Diversifying Staff and Boards Alliance for Biking & Walking Mutual Aid Call Wednesday, December 18,

2013
The bicycle and pedestrian advocacy community too often presents a homogeneous face to the world, failing to accurately reflect the communities we serve. On this call, we heard from organizations both within and beyond the biking and walking advocacy community and learned about steps theyve taken to diversify their staff and boards in a way that maximizes the value of each persons unique experience.

Recap: Advice from Floyd Mills (North America Diversity Director, Baker & McKenzie LLC) and Rob Sadowsky (Executive Director, Bicycle Transportation Alliance)
Why diversity matters and how to begin efforts to diversify The world of cycling advocacy is changing. Continuing to focus on just the current population of cyclists is not a sustainable model. Its important to approach this issue proactively, rather than out of fear of a lawsuit. Rob: diversifying staff/board/programs in Chicago led to more money. In Portland, some foundations wont support unless youre engaged in multicultural work. Hiring younger people of color to run education programs benefits both kids in the classroom and managers at BTA. BTA has an internal & external equity plan as part of an organization-wide strategic planning process. Reviewing your organizations image Before you begin actively recruiting board and staff, its important to understand how your organization is regarded within the communities from which youre seeking to recruit. Diversity and equity must be integrated within the values of the organization you need to ensuring that your organizations programming is relevant to the population(s) you are attempting to reach. Baker & McKenzie, although its a top international law firm, had to change their assumptions about how well-known they were among their target communities. How your hiring and cultivation process affects diversity Its essential to build relationships in advance of posting job announcements (for staff) or making the ask (for board). Baker & McKenzie invested more resources into long-term cultivation: They started getting to know students in 1st year of law school, a whole year before they made hiring decisions. Targeted outreach took more time, but paid off big in terms of recruiting a diverse pool of top-level candidates. BTA completely overhauled their recruitment and hiring process by: Re-examining the language and distribution channels for their job announcements. BTA reviewed job announcements to check for hidden cultural assump1

Diversifying Staff and Boards Alliance for Biking & Walking Mutual Aid Call Wednesday, December 18, 2013

tions and looking beyond just Craigslist and Idealist to send job postings to 75 community organizations. Partnering with local organizations (including the local Urban League) to do job readiness training for their Bike Ambassador program. Maintaining a fair interview and hiring process Legally, you are not permitted to gather any information on race, sex, age, or sexual orientation until a person is hired by your company. BTA seeks to reflect diversity in its interviewing panels, even if that means looking outside staff & board for a given interview process. All of BTAs interviewers must complete training in Equal Opportunity rights; in addition, all interview questions must be approved by BTAs HR director. Value community experience equally with academic & professional experience.

Additional Resources
Multicultural Organization Development Model - A document outlining characteristics of various models of cultural inclusion within organizations.