Job Purpose

The Estate Supervisor will lead the estate team at Mar Lodge. The role will primarily involve responsibility for delivering all aspects of estate maintenance, including buildings and utilities, vehicles, tracks, forestry and farmland infrastructure. We are therefore looking for a candidate who is highly organised with general abilities who values working within a flexible and supportive team culture, and who would uphold the values of the Trust. The ideal candidate will be passionate about promoting nature recovery in the largest National Nature Reserve in Britain.

Context

Mar Lodge Estate is made up of more than 29,000 hectares of inspiring Scottish landscape: heather covered moorland, Caledonian pine forest, towering mountains and the Quoich wetlands, home to wading birds and otters. There are 15 Munros here, including 4 of the 5 highest mountains in the UK. The wild beauty of Mar Lodge Estate unfolds around our 19th century shooting lodge, which is used for both holiday accommodation and events.

The beautiful ancient pinewoods that surround the Lodge are home to red squirrels and pine martens as well as birds such as the crossbill and black grouse. We have a wide range of landscape conservation projects underway, including woodland regeneration through deer reduction, footpath repair and peatland restoration.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Planning

• Manage maintenance and compliance master sheets so that all works are planned according to priority, recorded in terms of progress and accurate costings tracked.

Building Maintenance

• Carrying out property condition/safety and fire safety checks and inspections in line with Safe Systems of Work.

• Identifying, initiating and monitoring contractor repair work, both in house and by external contractors, in line with contractor management procedures, and legislation.

• Maintaining on-line records in relation to the elements above to ensure compliance with legislation.

Forestry interventions.

• Plan felling and thinning rotation in accordance with the Mar Lodge Estate management objectives and long-term forest plan in conjunction with the ecology team. The estate supervisor will be involved in the periodic review of the aforementioned documents.

• Manage thinning, timber harvesting and transport operations. Manage the periodic safety inspections of trees and any subsequent necessary interventions.

Infrastructure maintenance and compliance.

• Oversee operation and maintenance of infrastructure on the estate, including roads, bridges, private water supplies, district heat network, solar panels, sewage treatment and biomass heating system.

Asset Control

• Keep an inventory of all estate tools, plant, vehicles and equipment and ensure they are securely stored and audited periodically

Grounds/Farmland maintenance.

• Work with the estate manager, conservation manager and the visitor services manager to update and deliver a landscape plan for the Mar Lodge Policies/designated landscape.

• Provide practical support on the delivery of conservation projects, such as peatland restoration.

• Erect and maintain fencing, manage conservation hay meadows and wetland interventions, manage hedgerows, manage formal lawns and garden shrubbery.

Health and Safety

• Prepare risk assessments for all activities undertaken by the estate team in accordance with Health & Safety legislation tasks. Record and report accidents, incidents and near misses as appropriate. In conjunction with others (Estate Manager, VSM, NTS H&S Team), prepare Fire Risk Assessments for estate buildings. Lead on delivery of remedial actions. Other necessary H&S administration (COSHH, HAVs recording, etc).

• In line with stated Trust policies and approaches to ensure the health and welfare of staff/volunteers and visitors in compliance with legislation.

Advocacy

• Contribute where appropriate to Trust membership recruitment.

Join Our Board - Trustee Opportunities at Comics Youth SCIO

Comics Youth SCIO is a charity for children and young people aged 8-25, based in Dundee. We deliver comics-based literacy, sequential art, publishing and wellbeing projects, as well as comics workshops at community spaces and other organisations around the city.

We use our platform as an organisation to give young people ownership of their own narratives, and our work focuses on building resilience, mental wellbeing and literacy through creativity and comic-making. It’s vitally important for young people to see themselves represented, and it is our mission to amplify their voices as much as possible and involve them in every step of the work that we do.

We are looking to expand our board of trustees to help guide and support this work. We would particularly like to encourage applications from people who are currently underrepresented on our Board, including people from minority ethnic communities, disabled people, and LGBTQ+ people. We are also seeking trustees with specific experience in the following roles:

• Treasurer/Finance and fundraising
• Safeguarding
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Impact evaluation

What it Means to Be a Comics Youth SCIO Trustee

As a trustee, you will help support Comics Youth SCIO’s governance, strategic and financial planning, and contribute to a culture of care and creativity. You will work alongside other trustees and the staff team to ensure the organisation remains ethical, resilient and supportive to the people it serves.

