Now hiring: Business Manager
Updated: Sep 29, 2022
Position Summary
The Business Manager will be responsible for day-to-day operations of a growing $250K non-profit organization with a robust new play development program serving BIPOC artists and other artists from underrepresented identities, and the Arts Learning Project for Native Youth (ALP4NY), an arts education program.
Roles and Responsibilities
Finance:
Prepare and manage annual Organizational Budget, including Production budgets and ALP4NY program budget
budgets and financial reports for funders
work with Producing Artistic Director to develop mainstage show budgets
Manage Accounts Payable, and ensure that strong communication/relationships are maintained with all vendorsTrack employees’ time and submit timesheets to payroll company
Prepare check runs for Board Treasurer’s signature
Prompt and accurate entry of all payments and deposits into accounting system
Responsible for maintaining all daily bookkeeping including maintaining general ledger in Quickbooks, preparing daily banking and deposits, reconciling bank accounts, year end account reconciliation, and generating financial reports as needed
Annual 1099 processing and reporting
HR/Personnel Support:
Work with Literary Committee, Producing Artistic Directors, Director of New Plays on hiring and personnel related policies, staff trainings, annual performance reviews, and organizational culture
Oversee all contractual negotiations with artists, creative teams, administrative and production staffs
Build and maintain positive relationships with employees and serve as conduit for communications within company
Update and maintain personnel records, manuals and forms
Prepare, negotiate, and execute contracts including play licensing agreements, co-production agreements and commission agreements.
Oversee all human resource matters
Operations/Office Management:
Work directly with Insurance broker to maintain all policies including General Liability, D&O Insurance, Sexual Misconduct Policy, etc.
Process all mail and packages, including checking PO box in downtown San Rafael at least once every 2 weeks
Oversee the maintenance of AlterTheater’s business licenses and permits
Ensure efficiency and accuracy of primary software programs and databases: including Quickbooks, Arts People
Coordinate and oversee volunteers
Be a model for activating company values, especially centering the spiritual and emotional well-being of Black and Native people
Work collaboratively with other staff and volunteers to ensure that all administrative & production needs are met
Production Support:
In consultation with Producing Artistic Director, provide production support for rehearsal, tech, and performance periods as needed; provide on-site support at the theater for load-in, tech, and previews
Occasional tasks related to Company Management
Some event and alternative programming support
Preferred Qualifications
You are an ideal candidate if you possess:
Excellent attention to detail
Demonstrated commitment to anti-racism
Cultural competency to work with Native stories and Native storytellers
Cultural competency in Indigenous spaces, including working under a shared leadership model
Numerical literacy: likes numbers, spreadsheets, comfortable with Excell
Experience in arts administration and/or non profit accounting
Excellent project management and time management skills
The ability to maintain diplomacy, discretion and/or confidentiality when handling sensitive information
The ability to model positive communications and behavior working with artists, artist representatives, co-workers, and vendors from diverse backgrounds
Experience with or willingness to learn financial software (Quickbooks)
A collaborative nature and strong people skills
Proficiency with computers
Special Environmental Factors
Far-flung staff (remote working staff, in-person production) ensemble of artists, decentralized leadership
Compensation and Benefits
$20/hour, 20 hours/week.
Location
Remote work, but must be based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and capable of attending to in-person tasks, including checking po box and processing banking needs
More about AlterTheater
Organization
AlterTheater develops and produces plays written and performed by the best established and emerging storytellers, presented where people live, work, or play. AlterTheater has been commissioning, developing and premiering new plays in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2008. Its AlterLab playwright residency focuses on writers from underrepresented communities: 85% of writers are women and ⅔ of writers identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). While our cohorts are multi-ethnic, we’ve supported more Native playwrights than any other demographic (30%). For 15 years, the company performed in highly visible, non-traditional spaces, primarily storefronts in downtown San Rafael’s pedestrian shopping district, with windows left clear, so passersby could “window shop” theater. AlterTheater seeks to create a more just, more equitable community by:
supporting the creative growth of theater artists from historically underrepresented communities;
telling stories that reflect the full complexity and diversity of our community; and
sharing stories with our full community, in places where people are.
This moment
In partnership with The Parsnip Ship, AlterTheater produced an audio play version of Andrew Saito’s Br’er Peach, which “toured” BIPOC theaters in 2021 and is now available on TPS’s podcast platforms. In Spring 2022, AlterTheater filmed an adaptation of AlterLab play SNAG by Tara Moses, adding to AlterTheater’s digital offerings. During the pandemic, AlterTheater began a virtual arts education program for Native youth, which has expanded to include hybrid and in-person programming. 100% Native designed and Native led, the Arts Learning Project for Native Youth (ALP4NY) has quickly become one of the centerpieces of Alter's programming, and is interwoven in all that AlterTheater does. In 2022, AlterTheater returned in-person with live audiences, beginning with its first outdoor shows, in collaboration with California Shakespeare Theater.
