Director of Community Media

BAVC Media (Bay Area Video Coalition) is one of the leading community media organizations in the country. Celebrating our 45th year of operations, BAVC Media serves 7,500 freelancers, filmmakers, jobseekers, activists and artists each year, at home in the Bay Area and nationally. BAVC Media provides access to media making technology, training, services and resources to a diverse and engaged community of independent makers and producers, and nonprofit organizations. Here are some of our value statements to give you a sense of our commitments and priorities:

Radical Access – BAVC Media is rooted in media justice. Everyone should have access to tools and information to create new narratives for themselves and their communities.
Collective Spirit – We believe in plurality – of voice, of identity, of perspective. BAVC Media is a coalition of passionate creatives, working artists, independent media makers, and everyday people, effecting change one story at a time.
Empowered Creativity – Everyone should have the chance to be active producers and interpreters, rather than merely consumers of media. Whether in an online course or an artist development cohort, at BAVC Media you will have an immersive, communal learning experience that encourages you to question and create.

BAVC Media’s operation of SF Commons, public access television channels 29 and 76 for the City of San Francisco, and our production of media projects for nonprofit and social impact causes, are central to BAVC Media’s mission. We’re proud of the media makers and projects that we’ve supported through these programs thus far, and see exciting potential for expansion of SF Commons and original productions in the future.

For candidates that haven’t experienced local public access television, here’s a compelling reflection:

I was once channel surfing with a friend late one night. All of a sudden, she yelled out “that’s my hairdresser”. Turned out her hairdresser was a pesticides activist in her spare time and hosted a once-a-month program on the dangers of common household products. We weren’t looking for information on toxins in cosmetics. We started watching because we knew this person. And we stayed watching because we learned something: both about the subject and about someone who lived in our neighborhood.

That’s the importance of community media: the proximity that brings issues and people together that might never ordinarily bump into each other though they live side by side.

-Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance

BAVC seeks qualified candidates for the open Director of Community Media position. This is a full-time, exempt position that manages SF Commons, San Francisco’s Public Access television stations, which supports and documents the storytelling efforts of the city’s public access television producers. The Director of Community Media also acts as a line producer and manager for BAVC Productions, a fee-for-service production service used primarily by nonprofits who wish to create a compelling message using video. By facilitating the growth of a diverse community of active, engaged community media makers, the Director of Community Media contributes to BAVC’s mission of empowering social change. This individual oversees and manages the Community Engagement Associate, Media Engagement Specialist and the Equipment & Studio Coordinator to provide hands-on support of producers, and reports to the Executive Director.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following:

SF Commons Operations

• Ensure program scheduling and continuous playback of public access programs on all cable systems for SF Commons, which includes multiple channels on Comcast, Astound, and AT&T cable services, through a software interface.  This includes oversight of the receiving, digitizing, formatting, scheduling, and archiving submitted content from public access producers, and maintaining related records and metadata for all programs, and working directly with SF Commons staff to ensure operational efficacy.
• Provide direct, non-technical support to public access television producers, nonprofit members, and programs.
• Facilitate community-based trainings/workshops for public access media production and programming (including producer orientations, basic video production and postproduction, and use of the BAVC web interface).
• Develop and execute creative outreach strategies to recruit new producers from diverse backgrounds and experiences, reflective of San Francisco residents – particularly voices that we don’t often get to hear
  Supervise the efforts of the SF Commons staff
• Advocate for SF Commons producers and communicate participant needs to the larger organization, and create new programming offerings for producers to collaborate and elevate their shows
• Plan and facilitate a Community Advisory Group (CAG), a cohort of engaged producers who advocate for change and growth of the channel and its programs
• Troubleshoot and support day-to-day maintenance of public access systems, including “quality control” oversight of the daily cablecast and live stream, with support from technical staff
• Maintain thorough producer and program records online (web) and offline (files) and share these reports with the City of San Francisco (on a quarterly basis)
• Oversee the documentation of SF Commons events and programs, and share out of these opportunities and experiences via social media, blog posts, and the upkeep of an outward facing SF Commons webpage on the BAVC site
• Support and creatively produce off-site community storytelling efforts through partnerships and proactive outreach. Expand SF Commons’ external activities in San Francisco!
• Develop and produce new original programming for SF Commons that celebrates the spirit and joy of living and working in San Francisco
• Coordinate the operation of live streaming events through use of the station’s mobile Tricaster, and ensure the on-site delivery of quality live media to all streams and channels
• Document administrative program procedures, and communicate these with other BAVC staff members as needed
• Communicate and enforce policies and procedures
• Create and maintain new cross-department collaborations within BAVC’s departments – to enable media makers of all stages of development, and materials preserved by BAVC preservation, to find a home on SF
• Commons and expand current programming
• Represent BAVC with the community media field through participation at conferences, submitting projects to awards programs and festivals, and staying abreast of exciting programs and projects offered by other community media stations for inspiration

