Manager of Conference & Guest Services

Job Title

Manager of Conference & Guest Services

Agency

Texas A&M University

Department

Residence Life And Housing

Proposed Minimum Salary

$4,583.33 monthly

Job Location

College Station, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

Our Commitment

Texas A&M University is committed to enriching the learning and working environment for all visitors, students, faculty, and staff by promoting a culture that embraces inclusion, diversity, equity, and accountability.  Diverse perspectives, talents, and identities are vital to accomplishing our mission and living our core values .

Who we are

The Department of Residence Life is housed within the Division of Student Affairs. It is comprised of 60+ full-time staff and 180+ graduate and undergraduate student staff. We offer a fun, academic-centered environment where each staff member has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students. To learn more, please visit our website https://reslife.tamu.edu/ .

What we want

We are looking for a Program Manager, to join our unit. This position is essential for our growth and the premier service we aim to provide. You will be responsible for providing advanced professional and specialized skills for the administrative and organizational management of the Conference & Guest Services operations, to include on-campus housing tours. As an advocate you will attend student meetings and conferences to better understand and serve them. We foresee our ideal candidate will have competencies in communication skills (both oral and written), organizational skills, customer service and exercise meticulous attention to detail. The selected candidate will subscribe to and support our commitment to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability as stated above. If you have the desired skills and this description appeals to you, we encourage you to apply for this position.

What you need to know

Compensation: Minimum of $55, 000, commensurate with experience.

Cover Letter & Resume: Please submit a cover letter and resume.

COVID-19 information:  Texas A&M University monitors local, state and federally mandated health guidelines to keep students, employees, prospective employees, and visitors as safe as possible. For the latest information regarding Texas A&M’s COVID-19 response, please visit the University’s COVID-19 website . For COVID-19 employment-related information, please visit the Division of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness’ COVID-19 website .

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in student affairs, counseling, or related field, or equivalent combination of training and experience.

• Five years experience in student affairs or related specialty area.

• Three years experience in student affairs or related specialty area with a master’s degree.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• General office conditions with the majority of time spent in contact with students, family and group sponsors.

• Attends meetings and conferences concerning students and with student groups at times beyond usual working hours.

• Ability to multi-task and work cooperatively with others.

• Demonstrate oral and written communication skills.

Other Requirements:

• Requires evening/weekend work and/or travel.

• Attends meetings and conferences concerning students, guests, sponsors or staff members at times beyond usual working hours.

• Ability to climb stairs.

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Doctoral degree in higher education administration or related field.

• Two years’ experience in student affairs or related specialty area with a doctoral degree.

​Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Strong interpersonal/organizational, communication skills.

• Willingness to work as part of a team to aid students, staff and faculty.

• Operational knowledge of large database operations.

• Pay attention to detail, exercise confidentiality, and strong customer service skills.

Responsibilities

• Camp and Conference Oversight - Leads summer operations for the Department of Residence Life for approximately 12,000 summer guests for New Student Conferences and continuing education conferences.  Administers, coordinates, promotes, and expands the summer camp and conference program for the Department of Residence Life. Ensures continuous quality improvement through on-going assessment and participatory management involving guests, students, staff and university faculty and staff conference sponsors. Provides responsive problem solving to conference guests, students, staff and sponsors. Arranges, schedules, reserves, and confirms housing space for conference groups in specific residence halls and University Apartments. Coordinates conference-housing accommodations for new students and parents attending orientation programs with Admissions and New Student & Family Programs (NSFP). Coordinates the overall departmental delivery of housing services for conference events on campus assisted as needed by other departmental stakeholders and staff. Leads month out planning meetings with conference sponsors and departmental staff during the Spring semester and early summer to review sponsor responsibilities and procedures as outlined in the conference agreement. Collaborates with departmental and university staff to determine and recommend summer residence hall and apartment utilization schedule.  Develop a preliminary camp and conference schedule to be distributed to internal and external stakeholders by early February annually. Prepares and distributes a Conference Housing Information sheet detailing housing arrangements for each individual group. Communicates accommodation changes to camp sponsors and university stakeholders as needed. Collaborates with the Housing Assignments Office to manage the summer camps and conference contract. Coordinates temporary guest housing options over winter break (winter interim housing) and between semesters, as needed. Coordinates marketing efforts for housing options between semesters and winter interim housing operations. Collaborates with the university and department staff to facilitate check-in/out, make ready, maintenance, custodial, and guest support for summer conference groups.  Coordinates departmental wayfinding efforts for summer camps and conferences. Interprets and develops university/departmental rules, procedures, goals, objectives and guidelines for summer conference operations. Contributes to the Summer Conference staff handbook and training materials for new staff training and orientation sessions as needed. Provides training sessions for departmental staff members assigned for all summer conference programs as the subject matter expert for the conference housing database (IRIS Coordinator) as needed.

• Tours and Recruitment - Provides general oversight to the departmental tour operation.  Directly supervise one full-time Tour Coordinator and indirectly supervise one graduate assistant and up to 24 tour guides. Meets regularly with the Tour Coordinator who hires, trains, and supervises Tour Guides. Assists with the training of Tour Guides. Provide tours as needed. Supports departmental efforts related to Aggieland Saturday, Aggieland Info Day, and other “Welcome Day” events. Represents the department as needed at/for designated recruitment events. Collaborates with and supports a strong relationship with the A&M Visitor Center to ensure operational continuity between departmental and university tour efforts.  Provides presentations at New Student Conferences as needed.