The role is voluntary and not remunerated – reasonable expenses will be covered. The current time commitment is approximately 10 hours per month, including Board meetings, preparation, strategic discussions and occasional support for Comics Youth SCIO activities.

Help Build the Next Act at The Fort Theatre

Have you ever wanted to help run your own theatre?

Theatre gives people somewhere to escape, to laugh, to be moved, and sometimes to explore things that are difficult to talk about anywhere else. We think communities should have places where that can happen.

At the Antonine Theatre Group (ATG), we have one of those places: The Fort Theatre in Bishopbriggs, just one stop from Glasgow Queen Street by train.

We're an amateur theatre company run entirely by volunteers, with something relatively unusual: our own theatre. We produce several shows each year, while also looking after and developing the venue that makes them possible.

This year, our programme has included Bull by Mike Bartlett, Chatroom by Enda Walsh, God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza and 2:22: A Ghost Story by Danny Robins, alongside our annual Christmas pantomime, Hansel & Gretel. So, as you might gather, we're not afraid of a bit of variety.

We're now looking for new volunteer trustees who can bring professional or creative expertise to ATG and help us shape what The Fort becomes next.

Who we're looking for

First, an important point: we're not looking for one miraculous person who can do all the things below. We're looking for several people, each bringing skills or experience in any one of these areas. If you recognise yourself in one of them, we'd like to hear from you.

• Finance and accountancy- You might be an accountant, finance professional or someone with experience of budgets, financial reporting, financial controls and longer-term financial planning. If a reconciled spreadsheet gives you quiet satisfaction, you'll fit right in.
• Fundraising and income development - You might have experience of fundraising strategy, grant applications, trusts and foundations, corporate partnerships or developing new sources of charitable and earned income.
• Governance and organisational development - You might have experience as a company or board secretary, in charity governance, developing policies and procedures, or establishing a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). We're seeking to become a SCIO, and we're particularly interested in someone who can help us strengthen our governance and support that transition as ATG develops.
• Theatre and the creative industries - You might bring dramaturgical or other professional creative experience, a strong understanding of stagecraft and theatre-making, or established networks across theatre and the wider creative industries in Scotland. We're looking for someone who can bring a wider creative perspective into the room and help us think ambitiously about the work we put on our stage.
• Theatre technology - We're interested in people with a strong understanding of modern theatre technology who'd be excited by the opportunity to help modernise a working community theatre. You might already work professionally in the sector, be studying technical theatre or theatre production, or have developed practical experience in lighting, sound or video elsewhere.

What being a trustee involves

This isn't a trustee role where you turn up six times a year, read the papers, say something sensible about risk and disappear again.

ATG has no paid staff, so our trustees are hands-on. You'll help shape the organisation's direction and use your particular expertise to help make things happen.

The Management Committee meets around six times a year, and we'd normally ask trustees to be able to contribute around two hours a week outside those meetings.

You'll be helping to run a charity with its own theatre, an active programme of productions, finances, licences, members and volunteers. There are real responsibilities involved, but also a genuine opportunity to influence what a small cultural organisation and its theatre become over the coming years.

A board role, but also a creative community.

This is perhaps the unusual bit.

You won't just be joining a board. You'll be joining a theatre company and a creative community.

If you want to, you can audition for a play, direct a production, work backstage, design lighting or sound, build a set, help choose future productions, or learn something you've never tried before. You'll meet people who share an interest in theatre and, we hope, make some friends along the way.

No previous performing experience is required.

None of that is compulsory. If you'd prefer to contribute your expertise as a trustee and watch the shows from the audience, that's absolutely fine.

But we think there's something fairly special about being able to serve on the board of a theatre on Thursday and find yourself rehearsing on its stage on Monday.

You don't need previous trustee experience, and you don't need a background in amateur theatre.

What we're looking for is relevant skills or experience in at least one of the five areas above, sound judgement, and an interest in helping a volunteer-run theatre thrive.