbook
4. Recruit chapter volunteers
5. Train chapter volunteers and work with leaders to develop annual chapter events plan
6. Provide ongoing support and direction to chapter leaders
Identification of Volunteer Roles;
1. In relation to the University’s Integrated Planning priorities assess the needs for alumni
volunteers in annual alumni programming, in addition to key university roles (i.e. Board
of Governors and Board committees, advisory committees, etc.)
2. Documentation of volunteer responsibility
3. Identification of required skill sets
4. Recruitment of Volunteers to match to appropriate volunteer role
5. Ensure volunteers are trained and waivers are signed according to policies
6. Promotion of volunteer opportunities
7. Provide ongoing volunteer management and recognition
Alumni Mentoring;
1. Create a structured framework for connecting alumni and students
2. In consultation with partners in the Career Centre, Academic Departments and Colleges,
organize and execute the alumni mentoring program
3. Significantly increase the number of alumni participating in the mentor program
4. Facilitate the identification and recruitment of alumni mentors
5. Ongoing assessment of the program
6. Oversee a committee responsible for matching mentors with mentees
1. In consultation with Director Alumni Affairs and Trent University Association of Retired
Persons (TUARP), develop and execute an engagement and communications plan that
will assist retirees in remaining engaged in alumni relations and informed on Trent
priorities.
Analytical Reasoning
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Position requires a high level of planning and organization, changing priorities to respond to
external influences, extremely tight timeframes and high volume considerations all within a
context of broad policy –clearly defined policies or procedures are limited. Work planning may
not always include others and may not occur within a broad time frame. Judgment in bringing
forward stewardship or institutional relationship issues to the VP, ERA.
Example - Planning and executing large, complex, institutional events that are very high profile.
These events have a huge scope of work and a “deadline” that cannot be changed – once the
event date(s) is set it must be met successfully and with the highest degree of excellence to
ensure the reputation of the University does not suffer. To execute these large, institutional
events, it is necessary to analyse them to break them down into the many, different
components and tasks and then prioritize those tasks. Thus, every large event is comprised of
many individual tasks, each with its own deadline and budget line that must be determined and
met in order to execute the large event on time and on budget. Most of these tasks require
working with numerous internal and external partners, services and contractors. All of the tasks
are inter-dependent and time-sensitive. Additionally, contingency planning must be considered
at every point along the way. There are very few policies or procedures that exist to be
followed. To give a sense of the scope, complexity and levels of thinking required in organizing
an event of this size following is an example of what seems like one small, specific task: Ensure
that volunteers are recruited, trained and scheduled to assist with gowning students, faculty,
the Board of Governors, Honorary Degree recipients and special guests. However, this one task
cannot be achieved unless other tasks are first completed. Following are some of the
interdependent tasks that must be considered: that the students have been informed on where
to pick up their gowns; that staff, retirees, faculty and students have been recruited to volunteer
with all aspects of convocation and appropriately trained; that Physical Resources has been
directed to move the gowns; that the gowns have been sent for dry-cleaning; that new regalia
has been ordered and received in time; that faculty and special guests have been instructed on
how to pick up their gowns; that faculty have returned the forms and payment for regalia; that
rental regalia has been ordered from the external company; that the university rooms have
been booked…and so on. Thus, one small task encompasses students, staff of all levels, faculty,
senior administration, special guests and a number of external companies and contingency
planning has been carefully considered and implemented.
Decision Making
The position is responsible for the formulation of strategies and work plans on important,
complex multi-faceted events with limited guidance from the Director or VP. Most decisions are
made independently after analyzing the situation. There are very few clearly defined policies,
procedures or precedents to follow. The day to day decisions are made without referral to
senior administration, except where the image of the University is involved. Typical decisions in
the planning process of Convocation and installation ceremonies include: contingency planning
for thousands of participants and guests and how it will be carried out; recommendations on
weather call to the President (should the ceremony should proceed outdoors or not); number
and responsibilities of volunteers required. When working on all events, decisions are regularly
made that determine the overall look and nature of the event - what the audiences of hundreds
to thousands will see and experience when they come to a Trent University event.
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Impact
Decisions or actions taken by the Manager directly impact the university’s public image and
reputation. Relationships with donors could be adversely affected, having an impact on current
or potential future donations to the University. Costs may be incurred due to poor planning or
insufficient or ineffective contingency planning. Security of confidential information, and safety
and wellbeing of participants and visitors are also factors under control of the Manager. Poor
decisions may have negative effects on relations with the donors, alumni, faculty and staff
groups, student body, external stakeholders or the broader community. Every event the
Manager is responsible for is in the public eye and supports the profile and reputation of the
University. The manager must have the knowledge and understanding to ensure the event
considers the social and political aspects in the planning process.
An example of the impact would be if the rain-plans for convocation were not adequately
thought through. If a call was made that morning to move the ceremony inside and the process
for this was not sound, convocation may be significantly delayed with mass confusion as
participants were unsure where to go, family members missed ceremonies due to the delay, and
required props etc. were unavailable making the event a failure. This would have a highly
negative impact on the University’s public image and spin-off negative impacts could include:
the publicity from the incident could affect enrolment, unhappy graduating students would not
become engaged Alumni, which could affect donations and future support to the University.
Education Required
General University Degree (3 year), College Diploma (3 year) or equivalent experience in Special
Events Management would be an asset.
