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Learn about staff diversity and how it can affect your organization's workplace.  Some of the key issues discussed include the business case for diversity in the workplace as well are several case studies in association diversity.  This article will be especially useful for association professionals engaged in leadership roles, staff management, department management and human resources.

There's plenty of talk about diversity - building the business case, developing effective training, mirroring the constituent population, marketing to minority audiences-but what are organizations really doing? Following are several case studies in association diversity.

Addressing Diversity from the Top Down

The American Association of University Women
When you have a "Working Group on Diversity" on your board of directors, it's a good sign that diversity is being taken seriously. According to Valerie Ducker, associate director of diversity at the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the organization's commitment to diversity and inclusion comes from the top. "The board decided early on that this would be a priority for the organization," she says.

The AAUW Strategic Plan contains diversity goals that have become the organization's diversity plan - the two plans are intertwined, not separate. By drilling diversity down through the organization, the AAUW has succeeded in "institutionalizing our diversity efforts," Ducker says.

The staff director of diversity is a member of the AAUW board, responsible for ensuring that diversity goals are implemented at the board level. And AAUW's top leadership is involved via the team of board members known as the "Board Working Group on Diversity." A 10-member "Regional Resource Team" represents each of the AAUW regions and works with each state's diversity chair (appointed by the state director) to monitor progress in meeting the organization's diversity goals. There are also Branch Diversity Chairs, one for each local branch.

AAUW's Diversity Resource Team (DRT) monitors each state's activities. These 10 volunteer members are appointed by the board, one from each region. Members of the DRT work individually with each state chair to ensure that they have a strategic plan with diversity goals - as well as procedures to meet those goals.

At state conventions, the DRT ensures that diversity is included in every component of the meeting. The DRT also provides resources such as training, materials, and information. "The DRT looks for ways to help the state presidents and state diversity chairs meet their diversity goals. They ask, for example, if there are programmatic efforts to promote diversity or if states are [using] AAUW's programs to promote diversity and be more inclusive," Ducker says.

AAUW does not perceive this diversity structure as hierarchical, but as a circle, where information, actions, and initiatives flow from one level to the other to cover everything the organization is doing and to ensure accountability. "Diversity must be infused through everything that the members are doing," notes Ducker.

Other tools include the ADELANTE (Spanish for "moving forward" or "go ahead") Book of the Month Club, a list of recommended diversity books posted on AAUW's Web site (www.aauw.org). Also, the Web site provides resources such as a "Diversity Tool Kit"- a training manual accessible not only to AAUW members but also to the public.

Lessons learned:

• Get commitment from the top: ensure the board is involved in meaningful ways.
  
  
• Institutionalize your diversity focus by driving it down through the organization's strategic plan to local levels.
  
  
• Get people at all levels involved - national, regional, state, and local - and more importantly, give them meaningful work to do with real accountabilities and real measurements of success.
  
  
• Announce your commitment to diversity across the organization, and through your Web site to the world at large.
  
  
• Become known as a resource for information about diversity issues.
  
  
• Develop resources to help volunteer leaders at all levels succeed in their approach to diversity issues; help them create strategic diversity plans.

Media that Reflects the Community

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation
We get our news - and to a large extent, our world view - from the media. What if the media doesn't look like us or understand our community? That's one concern of The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation and the Radio and Television News Directors Association.

Begun in 1991 by the Foundation, the Newsroom Diversity Campaign is addressing this issue by promoting the hiring, training, promotion, and retention of minorities in the field of radio and television news through training, educational programs, and research, reports Michelle Loesch, project manager for the Newsroom Diversity Campaign.

"The rationale behind the program is the importance of developing programming and resources for working minority news professionals and students. The campaign provides training workshops on news management and production; mentoring and career counseling for minority college students interested in the field; internships, scholarships, and fellowships for college students and young professionals; assistance to managers to enable them to identify and hire qualified minority personnel; and content analysis and programs to educate news directors on the avoidance of stereotypes," she says.

Workshops and student events are conducted nationally, with the support of an active advisory council of radio and television professionals. In mentoring programs for college juniors or seniors, 35-50 students each year spend the day with a local radio or television news manager to "shadow" that person. They have a follow-up luncheon the following day, where a minority role model comes and speaks to the students. The organization provides the initial contact; the rest is up to them. Funding comes from corporations in the broadcasting and communications field.

Lessons Learned:

• Take responsibility to address not only diversity issues of your current members, but of future generations in your industry.
  
