Job Title: General Manager
Engagement: Full-time Employee
Start Date: March 2022
Salary: CAD$65,000 per annum + health spending account

Role Overview

Volcano is looking for our next administrative leader to join the team. The successful candidate will have an understanding of racial equity practices, and specific barriers and challenges experienced by marginalized theatre artists in Canada. The new General Manager will be an organized, detail-oriented person who is curious about systems and processes. The General Manager will work with Volcano’s core staff to create a positive, responsive, and supportive work environment on numerous large-scale productions

The General Manager will be an integral member of Volcano’s small, highly collaborative core staff and will help to steward the works through their development trajectories, premieres, and subsequent tours as applicable. The General Manager will lead the organization through operational planning and processes and will support the ongoing work on the organization.

Responsibilities

The following depicts the responsibilities and duties for this position.

Reporting to the Board of Directors, the General Manager for Volcano Theatre takes on responsibilities that maintain the well-being and stability of the organization, as well as acting as a producer on projects as needed throughout the year.

Financial Management

  • Develop and maintain financial systems;

  • manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, and book-keeping;

  • monitor expenditure to track spending against project projections;

  • prepare and revise budgets for quarterly Board updates and annual approval;

  • prepare and analyze financial data for Board reports such as cash flow analysis; and

  • prepare the books and records for the annual audit and liaise with the auditor’s team to complete the process.

Grants and Fundraising

  • Prepare, in conjunction with the Artistic Director, operating/core and touring grant applications for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council;

  • maintain positive working relationships with Volcano’s program managers at each funding agency;

  • identify new funding opportunities and assess eligibility for Volcano and/or its projects;

  • track all reporting commitments to funders to maintain eligibility status for new applications;

  • develop an annual revenue plan that includes a case for support and strategies for individual, corporate, and foundation giving; and

  • plan, execute and evaluate all strategies under the plan including special fundraising events in conjunction with staff and members of the Board.

Marketing

  • In conjunction with the rest of the staff, ensure volcano.ca and lavadome.ca are kept updated and accurate;

  • contribute to social media planning and rich content generation for online distribution;

  • design and produce marketing collateral promoting Volcano and its projects; and

  • attend booking conferences when needed and live/online meetings to support Artistic Director in securing tour bookings.

Human Resource Management

  • Maintain, enhance, and monitor an appropriate policy framework that prioritizes equity and safety of staff and stakeholders;

  • Lead team of part-time staff, providing support, clarity, and stewardship of their roles and experience at Volcano;

  • manage staff remuneration (payroll) including salaries and benefits, and process wages and fees for production team members and freelancers;

  • track staff leave and absenteeism;

  • manage the recruitment process to fill new and existing positions on the staff, including arts management interns and manage the dismissal of staff members when required;

  • hire, contract and manage independent third parties for the organization’s various projects and initiatives. This includes negotiation if contracts and agreements with various artists, arts workers and/or their agents;

  • manage WSIB premium payments and ongoing enterprise re-classification;

  • identify knowledge gaps amongst the staff and encourage and facilitate training opportunities for ongoing learning; and

  • arrange and taking part in training that is essential to meet Volcano’s duty of care to our employees and other workers.

Strategic Planning

  • Seek out and contract appropriate consultants for specific planning projects;

  • Drive and participate in planning processes, implementation, and evaluation of strategies under the plans.

IT Management

  • Ensure the staff have all the necessary, up to date hardware and software to complete their jobs at the highest standard; and

  • liaise with contractors for the delivery of specialized installations and training.

Governance and Fiduciary Responsibilities

  • Assemble and distribute Board papers for each Board meeting and liaise with Board subcommittees when required;

  • update policy documents to meet statute standards;

  • submit payroll remittances to CRA as required plus preparation of annual T4 and T4A slips and summaries;

  • complete and submit the signed T3010 by December 31 annually;

  • complete and submit the HST return annually; and

  • maintain up-to-date corporation information with Industry Canada.

