Project Manager / Documenter for the Playground People

May 27, 2009 8:44 PM

The playground people have been building playgrounds for 2 years now. Initially one person, the Playground People has grown into a full time playground building organization with 14 playgrounds already finished with another 10 to be built in the second half of the year. We are now in a new phase of our growth where we need someone to continue this work with the project manager but specifically to document ‘who we are’,‘where we have come from’ and to share this with stakeholders, funders and most importantly other groups around the world.

Using local sustainable materials the Playground People is a community based organization (soon to join with world education consortium) that designs and builds creative and fun playgrounds in the migrant schools surrounding Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border. The Playground People are an energetic, non-hierarchical, creative team that works hard to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget without losing quality or creativity. The Playground People comprise of a coordinator, a construction manager, local workers and lots of energetic international volunteers. We work closely with other organizations to ensure our work is fair and caters to the needs of the schools and most importantly, the children. The Playground People believe in the power of a good education, playgrounds encourage learning for children in many areas that are left out in a standard curriculum such as creative thinking, communication, problem solving and conflict resolution. If this is interesting to you, please read on.

The Playground People are looking for an energetic person for a 7 month position (extendable) to document and maintain the playground building program starting in June 2009. This role requires a confident, self motivated person to work closely with the construction manager to continue to produce excellent playgrounds and although this role would require a large portion of time committed to actually planning designing and building playgrounds, the focus of this role is documentation. The position will involve bringing all the learnings and knowledge we have gained together into an efficient, organized package. This will include producing a fun and engaging playground people manual (in English), monthly reports/ newsletter, adding news and stories to the website for funders stakeholders and the public.

Required Skills

• the ability to clearly communicate with funders, stakeholders and the public about accounts, news and other issues via the website, blogs, monthly newsletters, and in person.
  
• the knowledge of basic building concepts (triangulation, mixing strong concrete etc) AND/OR the demonstrated ability to learn on the job or through the internet about how to do the job in the best way.
  
• an environmental perspective of design and construction that keep our playgrounds efficient and effective in materials and resource use.
  
• the ability to work with and communicate to a diverse range of people to design, build and share our adventure playgrounds.
  
• to manage a process of regular reflection and time to innovate new ideas with local resources
  
• the successful applicant will be a generalist, with the ability to juggle many competing priorities. They will enjoy the creative process of innovating new ideas and documenting these in engaging ways. They will be happy get involved in the dirty work to truly understand the process to inform the documentation of the project.
  

Essential skills

• a love of physical outdoor work
  
• excellent communication skills
  
• basic accounting
  
• design and basic construction experience
  
• English and at least basic Thai (some Burmese/ Karen would be helpful)
  
• Thai or international drivers license
  
• Some Organizational/ management experience
  

Salary and Benefits

• salary starting range is 12,000-25,000 Thai baht depending on experience and skills
  
• shared use of an apple macbook with the construction manager
  
• many free lunches
  
• freedom to experiment , innovate new designs and see them implemented
  
• options to plan, educate and or complete research projects as the role continues
  
• see a project grow with immediate and long term impacts for the communities
  

payscale: 12000-25000 Thai baht
job type: contract
posted by Ritchie to et cetera