Job Description:
Coop Seeking Cooperator: We're looking for a cooperative-minded candidate member to join our financial team supporting our work of ascending ladders and lifts to remove energy hogging lights and wire in low wattage LEDs. Ideal candidates are willing to take on shared leadership, arrange the coop work schedule, and learn our trade well enough to complete invoices and rebate paperwork efficiently. As this is a member-owner track position, candidates are also invited to participate in everything else from developing business strategy to installing in the field and cleaning the storage spaces, while adhering to the 7 cooperative principles.
Who we are Brilliant Northwest is a worker-owned, worker-managed cooperative in McMinnville, Oregon doing energy efficiency LED upgrades. BrilliantNW operates on values of Joy, Empathy, and Mastery. We strive to practice the ICA 7 cooperative principles.
Our Mission: To delight our community with “Brilliant” lighting, we listen deeply, bring our expertise, and find others to help pay for projects.
Day-to-day responsibilities for this position
- Willingness to do repetitive, but sometimes puzzlingly unique, skilled, paperwork.
- Setting up and using our Quickbooks accounts - chart of accounts, synchronizing bank feeds, and any app integrations
- Clean up/ catch up bookkeeping for previous periods
- Running monthly payroll and assisting co-owners with invoicing issues
- Routine monthly and/or quarterly bookkeeping - categorizing transactions, reconciling accounts, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll administration, etc
- Consulting: cash flow + budget projections, participatory budgeting, internal controls, worker owner pay and patronage payout calculations
- Responding and communicating with clients via email and via one on one calls as needed
- Responding to questions from current and prospective clients
- Respond to team slacks, emails and messages
- Multiple meetings 2-4 times per week
- Facilitating and notetaking for internal meetings
- Familiarity with or willingness to learn digital tools like Notion, Slack, Google Drive & Calendar, Asana, Slack, and LastPass.
- Collaboration with the install team to schedule weekly field work, coordinate inspection schedules, and ensure estimating and support paperwork is ready.
- Reviewing and understanding the jobs and repairs pipeline
- Communication with sales and install members to plan jobs
- Empathy for clients, fellow workers, and yourself
- Assist sales with researching and developing client proposals and provide financing
- Orientation towards community, cooperation, and collective decision-making
Additional opportunities for enthusiastic members
- Possibility to be involved in curriculum development and delivery of trainings
- Maintain company vehicles and equipment
- Manage and organize inventory and product
- Support in install, sales, and compliance
- Build your own position in a way that highlights your gifts and interests
- Eventually spinoff a small cooperative team and do this work for multiple cooperatives and select other businesses.
Made it this far but aren’t sure if you qualify? Even if you haven't worked in all of the above or electrical, lighting, or building trades, you are still welcome to join us! We encourage our members to learn new skills and hone old ones; training resources and support are available, even if you're completely new to the trade.
Details
- $25/hr, plus skills-based pay-scale
- Flexible schedule
- Variable work — never gets boring!
- Independence and autonomy
- Democratic workplace governance
- Reliable transportation required during COVID19
This is a member-track position. Candidates must work towards membership eligibility in their first 2000 hours. Members are eligible for membership after 2000 hours and participation in a broad range of business operation activities. Candidates, members, and owners each receive 1 vote in day-to-day workplace governance.
We believe that economic self-sufficiency and cooperative ownership should be available to all people. We believe that supporting local organizations to operate with ecological consciousness is everybody's work. Therefore, we encourage BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women-identified, and people from all historically marginalized and oppressed groups to apply.
Brilliant NW offers equal employment opportunity for all classes of individuals, regardless of age, race, color, national origin, citizenship status, disability, religious creed, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, economic status, veteran status or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state or local law.
Required Qualities, Skills, & Experience
- Interest in, passion for, and commitment to cooperative principles and our values
- Integrity
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Ability to ask for and receive support when facing challenges or the unknown
- Lightheartedness combined with a willingness to dive into technical work
- Kindness
- Patience and diligence to handle many tasks with care and attention to detail
- Clear communication
- Honesty & transparency
- Interest in becoming a worker owner of the business after a candidacy period
Desired Qualities, Skills, & Experience
- Bookkeeping & accounting experience (we work mostly with Quickbooks)
- Enthusiasm for worker cooperatives
- Teaching others about finances using popular education methodologies
- Familiarity with GAAP
- Familiarity with these softwares:
- Quickbooks
- Microsoft Excel
- Google Workspaces
- Slack
- Notion
- Skype
- Lastpass
- Bilingual English + Spanish/ multilingual
Application Process
- Fill out this initial screening form to let us know why you would like to work with us. If you have questions about the position or the form, you may reach out to albert@brilliantnw.com.
- If selected, participate in an interview with our onboarding committee.
- If you match our needs, complete up to 40 hours paid “work-about” to try out on the job and see if we are a good match for one another.
- Afterwards, there will be a non-work decision period of at least 2 weeks while we decide whether to offer a candidate-member position.
Applicants will be selected based on the following criteria:
- Willing to engage in democratic problem solving within the group and be vulnerable
- Personal mission matches up with our Values, Vision, and Mission
- Demonstrates willingness to lead, install lighting and keep the team informed
- Aligned with the 7 co-operative principles
- Willingness to share feelings to build relationships so everyone's needs are met.
- Open to helping develop an innovative payscale that builds choice into career development and puts workers in charge of their own job duties, responsibilities and pay
- Demonstrates highly pro-active communication through routine and unexpected circumstances
- Has the bandwidth to focus on community building and personal growth