Recruitment: Member of Board of Trustees

Role Description:  Member of Board of Trustees 

Commitment: 4 Board meetings a year, including 2 shared meetings with our Management Committee. Roughly 0.5-1 day per  month

Application Deadline: 25th September 2022, 11:59pm

Salary: Voluntary

Job Description here: feminist_library_trustee_2022

The Feminist Library is looking for new people to join our Board of Trustees. If you are committed to intersectional feminism and non-hierarchical ways of working, and care about bringing diverse communities together through heritage we would love to hear from you, especially if you have experience in any of the following areas:

• Financial management and forecasting
• Legal 
• Community and young people engagement
• Fundraising
• Organisational development
• Community and/or political organising 
• Marketing and/or campaigning
• Collections Strategy 

We are particularly keen to attract people who live locally to the Feminist Library, with sound knowledge of the Peckham community, but we are open to applications from all over the UK. For more information, please see the document attached. 

About The Feminist Library 

The Feminist Library, based in Peckham,  is a large and unique collection of feminist literature, particularly of the Women’s Liberation Movement (c. early 1970-90’s) – and the only such independent, accessible resource in London. Over its five decades of existence, the collections have grown from one small shelf of materials to an incredible selection, including over 10,000 books, 1,500 periodical titles, more than 30 organisational and individual archival collections, around 15,000 items of ephemera, around 4,000 pamphlets, as well relatively new, but rapidly expanding zine library. Independent and mostly volunteer-run, the Library holds one of the most important and unique collections of feminist and women’s heritage in the UK, and provides an inspiring and accessible learning and social space for thousands of people. It has been supporting research, activist and community projects since 1975. The Feminist Library is a core hub for feminist activity in London, and continues to develop its range of educational and creative events programmes that have complemented its collections. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have developed a range of new online events, addressing issues of key concern during this time, including care and international solidarity. Our community is also invited to use and co-create the space. 

How we work

The Feminist Library is a non-hierarchical organisation, run by our Management Committee, which is comprised of volunteers, paid staff and trustees. We believe the library should be a space of learning, growth, care and community. Everyone (trans, cis and intersex), who remains attentive to the community policy is welcome in our space and can volunteer with us. We do not police gender in our spaces.

At the Feminist Library, we believe that feminism is a political framework that we can use to end all gendered violence. We understand gender and sex as constructed categories that increase proximity to violence for all those read as women. We recognise that experiences of womanhood are diverse and that traditionally, whole swathes of women have been locked out of this category. We also recognise that experiences of gender are diverse – feminism as a political project necessarily includes non-binary and gender non-conforming people and always has.

Person specification

We are looking for individuals with the following attributes:

• A commitment to The Feminist Libary, its objectives, its Manifesta and Community Policy  
• Good, independent judgement
• Strategic vision
• A willingness to ask questions and speak their mind
• An understanding of legal duties, responsibilities, and liabilities of trusteeship, or a willingness to learn about them
• The availability to devote the necessary time and effort to their duties as a trustee
• An ability to work effectively as a member of a team
• A commitment to non-hierarchical working and intersectional feminism
• An ability to think creatively

We are keen to ensure that our Board and Management Committee  is led by our local community so would particularly encourage the following to apply:

– people of African or Caribbean heritage

– young people (18 – 30)

– Disabled, D/deaf and hard of hearing people.