Flying Leap Productions – Board Search Overview and Role Description
Are you a dynamo supermom who wants to give back to your kids community? The king of the boardroom and the PTA? A super-connector looking to put your network into service for kids across NYC and beyond? You might be ready to take a Flying Leap!
We – Flying Leap Productions – make exciting, interactive theater for families around things that are tough to talk about. What makes us unique? Our shows don’t take place in theaters; we travel to underserved communities in partnership with social service organizations, to bring the joy of shared arts experiences to families outside the theater district, for free or low-cost.
All are welcome to apply, though please note that our search is prioritizing individuals from historically marginalized identities whose lived experiences reflect our audiences, including folks who identify as disabled, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, immigrants, and parents.
Overview
What you’ll do as a Flying Leap board member:
As a board member of Flying Leap Productions, you will put your skills and network into service for families outside the mainstream theater audience. You will help kids access arts experiences they wouldn’t normally be able to enjoy, and you’ll help parents and caregivers learn how to navigate tough conversations with their children through play. In more formal terns, you will advise, oversee policy and direction, and assist with the leadership and growth of Flying Leap Productions, in support of our mission. What’s that, you ask?
Our Mission, Vision, and Values:
Flying Leap Productions makes and produces thoughtful, participatory performance around complicated or difficult subject matter, for families to experience together. Our performances take place in the community, outside traditional theater spaces, and we make them in direct collaboration with our artists and our audience. With a core emphasis on accessibility and joy, our performances offer a foundation for discussion between children and their families. Our core values are care, collaboration, queerness, radical inclusivity, and action research.
Our vision: Empowered families ready to leap across perceived boundaries together and towards each other, into a more liberated world where kids have the agency to ask challenging questions and take action, and adults have the tools to navigate tough topics alongside them.
We consider access broadly, including race, gender identity, disability, language, socio-economics, geography, immigration status, and more to ensure families of all types are welcomed into our work. Fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas since 2017, we are the recipient of the 2023 Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant, and have received past support for our work from the New Victory Theater and the New York City Artist Corps.
Our Mission in Action: The Garden
Our most recent show, The Garden, completed development in 2022. An interactive, radically inclusive performance for very young children under 5 and their families, The Garden invites connection with nature and the life cycle. Designed to tour public parks, the show is performed simultaneously in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Last fall, our last phase of development included a successful “test tour” to all 5 boroughs of NYC, in partnership with University Settlement, The Governor’s Island Trust, NYU Langone’s Family Health Center and more. We’ve received a grant for performances in 2023, and are in discussion with a major partner about a large-scale 2024 tour.
Board Member Role Description
We are seeking four inaugural board members to help us bring our work to life and meet the growing demand from our community. We are particularly seeking board members with the ability to fundraise and contribute service time in the following areas:
- Legal
- Fundraising
- Non-profit management
Shared Responsibilities of the Board
- Fundraising and outreach
- Organizational leadership and advisement
- Organization of the board of directors, officers, and committees
- Formulation and oversight of policies and procedures
- Financial management, including adoption and oversight of the annual budget
- Program planning and evaluation oversight
- Personnel evaluation and staff development
- Review of organizational and programmatic reports
- Promotion of the organization
Meetings and Time Commitment
We are asking members to commit to a minimum of 1 year, starting in Spring 2023. As a working board, board members should be able to commit to at least 8 hours/month for meetings and work on behalf of Flying Leap. This includes:
- A monthly 90-minute meeting that will give status updates on Flying Leap;
- A 30-minute 1:1 monthly check-in with the Producing Artistic Director on projects the board member is actively working on;
- 6 hours per month of work in service of the organization.
Expectations of Board Members
- Attend and participate in regular monthly meetings;
- Eventual participation in ad-hoc committees as needed;
- Advise and advance the start-up phase in your area of expertise;
- Become familiar with Flying Leap finances, budget, and financial/resource needs;
- Actively support in growing Flying Leap’s finances;
- Dream big, work collaboratively, and be willing to occasionally participate in silly theater games.
For more information or to express interest:
- Fill out our brief interest form at www.flying-leap.com/board-search
- OR contact Producing Artistic Director Jess Kaufman at jess@flying-leap.com