BAVC Productions

• Lead business development activities for BAVC Productions – responding to potential client inquiries, bidding on mission-aligned RFPs, and collaborating on the submission of project-based grants, in collaboration with the Executive Director and the development team
• Run BAVC Productions as a mini- nonprofit production studio: identify and discern video production clients’ needs; create budgets that meet client and BAVC’s operational needs; manage production and postproduction; and provide great customer service to clients.
• Seek out opportunities to engage BAVC participants and alumni to get production experience as production assistants and other roles as possible
• Collaborate with BAVC’s marketing team to elevate projects and collaborations, including making sure that our website content is fresh, clear and engaging, and that our work is featured in BAVC’s other digital publications
• Collaborate with the Executive Director to develop artistic initiatives, engaging BAVC’s community of media makers to create works with the potential to achieve festival runs and distribution on industry platforms, to amplify audience engagement and social impact goals
• Stay current with industry-standard technologies and media making approaches – ensuring that our projects reflect best practices and innovation

QUALIFICATIONS, EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

Technical Skills

• Proficient Google docs, Microsoft Office and Mac/PC experience
• Extensive Internet use; use of web applications (such as a personal Web site or blog, or personal YouTube/video page)
• Video production experience: use of a variety of camera formats (DSLR, Camcorder, etc) and experience producing a variety of formats, including non-fiction interview-driven, educational, scripted shorts, music video, live performance, social media micro…content. Wow us!
• Video postproduction experience: working knowledge of Premiere and Adobe Creative Suite a must.
• Knowledge of After Effects is a plus.
• Familiar with compression workflows, and media storage and asset management
• Knowledge of television programming software (BAVC uses Tightrope Media Systems’ Cablecast playback system and Carousel Digital Signage)
• Knowledge of livestreaming video systems (e.g. Tricaster)
• Other Skills & Capacities
• Customer service or public service experience
• Experience working with diverse communities, ability to fit into and continue to create a supportive, participative organizational culture (team-building, conflict management, humor, flexibility, energy and vision)
• Excellent written and oral communication, organization, time management, and customer service skills
• Experience managing a diverse team of peers
• Professional knowledge and demonstrated commitment towards community media
• An understanding of the public media landscape of the Bay Area, and the state/nation, is a plus
• Experience facilitating meetings and instructing media production
• Spanish-speaking or other second-language fluency is a plus
• Experience create content for the web: creating blogs and short video profiles.
• Weekend and evening flexibility for troubleshooting and problem resolution is a must

COMPENSATION

• Salary is expected to be in the range of $70,000-80,000 annually on a full-time basis, commensurate with experience.
• BAVC offers full-time employees paid sick leave, vacation, and health benefits.
• Candidates that seek to work on a 4-day week basis may be considered, especially if you are a professional artist

BAVC strongly encourages candidates from diverse and/or underrepresented communities and backgrounds to apply. 

*SPECIAL ADA REQUIREMENTS

BAVC is in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and does not discriminate with regard to applicants or employees with disabilities, and will make reasonable accommodations to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of his or her job. For the purposes of ADA, the “Essential Duties and Responsibilities” are essential job functions. Significant work is performed in a typical interior community meeting space or classroom work environment. The ability to lift 50 pounds or more is not required by this position and a candidate’s inability to do so will not affect their eligibility for the position. However, if the candidate is physically able to lift 50lb and is hired for the position they will be asked to do so as part of their job duties.

BAVC will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

HOW TO APPLY: Please send a cover letter and resume to hr@bavc.org with the job title in the email subject line.