Experience Required
1. 5+ years’ experience in special event management, especially with large, complicated
events, including 3+ years’ experience in alumni and donor relations.
2. Outstanding project management skills and high attention to detail.
3. Superior organizational, interpersonal, leadership, verbal and written communications
skills.
4. Knowledge of university regulations, policies and procedures; municipal / provincial
raffle and liquor licence regulations.
5. Ability to interact comfortably with a wide range of stakeholders.
6. Adept at problem-solving and excellent judgement in situations requiring initiative and
tact.
7. Ability to work in a high volume environment, multi-task, manage details, meet
deadlines and handle stressful working conditions; calm under pressure and effective in
a crisis.
8. Able to work independently or part of a team.
9. Excellent customer service skills; commitment to excellence in execution.
10. Intermediate proficiency with MS office, e-mail, and internet; familiarity with Raiser’s
Edge an asset.
11. Creative and resourceful.
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Responsibility for the Work of Others
Direct Responsibility for the Work of Others:
 Convocation Assistant- Student Worker. Nature of supervision: hiring/dismissal,
schedule, assign work, monitor progress, evaluate, supervise, train, discipline, provide
guidance and instruction, motivate, mentor.
 Audio Visual Technicians- Paid Casual Assistance for convocation and other events.
Nature of supervision: hiring/dismissal, schedule, assign work, monitor progress,
supervise, evaluate, discipline, ensure appropriate training and development, motivate.
 Executive Assistant, ER, Alumni Affairs assistant – for specific events. Nature of
Supervision: assign work, supervise, and monitor progress.
 Convocation Volunteers- 150+ volunteers consisting of staff of all levels, faculty,
students, retirees and external community groups. Nature of supervision: recruit, train,
schedule, assign work, develop work plans, provide guidance and instruction, motivate,
supervise, evaluate
Indirect Responsibility for the Work of Others:
 Alumni volunteers for events
 Alumni chapter leadership volunteers
Communication
When organizing and executing events, the position requires regular communication with
diverse contacts both inside and outside of the University, including senior staff, significant
donors, the community and general public, government representatives and the media,
honorary degree recipients. Diplomacy, tact and discretion are always required and conciliation,
persuasion and negotiation skills are often required, often in stressful and time sensitive
situations. This position is the key representative of the University for much of the convocation
planning work.
Internal:
 Physical Resources – hands and cleaners
 Chartwells
 Conference Services
 Marketing & Communications
 External Relations & Advancement
 IT
 Board of Governors
 President, President’s Office
 Alumni
 Academic Departments
 Faculty
 Senior Staff
 Finance
 Payroll
 Registrar’s Office
 Human Resources
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Student Services
Students
Risk Management (incl. Security & Parking)
Other exempt and OPSEU.
It is difficult to think of internal departments that this position does not require a strong working
relationship with.
External:
 Donors
 The families and guests of students
 Government Representatives
 Media
 Trent Retirees (Trent University Association of Retired Persons)
 Audio visual technicians
 Many external companies such as the Holiday Inn, Gervais Party Rental, Photography
companies, Harcourts (regalia)
 Community groups
 General public
 Peterborough & Lakefield Police
 Downtown Business Improvement Area
 Counterparts at other universities and colleges
Motor/ Sensory Skills
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Keyboarding & mouse manipulation
Computer usage impacts upon majority of responsibilities
Driving to attend internal and external meetings
Dexterity/Coordination
Interaction at special events
Hearing, speech and visual: complex remote and face to face communication,
negotiation and presentations
Effort
Note: this section is divided in two areas for this position. Point #1 deals with the planning
stages for the events where the work is done mostly in front of the computer. Point #2 deals
with the on-site managing of the events themselves.
Mental:
1. Requires periods of sustained concentration. The interruptions and distractions increase
and amount of control over those decreases as the event nears
2. Still requires periods of sustained concentration, but the interruptions and distractions
during an event are constant and decisions must be made on the fly
Physical:
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1. Sitting for extended periods of time with freedom to move about, some walking,
standing, stretching/reaching, and lifting/moving. Causes little fatigue.
2. Involves considerable amount of standing and walking, moderate amounts of
lifting/moving, some stretching/reaching and bending/kneeling with ongoing visual
demands that cause considerable fatigue (especially by the end of day on the Friday of
convocation)
Working Conditions
Note: this section is divided in two areas for this position. Point #1 deals with the planning
stages for the events where the work is done mostly in front of the computer. Point #2 deals
with the on-site managing of the events themselves. Note that flexibility to work occasional
evenings and weekends is a requirement of the role.
Physical:
1. Standard office environment with limited exposure to disagreeable elements.
2. Moderate to noticeable disagreeable working conditions (depending on conditions
during outdoor events) includes dealing with crowds, possible poor weather and
disagreeable outdoor conditions, large disruption to personal life. Has some
consequences on wellbeing.
Psychological:
1. Some exposure to disagreeable elements such as complaints, public criticism, time
pressures, interruptions, multiple competing demands that have a minor impact on
wellbeing.
2. Moderate exposure to disagreeable elements – in addition to above also dealing with
angry, frustrated, confrontational people, lack of control over pace of work, conflicting
work priorities that have some consequences on well-being.
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Job Number: X-214
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