Administrative Assistant

Archdiocese of San Antonio•San Antonio, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Administrative Assistant serves as the first point of welcome to those contacting the Parish Office in person, by telephone, or through email. This role involves fielding phone calls and emails, managing mail, maintaining discretion and confidentiality, and providing administrative support to the Pastor and Parish Staff. The position requires a working knowledge of administrative duties pertaining to the Pastor, assisting with church and pastoral business, and screening phone calls to free the Pastor from unnecessary interruptions. The Administrative Assistant also serves as an escalation point for unfamiliar matters and manages records of hall rentals, including taking payments, writing receipts, and maintaining a calendar of rentals. Additionally, this role provides assistance to persons in need by referring them to appropriate charitable or social agencies. The position involves extensive correspondence, including processing and responding to emails, creating letters for the Pastor's signature, and typing thank you letters for donations. Organizational tasks include managing Mass Intentions, creating and maintaining filing systems, preparing and maintaining packets for sacraments and events, ordering office supplies, and serving as a backup for copier service calls. In liturgical assistance, the role involves representing the Pastor in producing the annual calendar for the Liturgical Ministry and assisting the DRE with maintaining accurate records for religious education classes. As Staff Editor, the Administrative Assistant reviews and edits documents, letters, and job descriptions for content, accuracy, and grammar, and serves as the main proofreader for the Parish Bulletin. This role also involves designing flyers and forms using Microsoft Word and Publisher, and managing the ParishSoft system for data entry, report generation, and maintaining parish census and membership data. The position handles requests for sacramental records, maintains knowledge of Archdiocesan guidelines and recording policies, and enters sacramental and death records into the parish database. The Administrative Assistant is expected to help with any other duties assigned by the Pastor, maintain an open door policy, resolve problems with groups, and communicate directly with the Pastor. This role also assists ministries that provide care, manages the phone system voice message, and maintains records of borrowed property.

Requirements

High school Diploma or equivalent
Must be a practicing Catholic in good standing with the Church
At least four (4) years’ experience of working in an administrative role providing direct support
Bilingual in Spanish and English
Reliable transportation
Valid driver license
Valid vehicle insurance
Experience with computer software and Microsoft Office Applications.
Possesses knowledge of publishing, work processing software, including Word, Excel, WordPress adn Adobe.
Open to learn updating parish webpage.
Must be detail oriented, organized, self-motivated, work well independently and on a team; Must have good written and verbal skills; Must have good critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Nice To Haves