  
• Create meaningful experiences for young people to attract them to your profession.
  
  
• Seek funding from member companies to support diversity programs that, in turn, support their own efforts to hire and retain highly qualified minorities - a particularly attractive investment in our tight labor market.
  
  
• Look beyond traditional "minority" groups to include young people with disabilities as a target market for such programs (visit the Web site of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, www.pcepd.gov for more information).
  
  
• Publicly recognize people and organizations that are doing a good job addressing diversity issues.

Understanding the Impact of Culture on Your Industry

The American Academy of Physician Assistants
There's no doubt that healthcare providers are on the front lines of diversity challenges in this country - and often, their challenges are ones of life and death.

The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) realized 20 years ago that there was a need for a minority affairs committee to address diversity issues in their organization. They knew then - and now - that healthcare outcomes are greatly influenced by the provider's understanding of patients' cultural mores, health beliefs, and attitudes toward medicine. Now that longstanding AAPA Committee is refocusing to look not only at "minority" issues, but also at broader diversity issues and the concept of culturally competent health care. It's also "diversifying" the committee itself.

By training its board of directors and Minority Affairs Committee, the AAPA has begun a process of ensuring that all are speaking the same language when it comes to diversity. A first step was creating a presentation about diversity in the AAPA that can be used by key volunteer leaders and staff to push the message down through the organization - at chapter meetings and regional meetings - and to gather more information from members about their diversity challenges in the field.

Through a series of diversity dialogues and training sessions with key leadership and staff, the AAPA is first ensuring that it is on solid footing with regard to key questions: What does diversity mean to us? Can we clearly articulate the business case for focusing on diversity and inclusion? What dimensions of diversity have the greatest impact on the AAPA and on its members in their own workplaces? What resources do we already have in place? What resources do we need as an association, and what resources do our members need in the field? What is the optimal role for our diversity committee - and what is its relationship to the board and governance process?

Lessons Learned:

• Members need diversity tools - not just to ensure an inclusive environment in the association, but for them to use in their real jobs back home as well.
  
  
• Diversity committees should also be diverse: don't simply make them the resting place for minorities in your organization.
  
  
• Diversity committees may also need diversity training. Just because they are sensitive about and committed to diversity doesn't mean they're prepared.
  
  
• This is a long-term process, not a quick fix, but you need to identify "quick wins" to motivate people to continue on the long journey.
  
  
• It's important to honor the legacy of the people who have raised your organization's awareness about diversity and inclusion, even if the focus of the effort has changed with the changing times.
  
  
• Develop a "diversity message" with scripted powerpoint slides that can be taught to and used by chapter leaders and others in the field. Use those opportunities not to preach, but to gather information from the field for use as you hone in on your diversity initiative from national headquarters.

Reaching Minority Markets: A Workplace and Marketplace Issue

The American Advertising Federation
Reaching new markets with old mindsets is difficult. The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is well aware that it has a real challenge ahead: ensuring that its industry reflects and is relevant to a rapidly changing population. The AAF membership represents the entire advertising industry, including clients, advertising agencies, and the media. With 50,000 members nationwide, it has two headquarters, one in Washington, DC and one in San Francisco.

AAF has two diversity goals: 1) to bring qualified minorities into advertising; and 2) to help members learn how to advertise to and communicate with minority audiences. In 1998, the AAF created the position of vice president for diversity to help reach those goals.

Two main diversity initiatives help AAF achieve success: Since 1995, the AAF has annually awarded $1,000 Crain Diversity Grants, sponsored by Crain Communications and designed to recognize and fund five outstanding cultural diversity initiatives undertaken by AAF local advertising clubs. Entrants are required to document their track record of diversity initiatives and submit proposals for new or continuing efforts in their communities.

Winning projects have been designed to:

• support an outreach program for minority high school students and increase college enrollment of minority advertising majors.
  
  
• fund an awards luncheon to honor leaders in diversity and use the proceeds to aid minority students.
  
  
• host a "shadow day" and career workshop for minority students.

The AAF "25 Most Promising Minority Advertising Students Program" is designed to help meet the needs for a multicultural work force in the advertising industry. Sponsored by the AAF Foundation in partnership with Advertising Age magazine, this program is supported by a broad cross-section of the advertising industry. Corporate sponsors include ABC, Inc., AOL, The New York Times Co., Procter and Gamble, Univision, Ebony magazine, and others.

