Be a Part of the Realm Makers Team
Realm Makers thrives because of the invaluable help of many skilled people. Some roles on our team are strictly volunteer, and some offer paid stipends, based on the size of the role.
***Please note, this listing offers descriptions of all roles in the organization. Not all are open to applicants. Open positions will be kept current on the application form.***
Roles with Compensation
(free annual conference registration and stipends/commission where appropriate)
Web Master: Are you familiar with WordPress and Elementor? We’re searching for someone with consistent availability to handle the deeper technical aspects of the website, as well as helping keep information on the site up to date.
Time requirement: Year-round, hours per week varies
Awards Director: Do you pride yourself on your organization skills, your ability to delegate, your natural affinity for recruiting, and your love of speculative fiction by Christians? The awards director works behind the scenes to set up the submission process for the Realm Awards, monitor submissions, recruit judges, set deadlines, distribute manuscripts to be judged, collect judges’ completed score sheets, and ultimately aggregates all the scores to discover the best speculative fiction of the year.
This position requires someone with strong ability to work with spreadsheets, a willingness to work hard during crunch times, and a developed sense of autonomy and leadership. But don’t worry, the previous awards director will train you and remain available for questions or snags that come up.
Time requirements: busy in November-January with slower workload after that until July
Hours per week: 30 hour per week in January, 1-2 hours per week during slower times
Marketing Director:
Are you great at finding ways to get people to engage online? Can you manage a small team of volunteers to develop timely promotional campaigns, request and approve graphics, direct content writers, and mobilize those who post to various platforms on Realm Makers’ behalf? The marketing director would help across all areas: the annual conference, the retreat, the bookstore (Realm Makers Bookstore and Bookish) awards, and membership. If you love to bring the pieces of a puzzle into place, this is the role for you.
The ideal candidate for Marketing Director will have the confidence to take significant, proactive ownership of the role.
Skills needed:
- Project management experience a plus
- Knowledge or willingness to learn the back-end functionality of social media platforms, ConvertKit, and WordPress.
- Ability to craft marketing copy
- Audience growth strategies
- Press release targeting and distribution
- Blog management
Time requirements: Year-round position, 10-15 hours per week
Membership Director:
This job is for someone who loves to see communities thrive and grow in meaningful, helpful ways. The membership director is responsible to overseeing the activity in our Mighty Networks community, the RealmSphere, while interacting with our graphics creation team and events committees to make sure all our members stay informed. They will actively promote the membership program, both online and at the conference.
If you’re good at interfacing with multiple other “departments” of the Realm Makers community, love to see people connect, and have strong organizational skills, this role is for you.
Time requirements: Year-round position, 10-15 hours per week
Volunteer roles
Livestream Manager
The Livestream Manager connects with the movers and shakers in Christian speculative fiction to recruit them to provide webinars to our community. Webinars are one of the most important deliverables to Realm Makers members. The manager will create a schedule of both individual presentations and recurring events. Knowledge of Zoom, YouTube, and RealmSphere functionality will be key to executing this role well. (We can train on the interfaces.) The manager does not necessarily have to host the webinars, but they will need to be on hand any time a webinar should go live to facilitate the technical end of the process. If the Livestream Manager does not want to be the host, they are responsible for recruiting hosts as well as guests.
The Livestream Manager should also plan to be on the A/V team for the annual conference to help with the streaming and/or recording of sessions for online attendees.
The Livestream Manager receives a free annual Prime Membership and a free conference registration for their services.
Skills needed:
- Fluency with Zoom and YouTube
- Persistence and follow-up skills for presenter recruitment
- Strong organizational skills
- Evening availability to be facilitate webinar broadcasts
- Personable collaborator
Conference planning committee:
Not all roles will have a vacancy each year, but if you have questions about serving on the planning committee, please reach out to becky@realmmakers.com to indicate the area(s) you’d be interested in participating.
Planning Committee members receive a free annual conference registration and will work their positions both leading up to and during the conference.
Role | Time required/busy times | Job description |
A/V and technical | 3-5 hours per week Jan-July, busiest in May-July | Helps with microphones, projection, and livestreaming of sessions at the conference |
Bookstore coordinator | 5-7 hours per week, May-July Works during conference in the bookstore for the entirety of the conference | Helps with bookstore set up/tear down, manages book consignment, works bookstore checkout during the conference, assists with consignment tallying |
Exhibit hall coordinator | 3-10 hours per week, November-July; busiest in March-July | Drafts exhibit hall layout, communicates with hotel about space restrictions, assigns tables to exhibitors, answers exhibitor questions |
Master of ceremonies | 5-7 hours per week, June-July | plans script for welcome, announcements, and awards dinner, with assistance from conference and awards directors, speaks at conference as a welcoming presence |
Volunteer Coordinator | 3-5 hours per week, Feb-July with some prep in November | recruits and assigns conference volunteers across multiple areas, monitors volunteers during conference to ensure they cover their roles, trains volunteers as needed |
Registrar/assistant registrar | 3-10 hours per week in October- July; busy in November, Feb-July | builds the conference registration form, tests/recruits testers, answers questions from attendees. Must be able to check email daily or multiple times daily during busy season |
Appointment coordinator/assistant appointment coordinator | 7-10 hours per week in April-May, more in June-July | Sets up calendars for various faculty, paid critiques, and mentors, manages sign up process for appointments. Must be able to check email/Slack/RealmSphere several times a day during busy season to troubleshoot issues |
Faculty Liaison | 3-15 hours per week; busiest in October-November and May-July | works in tandem with the conference director to manage communication with faculty about travel, specific rooming/meal needs, class content, etc. Tallies amount due to be paid to faculty members for Conference Director to write checks. Presents payment to faculty members where appropriate. |
Assistant to the Director | Year round, 3-7 hours per week | The Assistant to the Conference director helps to organize the Realm Makers vision into calendars and timelines. This virtual assistant can also serve as a sounding board for new ideas. They will keep the committee abreast of deadlines coming up in their areas, remind the committee of meetings, take minutes, and list action items from discussions. At the conference, the assistant will “float” between areas to help solve unexpected issues as they arise. If you are good at working with an “absent minded professor” type, you would be a good fit for this role. Role requirements: · Strong organizational skills · Patience · Strong communication skills · Flexible and consistent availability · Ability to attend all planning committee meetings (once a month, September-May, more often and as needed May-July) · Project management leanings or experience There is potential to grow this to a paid position. |