Associate’s degree preferred

Responsibilities

Serve as first point of welcome to those contacting the Parish Office in person, by telephone or through email.
Field phone calls and emails to appropriate positions.
Take out and collect mail when it is needed; give mail to Pastor or his delegate for processing.
Maintain utmost discretion and confidentiality for the Pastor and the personal matters dealt with on a daily basis; be able to multitask almost constantly.
Have a working knowledge of the administrative duties pertaining to the Pastor in order to deal with church and pastoral business.
Execute actions as directed by Pastor; assist Parish Staff with needed information.
Screen phone calls, fielding to self and others as is appropriate in order to free the Pastor from unnecessary phone calls.
Serve as escalation point on matters unfamiliar to the other staff members.
Keeps records of hall rentals – taking payments, writing receipts, making sure the bookkeeper and counters receive copies, submit check request for deposit reimbursement when necessary; maintain calendar of rentals.
Provides assistance to persons in need that come to parish, through referring persons to appropriate charitable or social agencies/organizations.
Process, highlight pertinent information, and execute actions as directed by Pastor or do so undirected. File accordingly.
Respond to correspondence as needed often creating letter and other documents for Pastor’s signature; handle routine correspondence independently and other documents as assigned by Pastor.
Type thank you letters for donations to the church.
Schedule and track money for Mass Intentions; editing bulletin by typing mass intentions weekly.
Maintain supply of Mass cards.
Create new filing systems, processes, and forms as needs arise for archdiocesan files, the Pastor’s files, and the Secretary’s files.
Maintain and archive according to Records Retention, Sec. XVI USCCB’s Manual for Priests.
Prepare and maintain marriage packets in English and in Spanish using current forms from the Archdiocese.
Supplement as needed by creating forms.
Prepare and maintain filing system for baptisms, marriages, quinceañeras, anniversary blessings, and canceled events.
Prepare and maintain information sheets for these events.
Assist in getting Pastor’s supplies as needed.
Order office supplies and serve as backup point of contact for copier service calls and contact the service department to schedule service.
Represent the Pastor in the production of the annual calendar for the Liturgical Ministry, having a working knowledge of what is appropriate seasonally, liturgically, and at what time.
Assist the Liturgical Ministry by providing support information as needed.
Assist Pastor with liturgical reminders as needed and in the Weekend Portfolio.
Helps the DRE, (RICA/RCIA) with maintaining accurate records of children/adults in religious education/faith formation classes.
Review for content and accuracy and edit important documents/letters for pastor or staff as requested/needed.
Make corrections and rewrite or bring to Pastor’s attention for review and action.
Ensure the word usage, word flow, and meaning are presented well to the reader.
Compose documents as requested by the Pastor, sometimes with little or no direction.
Serve as the parish Office resource for proper business grammar, punctuation, word usage, etc.
Serve as main resource for job description composition, organizing, categorizing, and editing for final use by the Pastor and the Parish Staff.
Keep up-to-date job descriptions for all staff members and distribute as needed.
Conduct a biennial Job Description Review where there is a concentrated effort by each staff member to review, update, correct, and change his/her own job description.
After all job descriptions are edited to final form, submit to Pastor for his approval/edits.
Update and distribute a complete packet of all staff job descriptions to each staff member.
Edit and Review pulpit announcements as requested.
Edit and Serve as main proofreader for the Parish Bulletin with MO Publisher Program, submit it to Pastor for his approval/edits and follow up in coordination with bulletin company printer.
Review requests for sponsorship ads for various businesses or charities; bring to Pastor’s attention as needed.
Serve as permanent archivist for bulletins.
Maintain Prayer List for publication in Parish Bulletin.
Review bulletin insert requests, prioritizing and editing as needed.
For inserts outside the realm of a parish group/ministry, review and decide if it’s appropriate to put in the bulletin with Pastor’s approval.
Assist in wording/formatting of signage for the church plant.
Review and edit Pastoral Council Members' information for content, accuracy, and grammar; bring important discrepancies to Pastor’s attention.
Serve as permanent archivist for Pastoral Council information.
Design flyers, registration forms, binder covers as needed using Microsoft Word-Publisher.
Have a working knowledge of church management system software; prepare reports as needed.
Enter data as needed into ParishSoft.
Do reports for Official Catholic Directory both at the Archdiocesan and the national level.
Obtain Blessings and other documents as assigned by the Pastor.
Have a working knowledge of the census module of the church management system.
Enter all new parishioners with pertinent information into the database.
Maintain the parish census with updates, changes, and deletions to data.
Maintain membership data for all parish ministries.
Update and maintain current list of all envelope users (providing additions, deletions and changes to Our Sunday Visitor or any company for envelopes), handle parishioner inquiries about envelopes.
Handle all dealing with Our Sunday Visitor or any company for envelopes including the ordering of bulk pew envelopes.
Prepare new parishioner Welcome Letters for the Pastor’s signature.
Prepare Welcome Packets for new parishioners.
Have a working knowledge of the Archdiocesan guidelines, confidentiality requirements, and other procedures for access to sacramental records.
Handle all requests for sacramental records, preparing appropriate documents as needed.
Disperse sacramental records according to Archdiocesan requirements.
Maintain a working knowledge of the Archdiocesan Archives policies and some knowledge of canon law in regards to paperwork requirements in sacramental preparation.
Have a working knowledge of ParishSoft Sacramental Records; enter records as needed.
Enter into the parish database and record Sacraments of Initiation and Marriage, set up filing systems and archive as needed.
Send emergency Baptisms to proper parish for recording.
As certificate information is entered into the database/registers for First Communions and Confirmations, act as final proofreader.
Ensure the proper documents are in the files for Baptism and Marriages.
Enter death records into the parish database.
Help with any other duties assigned by the Pastor.
Maintain an open door policy, open to listening to everyone’s needs.
Work together with each group/ministry to resolve problems and help them succeed in their missions.
Consult with the Pastor in resolving issues with particular groups, if necessary.
Communicate with Pastor directly.
As delegated by the Pastor, act in resolving issues with particular groups under this commission.
If the issue requires the group to speak directly with Pastor, a meeting will be set up with Pastor and leaders/delegates of group involved.
Help the ministries that provide care to meet the special needs of parishioners.
Manage phone system voice message – standard greetings and holidays.
Maintains records of property borrowed (keys, equipment, and furniture).
Assist with bingo and beer licenses when needed.