The organisation

At the European Juggling Association (EJA), we believe in the power of juggling and performing arts to connect people across borders and differences, creating beautiful and joyful moments together. Our mission is to enable others to organise joyful juggling and circus events, first and foremost the European Juggling Convention.

How we work:

• Connection: We bring people together for meaningful exchanges.
• Diversity: We value differences and the challenges they bring because they make us better.
• Participation: We actively enable others to participate in our work and create their own work.
• Joy: We create joyful moments.

In practice, this means we recruit, engage and liaise with potential EJC organising teams, so that they can put their best bid forward to jugglers; we work with the chosen EJC teams to access experience and knowledge of previous teams to organise a fantastic event; and we promote the EJCs locally in many European countries to bring people together from all corners of Europe. 

The EJA’s Board consists of Country Representatives and Festival Representatives, with Board meetings roughly every two months. The bulk of the work gets done by about 10 people; a small Executive Committee (XC) and a few individuals who volunteer for specific areas such as social media. The XC meets about twice a month, but that can vary depending on what needs to be done and with whom. We’re a pretty collaborative bunch, and we live our values!

The role

We’re a team of volunteers spread across Europe, and we’re all working together remotely. To do everything we do, technology is crucial: We currently run an externally facing website (WordPress) and an internally facing wiki (Atlassian Confluence), and we use G suite. We also run a pre-registration system for the EJCs to support with infrastructure and provide some continuity year on year. 

However, we currently do not have specific technical knowledge in our core team. This means that we’re probably not using our systems well, and we’d like to do better: We’d like to improve our website, our pre-reg system and our internal systems. For all of that, we need tech expertise. Could that be you?

You’d be part of the team around the XC. Together with others, you would meet about twice per month to coordinate and agree on actions. In between, you’re in charge of how and when you work on the things that you have committed to. Of course, wherever possible, we’re connecting and working together, and enjoying our work along the way.

You’d be primarily responsible for anything technical regarding our website, our wiki and our pre-reg system (which is either a WordPress plugin or an external provider). You’d also support the team with figuring out what tech we need and how we make it work. Upcoming projects are likely a full revamp of the website and the integration of a pre-reg system (possibly WooCommerce). We also suspect that our other systems like the wiki need some kindness and attention eventually.

Person specification

• You have skills and experience with IT administration.
• You might have skills and experience with WordPress-based web development. 
• You want to make a difference and contribute to a world with more joy and more juggling. 
• You’re proactive, curious and able quickly to work with systems you haven’t worked with before. 
• You are aware of GDPR and can identify when tasks and issues have implications for data protection.
• Equally important is your ability to work with non-technical people, translating what is needed into technical requirements and explaining things for people with less expertise than you.

Ideally, you have experience with WordPress, the Atlassian Confluence wiki and other tools like G Suite. More bonus points if you’ve got experience as an IT volunteer.

As we are a Europe-wide organisation, you can be based anywhere in Europe. You can communicate in English (it’s what we use most). This is a voluntary role, so while it might go without saying, it’s worth to note: You also have all necessary equipment required to fulfil a role like this (e. g. a computer, internet, phone, etc) and you are willing to use this as part of your role.

How to apply

If this sounds like you, or if you have any questions, send an email to the Executive Committee at directors(at)eja.net. For an application, we ask you to send an introductory letter outlining why you’d be passionate about the EJA and being its IT & Infrastructure Manager, and how you meet the person specification, ideally by giving some past examples that are similar to what you would do in the role. A CV outlining your past experience would be very helpful.