Desired Skill Set

Ideally, the General Manager’s skill set will include:

  • experience in the operations of a non-profit, charitable performing arts organization;

  • experience producing live performance;

  • experience in both contracting and moving people and shows across international borders;

  • excellent spoken and written communication skills;

  • budgeting;

  • revenue generation (grant writing, fundraising, etc);

  • competency in a range of common office and social media applications;

  • and deep insights into equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism to contribute to our existing organization-wide action plan to de-centre whiteness.

About Volcano

Mission:

Volcano’s mission is to nurture the emergence of ideas and art-making through collaboration across intersectional identities, varied artistic practices, and borders of all kinds, in service of a future built on justice and well-being.

Vision and Values:

Volcano’s goal is to make the world a more resilient, just and caring place through what we as arts workers can imagine, through the actions we take, through the respect we show for one another, and through the art we foster into existence.

Our responsibility is to walk a path towards societal, cultural and ethical transformation in all we do: our art-making, our training, our mentoring, our day-to-day activities as a company. 

In practice, we work experimentally, collaboratively, and with an eye to making art that transcends borders, boundaries, and orthodoxies. We offer training, mentorships, and various supports to our fellow arts-workers.

We create carefully over long development periods, and we keep projects alive through local remounts, national and international touring, and, more recently, through digital platforms.

We value collective effort - and so we value the people we work with for their imaginations, their excellence in craft, and for all the experiences, vantage points and histories they bring with them. We value the creation of space where art-makers can feel free to bring themselves fully to their art-making. We value diversity in craft and culture.

We dedicate ourselves to a better future – a future where humans ask “what can we give?” rather than “what can we take?” – a future that centres the well-being of all persons (human and otherwise) over profit.

We understand that we’re all in this together.

Present Projects

Works currently in development at Volcano include:

-       Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha

-       Inuktitut Waiting for Godot

-       The Agreements

-       The Book of Life

Education and Outreach activities include:

-       Signal Boost

-       The Volcano Conservatory

-       EDI-R Consultation with Dr. Christopher Taylor and Fiona Suliman

Leadership Structure / Staff Structure

The General Manager and Artistic Director jointly report to Volcano’s Board of Directors. Volcano is currently in the midst of strategic planning which will shape the future of the organization, and the General Manager would be a key contributor to establishing and implementing those plans.

The current composition of Volcano’s staff includes an Artistic Director, Artistic Director Intern and a Social Media Manager. A new Producer is presently being hired and will be joining the organization concurrently with the new General Manager.

Volcano welcomes applications from folks who are looking for a flexible working environment This position will work within a hybrid working model, with the successful candidate having access to our shared office at 401 Richmond Street West. The General Manager may tour with our projects, so a valid passport and the ability to travel is required. Volcano prioritizes the health and safety of our teams above all else. As such, the successful applicant must be vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to commencing work with the organization. Medical exemptions will be considered.

Compensation Information

The annual salary for this position is $65,000 per annum. Volcano is also in the process of implementing a health spending account, which the General Manager will be eligible to participate in.

Application Information

Applicants are invited to learn about our projects on our website. If there are any questions regarding the scope and duties of this position, applicants are welcome to reach out to the following individuals:

In a maximum 2-page cover letter attached to your CV, please outline any connection you feel to our projects and/or Volcano’s mission in touring our works nationally and internationally. 

All applications will be acknowledged when received.

Volcano’s hiring committee will make a shortlist of candidates from all applications received. Candidates on the short list will receive a written assignment which will take up to 2 hours to complete. Candidates will be paid an honorarium for taking part in this phase of the process. The hiring committee will then select candidates to be interviewed from this pool.

Candidates who require accessibility accommodation/s at any stage in the recruitment or hiring process are asked to contact steven@volcano.ca.

Volcano warmly welcomes applicants of every identity, and encourages applications from Indigenous, Black, and other racialized communities, disabled and 2SLGBTQ+ folks.

Application Timeline

February 15              Applications Close

February 18              Candidates Selected for Interview / Written Exercise

February 21              Interviews Commence

February 24              Successful Candidate Selected

March 1                      Onboarding Commences (part-time if required)

How to Apply

To submit your application, please fill out the following form by end of day on February 15, 2022: https://airtable.com/shrcix7XLcytrvU6K