STANDING COMMITTEE ON DIVERSITY
Annual Report – September 2012
Submitted by Co-Chairs
SCD Co-Chairs: Carmen Cruz, AY Bryant
Board Representative Liaison: Cecilia Sun
ACCTA 2011 Conference & Establishment of Steering Committee
SCD meeting was held at ACCTA conference in 2011. Meeting discussion and facilitation led to the establishment of a Steering Committee. Part of the rationale was that the SCD was no longer a committee as it was too large and decisions were difficult to make. The SCD steering committee (SCD-SC) was convened at the 2011 ACCTA Conference with a charge to discuss the future of the SCD in a streamlined and effective fashion, including redefining the mission statement and making recommendations to the board about SCD’s role in ACCTA.
Members of the SCD-Steering Committee
AY Bryant
Maria Carrubba-Whetstine
Carmen Cruz
Pamela Epps
Barbara Gilbert
Tawa Sina
Carina SudarskyGleiser
Cecilia Sun
The group utilized the listserv throughout the year and focused on the following items:
- Initial conversation of the SCD-SC
- Areas of emphasis for the SCD-SC
- Co-chair continuity
- SCD slate nominations
- Consultation/Feedback for the Board as requested
Initial Conversation and Areas of Emphasis for the SCD-SC
The major focus of this conversation was to highlight areas of further exploration. Topics included: increasing the inclusion in diversity, conference programming, mission statement, conference meeting time restructuring, board representative nomination and function, clarifying policy and procedures.
- Changes have been made in the formatting of the 2012 conference meeting. There will be one SCD meeting held for SCD slate board nominations. A brief and general SCD report will be made to the general assembly. The SCD-SC will use the other allotted time to meet for further planning and SCD business.
- Overall, the use of email communication to make these huge changes proved to be more difficult than initially anticipated. The SCD-SC remains committed to the process of helping ACCTA define the mission of the SCD and how it is best represented and organized within the organization. We anticipate the work that we will do during the ACCTA 2012 conference will flush out the work we need to do this coming year.
Co-chair Continuity
- The co-chairs in consultation with the Board representative agreed that rotating off the senior co-chair would significantly hamper our ability to manage the restructuring and re-definition of the SCD and its emerging challenges and opportunities. The Board representative in consultation with the Board agreed and as a result, both co-chairs will remain in those positions until the 2013 conference. Members of the SCD-SC affirmed this option and, if available, agreed to remain on the committee until the 2013 conference.
SCD Slate Nomination Process
- The SCD slate/Board representative nomination process. This has been an ongoing area of discussion at the conference. Members of the steering committee brainstormed what might be considered as strong qualifications for nominations from SCD, and are implementing a Q&A format for these nominations. The timeline for nominations (at the conference versus prior to the conference) was also discussed and deferred until after the 2012 conference.
Consultation/Feedback to Board
The SCD Steering co-Chairs and Steering Committee’s opinions were sought out several times throughout the year by the Board via the Board Liaison, Cecilia Sun.
Below are the topics consulted:
- Provided input regarding diversity variables regarding future conference sites, specifically New Orleans for ACCTA 2013.
- Discussed and suggested to the Board that Board candidate statements follow a Q&A format to de-emphasize a Euro-centric approach.
- Conference programming content was reviewed and ideas offered regarding ways to include or maximize diversity content in programming.
Goals for 2012-2013
- Redefine mission of SCD to be consistent with members’ needs and experiences provided via the needs assessment.
- Provide the board with an updated SCD P&P section by summer 2013.