A year of diversity Wendy Springborn, MBA Engineering Services Manager City of Tempe, Arizona Chair, APWA Diversity Committee
efore I begin my recap of the year, I would like to personally thank our Diversity Committee members who poured their heart and soul into our committee work. The committee participants are Chas Jordan, Florida; Rebecca Bilderback, Kansas; Tracy Warner, Iowa; Judi Hines, Virginia; Clark Wantoch, Wisconsin; Gary Strack, Kansas; Shirley Stevenson, Georgia; Yvonne Douglas, Georgia; Mike Rogers, Texas; Cora JacksonFossett, Board Liaison, California; and Cindy Long, APWA staff, Missouri. Without these dedicated volunteers, we would not have been able to accomplish what we have. It all started at our annual meeting at Congress in Denver. We had an opportunity to welcome the new
members of the committee, review what we had accomplished over the past year and delve into what our focus would be for the next year. In addition, I needed to inquire from the group any recommendations for the APWA Board of Directors. After much thoughtful and lively discussion, we identified three recommendations to the Board: (1) continue engagement of young professionals into the organization to include potential board and committee appointments. In essence, this would facilitate a reverse mentoring opportunity for the organization; (2) reevaluate the ELA requirement to reflect not only time in public works (seven years or less) or time in a leadership role (less than 3-4 years). An individual may have spent over seven years in
a public works position but is new to a supervisory/leadership role; (3) consider changing the requirement for the Young Leader national award by increasing the age limit (currently 35) due to individuals who start in public works in their later years and five years membership in APWA with no more than 2-5 month lapse (in part due to layoffs, etc.). As part of my report to the Board of Directors, I had to outline our path for the next year. During our committee discussion, I wanted our committee’s focus to look at the next step beyond diversity which is “inclusion.” I believe there is a general understanding regarding the particulars of diversity which focus on any difference makes a difference. Inclusion goes beyond the basics—its focus is to look towards the diversity of thought and process. We may all look different, but if we all think alike, how do we affect change? With that in mind, our committee brainstormed ideas in three distinct categories: articles, Congress programs, and collateral material. The articles consisted of monthly contributions to the APWA Reporter; bimonthly contributions to the Bridges newsletter; and monthly diversity liaison e-mails towards direct outreach to all chapters. The articles (to date) for the Reporter were as follows: •
At last year’s APWA Congress in Denver, the Colorado Convention Center’s Korbel Ballroom 4DEF was full of first-time attendees during the First-Timers Meeting on Congress Sunday. 16 APWA Reporter
August 2012
“Diversity in action at the 2011 APWA International Public Works Congress & Exposition in Denver, Colorado” – Nov 2011
