[Okfn-irl] OGP Announcement - Temporary Administrative Assistant Sought for Civil Society Open Government Partnership Forum

[Nat O'Connor]

Hi Denis,
 
Thanks for your questions.
 
As I’ve said before, the role of the administration is absolutely meant to benefit all of civil society working on open government in Ireland. The main thing is what outcomes can we expect from a part-time role over just three months. I’m open to suggestions and I note your comments. My starting ideas are:
 
·         Take notes on all meetings and post them in a timely fashion online, so people can track what’s happening at meetings and what decisions are being made;
 
·         Make revisions and updates to the website, again to provide tracking on developments;
 
·         Write up a list of everyone in civil society involved in activity relevant to OGP. In some cases, local/community initiatives may not even see themselves as part of OGP, but would benefit from the existence of the civil society forum;
 
·         Write a series of mini-reports about current practice across Ireland relevant to OGP. I see this as a joining-the-dots exercise, showing how everything from the Aarhus Convention and access to environmental information, to open health data, to measures to reduce corruption, citizen participation, etc. are all part of the OGP ‘family’ of initiatives. In order to do this, I would expect the administrator to try to meet and talk to everyone, in order to get a handle on the wide variety of activities that are happening. 
 
TASC has agreed to recruit someone and to handle the legal side of employing a temporary administrator. As well as the email lists, an ad was placed on ActiveLink, which has a wide circulation by email as well as a site: http://www.activelink.ie/content/vacancies/interest-groups/15003
 
We will shortlist CVs from applicants based on their relevant work experience/skills; knowledge; and availability. Thanks for your note about technical skills. Martin Wallace (Dovetail) has agreed to assist us with telephone interviews for the leading applicants.
 
I have yet to receive details from DPER re use of the funds, but I am happy to circulate details about what  spending will be permissible. Their initial email indicated €6K for the role (i.e. pay and employers’ PRSI 10.75%) and €2K for any technical assistance, such as changes to http://www.ogpireland.ie/  If the role requires travel, especially outside Dublin, I would hope that can come out of the €2K budget (based on public transport or a modest mileage rate).
 
Once we have recruited an administrator, I am happy to publish the agreed working hours, etc. to make sure every civil society organisation has a chance to benefit from this role. I am especially keen to document what each group is doing and to have as complete as possible as ‘who’s who’ list of OGP activism in Ireland. I think this exercise will make it really clear that the administrator has connected with and provided a service to everyone.
 
Kind regards,
 
Nat
 
 
 
From: denis.parfenov at gmail.com [mailto:denis.parfenov at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Denis Parfenov
Sent: 10 February 2014 11:30
To: Nat O'Connor
Cc: ogpirl at dgroups.org; open-government-ireland at googlegroups.com; Nuala Haughey; <okfn-irl at lists.okfn.org>
Subject: Re: OGP Announcement - Temporary Administrative Assistant Sought for Civil Society Open Government Partnership Forum
 
Hi Nat,
 
Please see below 10 questions regarding hiring OGP Administrative Assistant and her/his daily duties:
 
1.    OKF Ireland repeats it’s question from Feb. 3rd:  will the position will be posted on popular job search pages? Please post to irishjobs.ie and recruitireland.ie and share the link.
2.    Could you please share the details of the selection process for this role? 
3.    Can you let us know how members of the wider civil society group can get involved if they so wish?  
4.    Do you have a top-line breakdown of how funds are intended to be used?
5.    Will be schedule and working hours be made publicly available to ensure that other CS participants of this forum has equal access to this funded by the public resource?
6.    Weekly summary of work complete by the Admin. Should be along the lines of a PPP (= Progress, Plan, Problems)
7.    Do you anticipate the assistant administrator creating content for any member of the civil society group? OKF Ireland’s position is that this should not be the case as it is a paid position to serve as an administrator for OGP CS group.  
8.    In which capacity should the Administrative assistant attend meetings? I understand it would be as a minute taker, taking notes impartially and sharing with the wider groups within 24hrs.  
9.    OKF Ireland asks that the administrator hired for this role has the relevant “technical skills” for the following duty: "To refresh, update and manage the OGP Ireland website [….], including re-purposing it as the repository of information about the Forum and the process of drafting Ireland’s first OGP Action Plan". 
10. Finally, Nuala’s announcement specifies that the Administrative assistant will “be working with the developer of the site”. Could you clarify the name of this developer and why we should work particularly with her/him?
 
