Fair-trade marketing associate

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Center for Amazonian Community Ecology (CACE)

The Center for Amazon Community Ecology is a non-profit organization that helps traditional peoples in the Amazon to develop and market innovative handicrafts to create sustainable livelihoods for their families, promote forest conservation and support local development in their communities. CACE is a member of the Fair Trade Federation that currently works with 15 native and campesino communities in the northern Peruvian Amazon. We host skill-sharing workshops where artisans learn to make unique handicrafts, strengthen their organizations, and better manage the plants used to make crafts. CACE buys their crafts in Peru to help earn a living without damaging the forest. We market their crafts in the US and reinvest 20% of net sales to support health, education, and conservation needs in our partner communities. These social rebates have been used to build a community health clinic, buy supplies for schools, and reforest chambira palm trees. Read more about CACE on our website at: www.AmazonEcology.org.

Marketing Amazon Handicrafts at Summer Music Festivals

CACE sells our partners’ crafts at special events, online ( www.AmazonForestStore.org), and fair-trade stores around the country. We are seeking a person with multiple talents and passion to be a Fair-Trade Marketing Associate with our 2018 Amazon Forest Roadshow. We expect to be a vendor at eight folk, bluegrass, and roots music festivals and other events in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Rhode Island and Kentucky from late May to early September. Events include the Clearwater Revival Festival, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Rhythm and Roots Festival that bring together the best musicians in their genre. We sell our crafts at these events because many festival goers who love the music also want to support communities and protect the environment. Visit www.AmazonEcology.Org for festival details.

Tasks of the CACE Marketing Assistant

The CACE Fair-Trade Craft Marketing Associate will assist CACE Founder and Executive Director Campbell Plowden to sell our partners’ crafts at these festivals and other channels. Pre-festival tasks will include helping to: 1) Prepare crafts and display materials, 2) Prepare and publish marketing materials, 3) Help recruit and coordinate volunteers, 4) Encourage festival musicians to promote the Amazon guitar strap, and 5) Secure company sponsors for the summer roadshow. Festival related tasks will include helping to: 1) Load and drive the vehicle and trailer to the site, 2) Set-up the tent, display materials and crafts, 3) Greet and sell crafts to customers, 4) Engage booth visitors with activities in our Amazon Discovery Zone which includes Amazon artisan videos, Amazon Art Gallery, and the Rainforest Puzzle, Trivia and Treasure Hunt games, 4) Take and post pictures of enthusiastic customers, 5) Pack up and drive home after the festival. After the events, tasks will include helping to: 1) Unpack the vehicle and trailer, 2) Update inventory and customer databases, 3) Edit and post event photos and video, 4) Replenish crafts for the next event.

Position Qualifications and Lifestyle

This position will be based State College, PA. Most tasks will require solid organization, written and verbal communication skills and a keen interest in marketing fair-trade products. Our Associate needs to be a good driver - ideally with experience driving a rig with a trailer. They will need reasonable physical strength, a creative sense for product display, and abundant stamina, sense of humor and love for good conversation. Our Associate will need to be passionate about our mission, skilled at selling, and enthusiastic about engaging with our visitors. They will also need to be a good listener, scrupulously honest, attentive to details, and skilled using social media. An Associate who has a love (or talent for playing) guitar music will have rich opportunities to interact with fellow guitar enthusiasts. Our Associate will become a holistic salesperson who will make a difference to families and forest in the Peruvian Amazon.

People who attend multi-day festivals come to hear great music, gather with friends, and fully experience each festival’s unique culture. Vendors are an important part of these communities since people count on finding unique items for themselves and gifts for others. Many people want to get to know vendors, learn the stories behind their products, and share stories of their own adventures. Like all vendors, we sleep in our vehicle or a tent next to our booth. We share meals with other vendors and help each other out. We take breaks from working in the booth to listen to our favorite bands and often hang out with vendors, campers, festival volunteers, and musicians when our booth closes for the night. Our Associate, therefore, needs to be comfortable with camping conditions and rich social environments.

Application and Terms for the Position

The preferred period for this full-time position is May 21 through Sept. 3, but these dates are negotiable. This position is primarily structured as an internship where the Associate will learn multiple aspects of fair-trade marketing and sales through intensive orientation and on-the-job training. They may serve as a volunteer or to choose to receive a monthly stipend and/or a bonus based on sales. CACE will cover food expenses associated with travel to festivals. An Associate with exceptional responsibility and talent who does a festival on their own (with assistance from on-site volunteers) will be offered a bonus for their independent service. A successful Associate will receive a detailed letter of recommendation, support to document any internship or community service requirements, and consideration for future opportunities with the organization in the US and/or Peru. If this position excites you, please email your resume and letter expressing your interest and relevant experience and education to Dr. Campbell Plowden, CACE Executive Director at cplowden@amazonecology.org. Applications will be reviewed immediately upon receipt. Strong candidates will be invited for an interview with a request for references and a background check.

About the CACE Founder and Associate Supervisor

Dr. Campbell Plowden spent the first part of his career working as an investigator, policy analyst and campaign coordinator with non-profit advocacy groups including Greenpeace, the Humane Society of the U.S., Amazon Watch and the Environmental Investigation Agency. He focused on whale conservation for thirteen years and has been promoting tropical forest conservation and better lives for forest peoples since 1985. Dr. Plowden studied non-timber forest products with the Tembé Indians in the Brazilian Amazon for two years and received a PhD in Ecology from Penn State in 2001. He founded the Center for Amazon Community Ecology in 2006 to create positive alternatives to deforestation and directs the Center’s programs to develop and market innovative fair-trade handicrafts and essential oils with CACE partner communities in the Peruvian Amazon. Apart from his work with CACE, Dr. Plowden is a member of State College Friends Meeting, coordinator of the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the Alternatives to Violence Project, member mentor with the GlobalGiving platform, and facilitator with the Shaver’s Creek Team Development Center. He has mentored many interns, assistants, and volunteers in his career and looks forward to training and working with the CACE Fair-Trade Marketing Associate.