Role Title: Trustee Treasurer of Shubbak: A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture

Location: Shubbak, London
Salary: Unpaid
Start date: As soon as possible

Deadline for Applications: 3 May 2019

Shubbak, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture and the recipient of the 2018 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture, seeks a treasurer to join our board of trustees. The treasurer will be involved in advising on budgeting and strategic financial planning. In addition to financial and management reporting, risk assessment and risk management, the treasurer is also likely to be involved in areas such as good governance, reserves and pensions. This is a governance role for the organisation, and is unpaid.


Background Shubbak is Europe’s largest festival of contemporary Arab culture, and the recipient of the 2018 UNESCO Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. Shubbak connects London audiences and communities with the best of contemporary Arab culture through ambitious festival programmes of premieres and commissions of visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance, literature and debate. We work with arts institutions in London and internationally. In 2018 Shubbak become a National Portfolio Organisation with Arts Council England. Our 2019 festival will take place from 28 June – 14 July 2019 across London in more than 30 venues, with over 80 events, celebrating the best of contemporary Arab culture. Shubbak has an active board of seven trustees, chaired by Maysoon Pachachi. We are now seeking a Treasurer to join this board of trustees.

The Opportunity

The role of the Trustee Treasurer is to maintain oversight of Shubbaks financial affairs, ensure its financial viability and ensure that proper financial records and procedures are maintained. The Treasurer is predominantly a governance and strategic role and will not require and day-to-day bookkeeping.

In addition to the general responsibilities of a trustee, duties of the treasurer include the following:

  • Working with the Shubbak executive team on financial strategy.
  • Overseeing and ensuring the appropriate and timely presenting of budgets, accounts and financial statements
  • Ensuring that the charity has an appropriate reserves policy
  • Working with the Shubbak executive team to prepare and present financial reports to the board
  • Ensuring that appropriate accounting procedures and controls are in place
  • Ensuring that the accounts are prepared and disclosed in the form required by funders and the relevant statutory bodies
  • Ensuring the accounts are audited and reviewed as required by the relevant statutory bodies
  • Keeping the board informed about its financial duties and responsibilities
  • Sitting on appraisal, recruitment and disciplinary panels as required

The Person

In addition to the person specification for a trustee, the treasurer should have the following qualities.

  • Financial qualifications and experience
  • Some experience of charity finance, fundraising and pension schemes
  • The skills to analyse proposals and examine their financial consequences

The Trustees meet four times a year in central London.

How to apply

If you would like to apply for this role please send the following documents to daniel.gorman@shubbak.co.uk

  • An up-to-date comprehensive CV; and
  • A covering letter outlining, with examples, how you meet the role and person specification criteria

Deadline for applications: Friday 3 May 2019

A reminder that this, like most trustee roles is not remunerated.