British Educational Research Association (BERA) currently has an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join us as our Membership & Administration Officer, based in London. You will join us on a full time, fixed-term contract, covering maternity leave until 31st July 2022, and in return you will receive a competitive salary of £30,000 per annum (including London weighting) plus attractive benefits.

About the role 

You will work closely with colleagues in the BERA Office providing professional support to ensure the effective management of the BERA membership offering and systems, ensuring that the BERA membership offer is desirable, and that association’s membership base is engaged. This includes managing most of BERA’s outward communications, including producing regular newsletters, updating our website and our social media accounts. This role also has oversight of our forums and networks, including our special interest groups. As such you will play a role alongside our Events Manager/s in supporting the delivery of our other events throughout the year. You will also manage our awards processes including advertising, managing entries and working with judges to determine winners.

About BERA

BERA is the largest UK-wide educational research organisation. Led by around 2500 members, we are an organisation dedicated to supporting educational researchers and promoting high-quality research in education. We seek to enhance the field of study, the growth of public knowledge and critical understanding, and the application of findings for the improvement of educational practice and policy.

Key responsibilities of our Membership & Administration Officer:

• Delivering BERA’s annual membership development plan aligned with the BERA strategic plan, aims and objectives.
• Implementing strategies and approaches to drive member recruitment and retention, working with BERA’s Membership & Engagement committee.
• Handling the collection and processing of membership subscriptions and refunds, including dealing with financial queries relating to membership.
• Maintaining the BERA Microsoft Dynamics CRM database, including ensuring accurate record keeping and producing reports.
• Being the first point of contact for members and membership enquires.
• Coordinating our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) activities
• Working with colleagues to publicise areas of BERA activity through member communications (including producing and distribution of newsletters) and via our social media accounts.
• Ensuring that the BERA website is kept up to date and that the homepage reflects current activity
• Overseeing the awards timetable, including advertising awards, liaising with applicants and judging panels and informing all applicants of the outcome.
• Assisting the BERA Events team with delivering online Special Interest Group events, as well as working on the BERA Annual Conference and other events as necessary.

What we’re looking for in our Membership & Administration Officer:

• Experience of managing membership or customer related activity within a membership organisation
• Proven administrative skills and the ability to develop and maintain an overview of a complex workload
• Highly numerate with experience of financial administration, including the ability to create budgets, monitor and review budgetary expenditure.
• Excellent record-keeping skills with a high degree of accuracy and close attention to detail
• Excellent IT skills and computer literacy, and familiarity with the Microsoft suite
• Excellent communication skills.

What we can offer you as our Membership & Administration Officer:

• 27 days annual leave per year, plus 10 closure days including bank holidays
• 10% employer pension contribution (5% employee contribution)
• Flexible working options
• Various training opportunities
• Working with a range of different stakeholders

Closing date: 12 noon on Friday 4th June 2021. We reserve the right to make an earlier appointment if an exceptional candidate comes forward, so we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.
Interview date: w/c Monday 7th June 2021

To apply:

Candidates should use the attached application form, paying particular attention to the areas set out in the full job description and person specification and sent to membership@bera.ac.uk

Please also complete the equal opportunities monitoring form. This will be detached from your application form, stored separately and used only to provide statistics for monitoring purposes.

This post is available from 1^st July 2021 and we would want you to start as soon as possible after that date but you will need to be available to undertake some training and handover with the current postholder from that date even if you start later. 

Your contract will run until 31st July 2022.

The BERA office is currently closed due to Covid restrictions and therefore the role will be required to work from home until it is safe to reopen the office.