Node Liaison Overview

What is a Node Liaison

A Node Liaison is someone who is paid to help get new nodes established over a two year period. They help start a committee in the new node and do behind the scenes work preparing GPN events and upskilling new committee members so that they can take over.

Node Liaisons are not responsible for getting new universities on board or finding funding for new nodes.

What do we look for in a Node Liaison

Node Liaisons need to have a lot of experience at GPN to be able to help a new node come to life, they also need to be organised and have good communication skills in order to prep the events and upskill the new node's committee. Below are some of the skills or experiences that we look for when hiring a Node Liaison.

• Recent knowledge and experience of GPN, including being a beginner room lead and leading a morning job

• Understanding of the ethos of GPN and our values

• Willing to do some travel - we expect Node Liaisons to visit their new node twice.

• Time and willingness to do all the tasks required (see time committment)

• Ability to handle interpersonal relationships between new committee members and university partners

• Leadership skills to bring together a new team

• Attention to detail

• Ability to understand the GPN content at a technical level, so as to explain it to new GPN leaders

• Ability to get things done on time

• Confidence in giving instruction to others

• Confidence in making decisions independently in response to incidents at events or between events, and being able to escalate when appropriate

• Communication skills for working with the team and superiors

• WWCC, or ability to get one 

Time commitment of a Node Liaison

The following time commitments are all a paid part of the role.

• Shadowing an established committee, if no previous GPN committee experience

• 1 hour weekly meeting with new node committee

• 10 hours of prep per event in first year, 5 hours of prep per event in second year

  • Includes pre-event set up (e.g. sign up forms, parent emails, content aggregation, etc)

  • Includes post-event work (e.g. event debrief)

  • Including regular check-ins with the Node Liaison Lead

• Attending the GPN Australia meeting for the first year of the new node on the first Tuesday of each month (or watching the meeting recording when you can’t attend)

We also would like Node Liaisons to travel to their new node for 2 events. Volunteering at GPN events is not a paid activity, however we will pay for your travel, accomodation and food while on the trip.

Getting paid as a Node Liaison

As a Node Liaison you will get a two-year contract per node that you are liaising for, which will outline responsibilities and hourly pay, including the maximum number of hours

• You will need an ABN (it is easy to get one and set yourself up as a Sole Trader)

• You will invoice us fortnightly and get paid on the first and third Monday of each month

• You will be paid superannuation, as the law requires

• When travelling for GPN we will cover flights, ground travel, accommodation, and food (up to a maximum). 

  • You will liaise with admin assistants, Node Liaison Lead and/or GPN executive to get travel booked and/or approved.

  • You must keep your receipts for anything you need to be reimbursed for.

• Reimbursements and invoices will be paid on the same Mondays as invoices.

Note: if you can't get paid for this job because of other agreements you might have, that's totally fine and we can set you up with a volunteer agreement instead of a paid contract!

Key responsibilities and goals for a Node Liaison

The goal: get this node from brand new to self-sustaining in 2 years!

• Building a strong relationship with the university partner

• Building a strong committee of GPN volunteers

• Upskilling the committee so that they can prep and run GPN events effectively and independently

• Guiding the committee to build a strong community of students and volunteers, and giving them tools and knowledge on how to continue to grow the community

Responsibilities

• Communication and relationship management between students, parents, volunteers, leaders, sponsors, host partner and wider GPN network.

• Oversight and contribution to event preparation according to the task checklist.

• Committee management, development and support.

• Node Development and handover

• Read the policies/procedures

Support and escalation for Node Liaisons

Your main point-of-contact as a Node Liaison is the Node Liaison Lead. They are there to offer you direct support, you will have weekly communication with them so they can help keep you on track, and they can offer early intervention on committee or university partner issues that may arise.

You will also have regular opportunities to meet with other Node Liaisons and get support from people in a similar position.

When you need to escalate an issue beyond the Node Liaison Lead, you can go to the GPN Executive. They can help with any issues with the Node Liaison Lead and they are an escalation point for any committee, university partner or sponsor problems. They are also responsible for budgeting, policy and procedures.

You can read more about the leadership at GPN here.