Future
As we gear up for our 2023 season, we’re ready to embrace this variety of digital and in-person programming. We think the way forward for our small, BIPOC company is to lean into deeper partnerships with other value-aligned organizations, as we continue to serve and expand our community of artists and audiences and seek to right-size our company. With this in mind, we have been cultivating several relationships with theater companies, community organizations, and educational institutions. Some of our partnering organizations include La Lengua Teatro en Español, California Shakespeare Theater, and the Latino Council. Even as we practice shared leadership, we also practice highly collaborative, non-siloed, non-hierarchical administration and programming, where our programs feed one another.
Alter’s future programming will deepen its focus on social justice work using theater as a tool for change. We will produce a mixture of live, in-person events and hybrid asynchronous performances, including radio or audio plays. We will also continue to develop and expand intergenerational opportunities among professional Native performing artists and Native youth through our Arts Learning Project for Native Youth and other initiatives.
Work Culture
AlterTheater works under a distributive leadership model, with an ensemble sensibility. We engage in consensus-based decision-making, and provide opportunities for individuals to take ownership of their own projects, using our company’s values as their guide. AlterTheater’s leadership team includes:
AlterTheater’s Literary Committee is comprised of 7-11 associate artists. LitCom decides which artists to support, playwrights to commission, and which projects to develop and produce.
Artistic Director, responsible for new work development. Currently, the AD also leads fundraising and works with the Board Treasurer on financial management of the company. Currently held by co-founder Jeanette Harrison.
Producing Artistic Director, Collaborations. Virginia Blanco, the artistic director of La Lengua, also serves as a producing artistic director of AlterTheater, leading the Decolonization Stories Project/Historias de Descolonización.
Producing Artistic Director, Mainstage. Responsible for producing the MainStage shows. Works collaboratively with the Artistic Director in moving projects from under the New Work/Development arm to production. The Producing Artistic Coordinator works closing with the PAD-Mainstage.
Cofounded by five artists, including two Native American (Onondaga and Chiricahua Apache/Tohono O’odham), AlterTheater has always centered Indigenous voices and practices. Located on Coast Miwok land, AlterTheater creates work in consultation with our local elders, as evidenced by our decade-long partnership with the Marin American Indian Alliance (president: Sky Road Webb (Coast Miwok)). Read more about our stance on serving Native communities. We believe in telling stories by, for, and with our community. AlterTheater resides in a community that was built on dispossession and land theft, but despite generations of erasure and genocidal practices, Coast Miwoks continue to live and work in Marin County, along with descendents of Californios. In recognition that our country was built on a legacy of land theft and labor theft, and that anti-Blackness is woven into the very foundation of our society, AlterTheater centers the emotional and spiritual well-being of Black and Native people. AlterTheater is a BIPOC majority company - and our 80% BIPOC Board reflects this.
Company Pay Structure
We believe in transparency around pay. Pre-pandemic 100% of our funding was project-based. Founded by Equity artists, we moved onto an AEA contract in 2009, and have been paying both union and non-union actors as employees ever since. Pre-AB5 most other artists were paid stipends for productions, and are now paid as temporary employees. However, our artistic work has mostly been supported with an all-volunteer staff. As we move toward paid staff, discussions we are having include what does pay equity look like. We acknowledge that we are a majority BIPOC organization that’s been built on volunteer labor. Some of our discussions and agreements around pay:
Minimum wage in our community is $14/hour (scheduled to go up to $15/hour on 1/1/23). All paid people are paid at least $15/hour.
Minimum wage is not a living wage, nor a sustainable wage
We believe that no one should be paid more than 2.5x anyone else, while also recognizing that measuring paid versus unpaid work makes this a particular challenge.
We aim toward supporting sustainable wages for our artists and our staff and artists.
While AlterTheater has never (yet!) been able to pay people their worth, we prioritize people first, purposely choosing to produce in minimalist ways in found and donated spaces. More than 72% of our cash budget (and some years, up to 91%) has gone toward paying people. Mentorship is a core part of our company. We make a practice of supporting the creative growth of not just our artists but our artist-administrators and staff. We believe in mentoring and sharing. We believe in tailoring work to people’s interests and skills. We will be invested in your career, in you as a person, and we commit to supporting your long-term vision for your future. Our company is small enough that we are able to tailor leadership positions to the talents and interests of those in the position, and so we encourage applicants of all backgrounds and experiences to apply.
Applications and Inquiries
Please email a resume and cover letter to: casting@altertheater.org with the subject line: Business Manager