Community Events & Venue Manager

Description

The Council on Recovery is Houston’s leading nonprofit provider of prevention, education, treatment, and recovery support services. For more than 80 years, The Council has been a trusted resource for individuals and families navigating substance use, mental health, and related challenges.

The Community Events & Venue Manager oversees the scheduling, coordination, and execution of meetings and events across The Council’s 63,000-square-foot campus, including multiple meeting spaces and a newly renovated auditorium. This role ensures an exceptional experience for internal and external stakeholders, maximizes facility utilization, oversees the Welcome Center reception area, and supervises two to three direct reports.

Working closely with Facilities, Administration, Executive Leadership, and the Planning & Development Team, the Community Events & Venue Manager helps ensure events are executed seamlessly while driving venue utilization, strengthening community partnerships, improving operational systems, and enhancing the client experience to support earned revenue initiatives.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Welcome Center Reception & Venue Management

• Support community partnerships, conduct venue tours, respond to inquiries, and cultivate recurring clients to increase utilization and earned revenue.
• Manage operations of The Council’s Welcome Center reception area and venue spaces, ensuring all shifts are covered and exceptional client and guest experiences are provided.
• Coach and develop the Welcome Center reception team; establish service standards, develop and maintain SOPs, checklists, templates, and training documentation.
• Establish the Welcome Center as the operational hub ("Mission Control") for visitors, room schedules, event information, and day-of coordination.
• Coordinate logistics for internal and external events, including space reservations, setup, vendor coordination (catering, audiovisual services, security, and cleaning), and operational support.
• Own the client experience from initial inquiry through post-event follow-up. Conduct venue tours, lead event-readiness walkthroughs, and coordinate cross-functional teams.
• Assess, implement and continuously improve scheduling, booking, reporting, workflow, and venue-management technologies that improve efficiency and enhance the client experience.
• Collaborate with the Marketing team to promote venue spaces, support outreach efforts, and increase awareness of rental opportunities.
• Support expansion, renovation, space-planning projects and future campus utilization initiatives.

Revenue and Budget Management

• Manage venue pricing, packages, payment schedules, deposits, receivables, and invoicing processes in coordination with Accounting.
• Maintain packages, payment schedules, deposits, receivables, cancellations, and coordinate invoicing with Accounting.
• Track revenue, receivables, collections, and expenses related to events and venue operations.
• Monitor budgets and ensure cost-effective operations.

Contract Management

• Review and manage contracts for venue rentals, client events, and service providers.
• Manage certificates of insurance, vendor deliverables, payment milestones, and contracts.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for contract negotiations, ensuring clear terms, pricing, and expectations.
• Manage relationships with AV, catering, cleaning, linen, coffee, and other venue vendors.
• Coordinate with leadership as needed for contract review and approval.
• Track contract timelines, deposits, insurance certificates, and key deliverables.
• Develop standardized templates and contract workflows.
• Maintain organized records of all contracts and related documentation.
• Monitor compliance with contract terms and proactively address issues or discrepancies.

Other Responsibilities

• Handle ad hoc projects as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Maintain flexibility to work evenings and weekends as required.
• Demonstrate commitment to The Council on Recovery’s mission, values, and principles.

Requirements

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• Three to five years of progressively responsible experience in venue management, event operations, hospitality, project management, facilities coordination, partnerships, venue sales, conference services, or a related field. Experience in managing multi-use event spaces, including meeting rooms, conference centers, and auditoriums.
• Experience supervising direct reports.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong organizational, project management, relationship-building, systems thinking, and process-improvement skills.
• Professional presence with clients, vendors, executives, and community partners.
• Excellent customer service, written communication, and verbal communication abilities.
• High attention to detail and strong problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships across departments and with external partners and vendors.
• Ability to manage ad hoc projects and perform assigned duties effectively.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experience with booking platforms, e-signature tools, CRMs, accounting software, payment systems, or venue management platforms is a plus.