Reigate Repair Café Administrator

Introduction:

Do you want to make a difference by helping people to reduce household expenses and environmental damage as part of an international movement? Then come and join Reigate Repair Café to make repair local for all those in and around the area. We are willing to work with interested people around their availability and commitment level.

Repair Café use community repair skills to help people repair and reuse their stuff, without charge, to reduce household costs and reduce waste. Benefits of the movement include :

• Reducing the environmental impact of waste and recycling
• Reducing cost of living by making products last longer
• Bringing back repair into local society
• Maintaining and spreading repair expertise
• Promoting social cohesion in the community by connecting people

You can see more information about the movement if you search for the “repaircafe.org” website and there is a collective UK “RepairCafeUK” Facebook page.

Reigate Repair Café is planning to open as early as possible in 2026 in the Woodhatch Community Centre; opening will be on a specific Saturday every month. 

Administrator Role:

Reigate Repair Café success will depend on a wide range of people working in harmony with a few simple procedures and the Administrator is key to achieving this. Learning from other Repair Cafés, it will be important to identify and implement effective processes and simple systems to schedule the repairs and to match a visitor and volunteer repairer with the right skills. Collecting data on the repair work is valuable in understanding the environmental impact and informing national waste reduction initiatives.

Key Responsibilities -

• Implement suitable administration processes and systems to smoothly schedule the repair activity with the twin aims of a pleasant and efficient experience for visitors and a rewarding time for volunteers.
• Implement suitable administration processes for gathering donations and parts costs.
• Support work to capture data on the repairs to be used in national initiatives.
• Coaching and training colleagues in the adoption of our systems.
• Make recommendations regarding the adoption or improvement of policies, processes and systems.
• Be primary liaison with our host site for repair events.
• Manage booking form submissions and emails between opening sessions
• Manage the match between volunteer availability and visitor attendance
• Work with Repair Café leader to establish appropriate recording of donations and expenses.

What skills do I need?

• Fluent with modern office tools (word processor, spreadsheets, cloud storage etc)
• Strong administration and organisational experience.
• Experience of introducing or changing processes and a passion to make them work in a startup volunteer environment.
• Comfortable working in both the back office and the front.