In February 2000, the students spent two days in New York City, meeting with recruiters and executives from leading advertising agencies and media companies. They had interviews and received coaching and career guidance. The two-day event culminated with an awards luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria, with top level media and advertising executives attending. This program is extremely successful, with more than 70 percent of the participating students from 1997-1999 now working in the industry with such companies as Nike, Procter and Gamble, The World Street Journal, Univision, and others.

Lessons Learned:

• Simplify and clarify your focus: you can't "right all wrongs" or address every diversity issue you face. Concentrate your efforts in a few big wins.
  
  
• Create significant, achievable goals and business strategies for reaching them, as with any other business objective.
  
  
• Create a "better practices" database of transferable knowledge by conducting an awards program that surfaces innovative approaches to diversity in the field.
  
  
• Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  
  
• Engage corporate members in funding programs that attract talented minorities to the field.
  
  
• Focus on both substance and style: develop programs that create content and resources around diversity, and celebrate them with pomp and circumstance to get people excited about them.
  
  
• Track results.

Getting Out the Vote: Providing a Voice

The League of Women Voters
Who's voting? That's what the League of Women Voters wants to know. It's succeeded by building close relationships in local communities. The League is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

In 1996, its Education Fund conducted a nationwide get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaign focused on getting racial and ethnic minorities and other underrepresented populations to the polls.

The GOTV effort was one component of its work to create communities of inclusion. Other initiatives involved developing broad-based community coalitions to reach diverse audiences, as well as widespread involvement in local problem-solving, from elections and voting to the environment, public safety, housing, and more.

For example, the San Mateo League chapter organized a community-wide effort to get out the vote. By partnering with another local nonprofit that had worked with the targeted community groups, the League reached out to the entire community for the first time. First, it identified key community organizations and their respective key stakeholders. With their local partners, the League visited these organizations to find out how they could all work together to get people to vote.

The initial meeting was attended by representatives from 25 local community groups. Using the League's GOTV effort and strategy, they all committed to undertaking a variety of activities to reach their respective constituencies, including focus groups, town meetings, and developing various vehicles of public communication.

The coalition members registered voters, organized and handled phone banks, conducted door-to-door canvassing, and distributed voting information materials. Many organizations were working together for the first time, and were able to share resources. After the election, an evaluation session yielded a commitment by the group to stay together and meet on a quarterly basis to continue the collaboration.

Lessons Learned:

• Honest, open, and long-term relationships are key to success.
  
  
• Identify and reach out to people and organizations of influence in local communities (or chapters) as an equal partner.
  
  
• Use national resource materials to address local issues, recognizing that one size doesn't fit all and that some materials will need to be tailored to local conditions and needs.
  
  
• Listen to what people need before offering help.
  
  
• Develop relationships with local communities that address their issues, not just yours.
  
  
• Continue the relationship after the "activity" is finished.

Fostering Interracial Understanding in the Community

YMCA of the Metropolitan Washington Area
"The YMCA of the Metropolitan Washington Area is made up of very diverse individuals from all ethnic, racial, and income levels. We use that information in designing and delivering programming that respects the rights and concerns of everybody," says Janice Williams, vice president of program development for the YMCA.

"The YMCA's Multicultural Program was designed to support the growing needs of North Arlington, Virginia, as a result of surfacing tensions among the youth in area schools," Williams notes. The YMCA provides opportunities for children to come together, learn to appreciate each other, find commonalities, and respect the uniqueness that each individual and each group brings to the community. The community, the schools, and the neighborhoods all benefit from this effort.

"North Arlington has a very multicultural community - in one school alone, there are 19 different languages spoken. This program, built out of the YMCA's goals to foster interracial and international understanding, provides us an opportunity to promote diversity at the YMCA - not only through the staff hired to deliver the programs, but through having the sensitivity and know-how to work with the community," Williams explains.
The program organizes clubs in high schools and middle schools where diverse young people meet regularly to develop leadership opportunities, engage in service learning, and enjoy recreational and leisure activities. Most areas have team workshops and summits where they all come together. "These clubs have an opportunity to work together locally as well as through our national diversity conference, held once a year."

Lessons learned:

• National programs can, and should, be administered locally - with attention to local conditions, needs, and realities.
  
  
• Leverage the resources in your community to help address diversity challenges.
  
  
• Look outside your own organization to see how your diversity focus can help your community.
  
  
• Network local areas together for best practice sharing.
  
  
• Know your audience: use local "scouts" - people who are part of the community you are trying to reach - as cultural informants.

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