Waterloo Region – November 5, 2020 – Capacity Canada’s 12th Manulife Board Governance BootCamp kick-started on Thursday with a keynote panel discussion on diversity, inclusion, and equity. For the first time in its history, the three-day event is being offered virtually this year.
The three speakers on the panel included Irving Washington, executive director, Online News Association, Vicki Deal Williams, chief staff officer of multicultural affairs, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Nathan Victoria, executive director of the Society of Personality Assessment. The discussion focused on critical aspects of diversity and inclusion and questioned whether leading organizations and their boards were taking enough steps to be diverse and inclusive.
“Many organizations struggle with where to start. The key to diversity, inclusion, and equity is commitment,” said Washington, who went on to share his organization’s journey of moving from being “colour blind” to having one of the most diverse boards. “The first thing that we did that made our journey successful was to listen to the criticism. We actively listened and came up with different ways of how we could do better,” he added.
Washington further discussed how his organization focused on two aspects of diversity that also led to new strategic directions. “For us, it started with increasing representation for women and people of colour in our organization. That led to a better outreach within different communities as we started to improve our outlook on other things and our services became more accessible,” he said.
Today, organizations have to be intentional about seeking diversity and equity. They can no longer wait for people to come to them. Diversity, inclusion, and equity are not a committee’s job, but everyone’s responsibility. “The conversation around these three terms might be difficult but imperative. The more conversations we have, the more activity we create,” said Vicki, who has been working in this field for over 30 years.
“Look at what’s happening in the world around us. Things are different now. I have never in my life felt this level of energy and this level of momentum to move diversity, inclusion and equity forward. With this energy comes a lot of activity,” she said. Vicki further added that one needs to pause and think about the definition of these three terms.
Nathan, who is also a doctoral candidate, talked about the different assumptions we operate with that we have no idea exist. He pushed participants to rethink the problem. He asked them to think about the systems or areas that keep some people in and some people out. “The system doesn’t allow full access to everyone, and that’s something we need to think about,” Nathan said.
“This year, Capacity Canada’s keynote speakers are an amazing group of trailblazers on addressing the issues of organizational diversity, equity and inclusion. Irving, Nathan, and Vicki have brought fantastic knowledge and insight for our conference attendees, who make up over 100 non-profit board members and CEOs. Their message to us in these challenging days is one of optimism, hope, and inspiration,” said Wayne Garnons-Williams, board member, Capacity Canada.
Since 2009, Capacity Canada has hosted the Board Governance BootCamps to help board leaders and top administrators better understand their roles in the operation of charitable non-profits. The opening night of the three-day event is followed by two days of sessions and talks focused on board governance in non-profit organizations. This year the event is being held on November 5, 6 and 7.
The BootCamp is intended to tackle those issues which have the most significant impact on overall board effectiveness and good governance.
For more on this Capacity Canada initiative or other programs, please visit capacitycanada.ca.
Contact:
Cathy Brothers, CEO, Capacity Canada
[email protected]
Office: 866-317-1992 x1
Mobile: 226-808-7220
Nasreen, Director of Communications, Capacity Canada
[email protected]
Office: 866-317-1992 x7
Mobile: 226-505-5757