We look forward to hearing from you.
 
Best,
Denis

-- 
Denis Parfenov // OKF Ambassador for Ireland // m: +353863850044 // @prfnv [.org] // @okfIRL [.org]
The Open Knowledge Foundation Empowering through Open Knowledge http://okfn.org/
On 3 February 2014 13:09, Nuala Haughey <nhaughey at tasc.ie> wrote:
Please circulate widely
 
Temporary job offer
 
Ireland’s Civil Society Open Government Partnership Forum is looking to hire a temporary, part-time assistant to help with administrative and web-based tasks, to help organise civil society’s responses to Ireland’s first OGP Action Plan, which is currently being drafted.
TASC has agreed to co-ordinate the recruitment and management of this three-month part-time post role.
 
Deadline for expression of interest is Monday 10th February at 5pm. If more than one person applies for this role, TASC will undertake a selection process based on work experience, knowledge of OGP and related areas and availability to start as soon as possible.
All inquiries to: Nuala Haughey (nhaughey at tasc.ie)
Role:
·         To provide secretarial/administrative support to the Civil Society OGP Forum, including taking Minutes of meetings and posting them online;
·         To act as a contact point between civil society groups;
·         To act as a contact point between civil society groups and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; 
·         To refresh, update and manage the OGP Ireland website, working with the developer of the site, including repurposing it as the repository of information about the Forum and the process of drafting Ireland’s first OGP Action Plan;
·         To co-ordinate diaries and arrange meetings between different groups as well as with relevant Government Departments and agencies;
·         To develop contact lists for everyone and to assist the migration of people from diverse existing email lists to one shared emailing system;
·         To compile a list of all projects involving civil society that are relevant to OGP;
·         To work to support civil society generally, including inter alia attending meetings, taking notes, making copies, following up on issues, etc.
 
 
Annex: Offer of short-term funding from Evelyn O’Connor at DPER, Government Reform Unit
From: Evelyn O'Connor [mailto:Evelyn.O'Connor at per.gov.ie] 
Sent: 30 January 2014 15:40
To: Nat O'Connor
Subject: admin and technical support for civil society reps
Dear Nat,
I refer to our discussion last week and the request for some form of  a bursary (total of €8k) to be provided to give administrative and technical support to civil society representatives to enable civil society representatives to work in partnership with Government over the coming 3 months in developing an OGP National Action Plan.  Specifically I understand that the money would be used as follows:
(1)    to employ someone for 3 months to give administrative support to the civil society reps – someone who would 
·         act as a contact point between civil society groups themselves and also with us  
·         organise meetings between the different groups as well as with relevant Govt Depts and agencies
·         develop contact lists for everyone so that we can be on a shared emailing system
·         work to support civil society generally – presumably attend meetings, take notes, make copies, follow up on issues etc etc   
(2)    In addition someone would need to be employed for the 3 month period to provide technical support
·         refresh the OGP website
·         rewrite parts of it
·         keep it up to date
·         monitor content
·         rebrand if appropriate
 
The budget sought is €6k for the admin support and c. €2k for the technical support.
In principle it seems that it will be possible for us to provide some form of a grant to provide administrative and technical support to civil society representatives for the period of 3 months as requested.   
There will be a number of things to sort out in terms of control requirements and governance arrangements.  It may be the case for example that we would have to give a monthly payment on foot of receipt of reports of the expenditure (activities and outputs delivered) as we will need to be satisfied that funds are spent for the purposes intended and that value for money obtains.  I appreciate that you would likely need payments to be made in advance to engage personnel to provide the supports you outlined.  We would also need to be given bank account details.
We can discuss the matter further in the next few days.  I hope the meeting goes well this evening and we look forward to hearing from you.
Best regards
Evelyn
Government Reform Unit
 
 
 
 
Nuala Haughey 
Project Manager 
TASC – Think-tank for Action on Social Change
Second Floor, Castleriver House, 14-15 Parliament Street
Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel:     +353 1 6169050
Email: nhaughey at tascnet.ie
Web:   www.tascnet.ie
Blog:   www.progressive-economy.ie
Research and Organisation Services Ltd. TA/ TASC. Registered Address: Hill House, 26 Sion Hill Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9. Company No. 342993. CHY 14778.
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