The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is an organization of approximately 500 member institutions of higher education in the United States and Canada engaged in graduate education, research, and the preparation of candidates for advanced degrees. The organization’s mission is to improve and advance graduate education, which it accomplishes through advocacy in the federal policy arena, research, and the development and dissemination of best practices.

Summary:

The Manager of Membership and Events provides membership, registration and logistical support. This role works in partnership with internal membership and events program experts to support the Council’s vision, mission, and values through exceptional member service and events that inspire the membership community.

Membership Responsibilities

• Coordinates communications to new primary contacts at member institutions to ensure successful member onboarding and contributes to reports to share this information within CGS.

• In collaboration with other members of the Membership team, participates in the execution of the annual member dues billing process including follow-up with institutional members to ensure timely payment.

• Assists with maintaining key member information in the Association Management System (AMS).

• Gathers and tracks member participation in CGS activities in order to produce member engagement reports to inform outreach strategies and association activities.

• Under the direction of the Assistant Vice President, Membership and Alliances, contributes to outreach campaigns to current and prospective members, including first-time meeting attendee welcome messages.

• Identifies topics and proposes programming opportunities to engage current and prospective members including webinars targeted to specific member audiences.

• Provides timely, exceptional customer service to inquiries and requests from members and prospective members.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Events Responsibilities

• Manages the registration process for the Summer Workshop (SW) and Annual Meeting (AM), including building the registration module, creating reports, handling changes, and communicating with registrants to help troubleshoot registration issues.

• Oversees the management of the online event registration platform.

• Creates badges for SW and AM meeting attendees.

• Runs on-site event registration at the Summer Workshop and Annual Meeting to include packing of meeting supplies for shipment to the host hotel and, on-site, interacting with members and delivering exceptional customer service at the meeting registration desk.

• Creates SW and AM meeting webpages and post web content.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Competencies

• Communication: Understands and communicates effectively with others using a variety of contexts and formats, which include writing, speaking, reading, listening and interpersonal skills.

• Quality: Is attentive to detail and accuracy, is committed to excellence, looks for improvements continuously, monitors quality levels, finds root cause of quality problems, owns/acts on quality problems.

• Teamwork: Contributes ideas to support CGS mission, listens to others and values opinions, helps team to meet goals and deadlines, welcomes newcomers and promotes a cooperative team atmosphere.

• Dependability: Meets commitments, works independently, accepts accountability, handles change, sets personal standards, stays focused under pressure, meets attendance/punctuality requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience preferred.

• 3+ years’ experience

• Experience working in the nonprofit sector preferred

• Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people

• Proficiency in Microsoft 365, particularly MS Word and Excel

• Highly effective interpersonal skills demonstrated by a positive attitude and earnest interest in providing exceptional customer service.

• An individual who can handle a variety of constituencies, manage multiple tasks simultaneously and thrive in a complex environment with multiple priorities

Position Attributes

• HR Role: Individual Contributor

• Status & Classification: Regular, Full-time, Exempt

• Business Unit: Membership and Events

• Supervisor: AVP, Membership and Alliances

• Location: Washington, DC

• Physical Requirements: Ability to work in an office environment. Long periods of sitting; need to be able to lift 10 pounds.

• Travel: less than 20%

Benefits:

CGS offers a generous and comprehensive benefit package. Relocation assistance is not provided for this position. Employees are required to work in the Washington, D.C. office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with telework on Monday and Friday of each work week.

CGS is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of discrimination in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, an employee’s right to breastfeed, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity (including transgender and transitioning status), disability (physical or mental), age (18 and older), marital status, family responsibilities, genetic information, personal appearance (subject to business standards), political affiliation, veteran or military status, matriculation, tobacco use, credit information, victim of or the family member of a victim of domestic violence, a sexual offence, stalking, or engagement in a related, protected activity, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.