Position Title: Public Programs Coordinator
Status:Full time, Non-Exempt
Job Classification: Education and Programs
Work Schedule: Thursday-Monday and/or Friday-Tuesday schedule

DuPage Children’s Museum is nationally acclaimed for its interactive, hands-on experiences, carefully designed to foster curiosity, creativity, problem solving and innovation through the power of play. With over 300,000 annual visitors, we partner with 38 school districts as well as approximately 60 social service agencies through our Community Access Network. We work directly with corporate and foundation supporters and rely on the work of more than 600 volunteers each year. We provide high-quality early learning resources for parents and offer professional development opportunities to caregivers and teachers. Revel in play… at DuPage Children’s Museum.

Position Description:
The Public Programs Coordinator is responsible for the overall administration, development, coordination, implementation, and evaluation of all visitor program offerings created by the DuPage Children’s Museum’s Education and Programs department. The Public Programs Coordinator works closely with the Museum Experience Manager, as well as a number of other DCM Management and Specialist staff, to meet the museum’s programmatic needs.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of DCM Mission, philosophy, policies, and procedures to ensure a high quality experience for all visitors. Work collaboratively with all departments to ensure optimal visitor experience is provided.
• Design, develop, implement, lead/facilitate, manage, and evaluate a wide variety of visitor programming for the museum, including appropriate documentation, in collaboration with the Museum Experience Manager.
• Coordinate and manage all programmatic needs, including the research, collection and/or purchasing of materials, reservation of spaces/venues (in and out of the museum), and establishing, engaging, and maintaining community partners.
• Coordinates with Exhibits department for programmatic needs for new exhibits.
• Ensures that all visitor programming is mission-driven.
• Collaborate with the Specialist Team to support their programmatic needs, utilize their expertise for other programmatic initiatives, and assist in the management of the Education and Programs department Intern schedules as they pertain to programmatic needs.
• Assists Museum Experience Manager in the supervision of Play Facilitation Staff performance, in regards to museum, off-site, and after-hour events/programming. Mentors staff through frequent on-floor interactions. Lead/Facilitates programming personally, as needed.
• Identifies training needs (including professional development opportunities) and collaborates with Education and Exhibits staff in the development and presentation of training materials.
• Assists Museum Experience Manager in ensuring that appropriate program, educational, exhibit, customer service, and safety knowledge have been acquired by staff before they are assigned independent programmatic responsibilities in the museum.
• Proactively develops policies and procedures for museum programming to support the museum mission and strategic goals; implements approved policies; evaluates policy/procedure and initiates modifications as needed.
• Serves as Manager-on-Duty on rotation, as assigned.
• Collaborates with the Manager of Volunteer Resources to supervise and train volunteer facilitators and assistants, and schedule volunteer shifts.
• Develops and maintains systems to guarantee that a sufficient inventory of ongoing program materials (components, consumables, and manipulatives) is available for visitor use including an inventory restocking schedule, through collaboration with the Museum Experience Manager.
• Provides the Marketing and Development departments with required program information and details, as assigned.
• Drafts annual programming budget for approval; administers and monitors the approved budget, in collaboration with the Museum Experience Manager.
• Works collaboratively with all museum staff to ensure program and event set ups are accomplished appropriately.
• Supports all Museum initiatives and helps communicate those initiatives to department staff and visitors.

Secondary Responsibilities:

• Act as a first aid and CPR designee. (Pre-certification is a plus, but training will be provided.)
• Other duties, as assigned.

Job Relationships:

• Reports to the Director of Education and Programs.
• Collaborates with the Museum Experience Manager and Manager of Volunteer Resources to meet all programmatic staffing and volunteer needs.
• Collaborate with and support Specialist Staff in current and ongoing projects and programs.
• Must be able to work effectively with DCM staff and volunteers.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent degree and at least 2 years related experience required. Master’s degree, or in pursuit, a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in educational/museum programming management.
• Previous experience working with children and their families.
• Experience with staff and volunteers of wide age and skill ranges.

Skills and Abilities:

• Computer skills (databases, word processing, spreadsheets, experience with Publisher software/graphics a plus).
• Experience with posting and updating web information a plus.
• Good organizational skills, ability to design administrative systems and evaluate data.
• Excellent communication and writing skills.
• Bilingual (Spanish/English, and/or English/Other) a plus.
• The following abilities are required for the position:
  a) Communicate appropriately and clearly both verbally and in writing with telephone callers, office visitors and co-workers. Comprehend and speak English with the public and co-workers; b) Operate office equipment in order to send and receive information with necessary optical, auditory, and manual dexterity; c) Use a keyboard and mouse to enter, retrieve or transfer words or data; d) Sit for extended periods of time; e) Lift items weighing up to 30 lbs. occasionally; f) Climb up and down stairs or use an elevator daily; g) Tolerate dust and fumes from general cleaning and maintenance procedures.

Other:

• Must have access to reliable transportation.
• Must be able to work a Thur-Mon and/or Fri-Tues schedule.
• Must be able to work flexible hours including evenings/nights, early mornings, and holidays.

Application Info: For consideration, please send your cover letter, resume, and programmatic portfolio, as a single PDF, to jobs@dupagechildrensmuseum.org. Please put PUBLIC PROGRAMS COORDINATOR in the subject line to indicate the position of interest.

DuPage Children’s Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).