• Communication and Collaboration - Serves as the lead communicator and collaborator for summer operations on behalf of the department. Coordinates summer space utilization with the Housing Assignments Office. Coordinate database management and usage to support operational viability. Manage username/user profile privileges in IRIS. Develops and maintains relationships with campus constituents including Admissions, Student Life, Dining Services, Transportation Services, custodial and maintenance staff, other various departments within Academic and Student Affairs, as well as University faculty and staff conference sponsors. Serves as the departmental representative of the University Wide New Student Conference (NSC) Committee to recommend and establish conference dates and schedule of activities, including housing check-in/out and registration. Collaborates with embedded Marketing and Communications staff to develop and distribute conference housing promotional materials to university faculty and staff.  Coordinates the distribution of conference promotional materials for Housing, Dining Services (Chartwells), and Transportation Services to university conference faculty and staff sponsors. Coordinates special housing requests from new students and parents with disabilities attending NSCs. Coordinates with university administered academic programs and visiting student research programs for summer housing. Contacts organizations looking to house visiting high school students with current residence hall students for weekend visits to Texas A&M University to discuss Residence Hall regulations and to acquire a list of guest names and hosts from the organization.  Collaborates with departmental staff to coordinate assessment efforts for new student and conference guest experiences. Liaises with New Student Family Program (NSFP), the Housing Assignments Office, and Residence Life staff, to coordinate departmental resource tables, on-campus housing sessions, and parent sessions for new students and family members attending NSCs. Serves on the University calendar committee to coordinate residential publicity for the university web calendar and the University Relations Office. Provides information for the departmental website and other university departments as needed. Serves on the Aggieland Saturday committee and coordinates housing assignment information tables with the Housing Assignments Office and residence hall and apartment tours. Serves on department, division and university committees/task forces as needed.

• Administrative - Oversees the billing and appeal process for all summer camps, conferences, and NSCs. Coordinates efforts for invoicing and billing with embedded finance staff and other departmental staff. Responsible for submitting an annual Summer Operations report to include income summaries, tour guest numbers, and overall guest headcounts. Conducts research for program planning by surveying comparable university and local hotel room rates and guest services provided to conference guests. Recommends revisions to conference housing room rates and services based on research. Coordinates custodial and maintenance services for camps and conferences, to include linen inventory/purchases, laundry contract development/implementation, and planning meetings during the Spring semester (room preparation, cleaning schedules, maintenance repairs, etc.) working university and departmental staff. Assists in the development and preparation of the annual budget, specifically for the area of Conference & Guest Services and tour operations. Initiates and monitors purchase requisitions for conference guest linens, towels, soap, and supplies. Communicates with SSC custodial and conference staff regarding conference supply needs.

• Outreach - Responsible for coordinating, in collaboration with the embedded Creative Manager, the department wide outreach efforts to include but not limited to publications, social media, communication, and marketing efforts for all summer programs. Coordinates the marketing efforts related to current housing information, updates, and communications with the Campus Visitors Center; this includes the video wall, in-person housing tours, virtual tours, Visitors Guide, general housing information, and other marketing data. Coordinates and collaborates on an integrated, multifaceted, promotional and public relations plan to advance the mission of the Department and support the strategic plan. Recruits new conference groups to stay on campus during the summer by attending events and cold calling. Highlights previous guest experiences to potential new clients or groups. Pre-books tentative stays for groups or guests for the following summer. Coordinates and communicates the available spaces and costs to new groups throughout the year. Coordinates memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for multi-year conference groups.

• Database Management - Develops, implements, and maintains an automated conference housing scheduling database program with assistance from the Provost IT Office. Maintains Conference Programmer/IRIS Coordinator used for housing check-in/out and registration and billing of conference housing fees in conjunction with the Department of Information Technology (Division of Student Affairs). Oversee the creation reports in IRIS database. Works with third party database managers to manage summer operation database enhancements and upgrades.  Manage occupancy, clearing, and schedule information for summer operations via IRIS database on behalf of the Department of Residence Life. Advances the philosophy of multiculturalism and actively promotes diversity and the uniqueness of each individual in staffing, programming, and student leadership. Serves in an on-call duty rotation providing for an on-campus population of approximately 12,000 students. Performs other duties as assigned by the Associate Director, Senior Associate Director, or Executive Director of Residence Life.

Instructions to Applicants: Applications received by Texas A&M University must either have all job application data entered or a resume attached. Failure to provide all job application data or a complete resume could result in an invalid submission and a rejected application. We encourage all applicants to upload a resume or use a LinkedIn profile to pre-populate the online application.

In accordance with the federal contractor vaccination mandate , specific facilities at The Texas A&M System may be considered a covered contractor workplace with covered contractor employees. Therefore, successful applicants for this position may be subject to the federal mandate to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment unless an approved medical or religious accommodation is in place.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer committed to diversity.