Essex Wildlife Trust is the county's leading conservation charity, with over 37,000 members. We are one of the 46 constituent members of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and one of its largest. Our mission is "Protecting wildlife for the future and for the people of Essex". We manage some 8,400 acres of varied wildlife habitat across the county, including around 90 reserves and two nature parks. We also run 11 visitors centres around Essex, at our "destination sites". These are a key means of our engagement with the wider public and last year we welcomed more than 1 million visitors. The centres also host our wide range of educational activities for people of all ages, with each also having a cafe and shop, encouraging visitors to linger a little longer and learn more about our county's fantastic wildlife.
We currently have two vacancies on our trustee board. This is the ultimate decision-making body for the charity and is responsible for setting EWT's overall strategy and ensuring that it is delivered by our CEO, Dr Andrew Impey and his excellent team of over 200 staff. The board comprises a group of people bringing the range of professional skills and experience we need to ensure that the charity is well governed - including legal, HR, education, conservation, marketing, charity management and finance.
In particular, at this time, we would be very interested to hear from individuals bringing land management / conservation or financial management skills - to complement the knowledge that we already have around the table.
The minimum commitment we require is for 5/6 (evening) board meetings each year plus our AGM / Members Day.
Trustees are also represented on three sub-committees and on the boards of our subsidiary companies. There are occasional learning visits arranged to significant sites around the county, as well as the chance to contribute your skills and knowledge more informally within the Trust.
The positions are voluntary but reasonable expenses will be re-imbursed.
If you are interested, please, in the first instance, contact our Trust Secretary, Fiona Hearn (fionah@essexwt.org.uk) with some details about yourself and what you would bring to the board.
We look forward to hearing from you.