Federal Relations Assistant

SUMMARY: The Federal Relations Assistant provides general administrative support for multiple members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) Federal Relations team. Serves as the front-line contact to screen and handle high-level inquiries, as well as phone, email, and mail requests, as appropriate. Communicates extensively with internal and external colleagues and maintains a high level of customer service.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned to meet business needs.

• Screens telephone calls and meeting requests, handles routine inquiries independently with personal knowledge of supervisors’ activities.

• Schedules meetings, telephone calls, conference calls, and webinars, for supervisors; creates agendas, participates in meetings and takes notes, and ensures follow-up is completed as needed.

• Schedules meetings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere with AAU staff and constituent members; uses AAU’s online reservation system to schedule meetings in AAU’s conference room(s). Anticipates schedule conflicts, preparation and travel time, and other events which might impact schedule.

• Uses knowledge of AAU practices and priorities to proactively respond to daily issues and requests; provides organizational support related to daily workflow and determining action items and priorities.

• Drafts, prepares, and distributes letters, advocacy one-pagers, talking points, presentations, and issue summaries on behalf of supervisors, including creating initial drafts, proofing, editing, formatting, and working with mass emailing software.

• Monitors legislative developments in Congress for supervisors or other members of the FR team as needed.

• Covers hearings and writes up accurate, timely, and comprehensive summaries and analysis for supervisors or other members of the FR team as needed.

• Maintains, updates and tracks records in AAU’s database (Association Management System), retrieves and relays information from database.

• Provides materials to and maintains committee, task force, and listserv lists and coordinates conference calls and occasional in-person meetings; manages supervisors’ commitments to steering committees, advisory groups, boards, and other external groups; takes accurate notes during meetings as appropriate.

• Posts supervisors’ content to the AAU website, including posting new documents and deleting obsolete information in a timely manner.

• Organizes issue portfolio content on SharePoint site and posts content in appropriate SharePoint site.

• Administers supervisors’ travel and prepares itineraries, prepares supervisors’ expense reports, check requests, and credit card reconciliations in accordance with AAU policies and procedures; organizes and maintains paper and computer files.

• Cooperates and coordinates with other administrative assistants and fills in as necessary.

• Daily review of the Federal Register and send subsequent e-mails about notices to the appropriate AAU staff.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

COMMITTEES, COALITIONS AND CONSTITUTENT GROUP MANAGEMENT

• Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF)

• Supports the Associate Vice President for Federal Relations in the management of the CNSF.

• Coordinates conference calls and in-person meetings by helping to develop monthly coalition agendas and meeting materials; provides on-site coordination and support for monthly meetings and events.

• Maintains current membership list and facilitates members’ communication as needed.

• Supports CNSF website; serves as the point of contact between CNSF and HLP to upload website content.

• Serves as the liaison with the AAU finance department to ensure billings and annual CNSF membership invoices are sent early in the calendar year (well before registration for the CNSF exhibition)

• Assists in the preparation and execution of the annual CNSF Exhibition and Reception. Also plays an active role in the post-exhibition internal (AAU/AAAS) meeting.

• Council on Federal Relations (CFR)

• Serves as the administrative backup for the monthly CFR meeting.

• Provides materials to and maintains membership lists of supervisors’ CFR task forces.

QUALIFICATIONS/REQUIREMENTS: Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Superior organization and prioritization skills and must be meticulous and detail oriented; must follow through in a timely manner, completing tasks without prompting.

• Flexibility and ability to manage competing demands; must be able to manage a myriad of on-going tasks in a fast-paced environment and adjust to changes.

• Resourcefulness and ability to work proactively - thinking ahead. Good logic skills to review minutes and summarize the conclusions and actions taken.

• Demonstrated ability to resolve problems, use analytical judgement, and must be able to process a high volume of accurate, detailed, and quality work product.

• Demonstrated ability to create and support an environment which fosters teamwork, cooperation, respect and diversity. 

• Demonstrated ability to promote and foster productive multidirectional communications with staff as well as AAU member university officials and external parties.

• Intermediate writing and editing skills; varies writing style and voice as needed.

• History of working with integrity and ethically; must follow AAU's policies and procedures; is consistently at work and on time; ensures work responsibilities are covered when absent.

• Willingness to take ownership for wide-ranging responsibilities; demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve and monitors own work to ensure quality.

• Must reside within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area while working for AAU.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING/EXPERIENCE:

• College degree preferred; 2-4 years of administrative support. Experience working with multiple supervisors and/or in government relations preferred.

• Must have a working knowledge of, and display an advanced level of skill in, the Microsoft Office suite 2010 or more recent programs.

• Experience working with Office 365, SharePoint, association management systems, mass email systems, and website content management systems is required.

TRAVEL. Travel is primarily local during the business day, although some evening, out-of-the-area, and overnight travel may be expected. Since this position will be providing administrative support for various meetings, travel will be expected.