7/21/20 CRCA DEI Committee Meeting Notes

1. Nominations for DEI Committee Chairperson(s)
   1. Both Paula Thoms (Cornell) and Gulliver Scott (St. Mary’s) were nominated by Rebecca Grzybowski (Temple) as co-chairs for the CRCA DEI Committee.
   2. Both Paula and Gulliver accepted their nomination
   3. This nomination was seconded by Steve Harris (Stetson) and Liz Tuppen (Michigan)
   4. These nominations went to a vote in the meeting.  All members who voted vocalling or by a raising of their hands, voted yes.  Zero nays.
2. Liz Tuppen will continue to be an active member of the DEI committee as well as the liaison between this committee and the CRCA Board
3. Liz met with a non-profit consultant from the Emergence Collective (www.emergencecollective.org) to discuss what outside resources may best fit our committee’s needs.  Most organizations offer various levels of support to best fit what the partner needs and what they can afford.  Below are a their recommendations:
   1. EQT by design (www.eqtbydesign.com/services): equity-centered strategic planning, change management, and organizational cultural design within government, community, and the corporate and nonprofit sectors
   2. Cross Movement Social Justice Consulting (https://cmsjconsulting.com): specializing in customized capacity building assistance, strategic planning, governance, multicultural organizational development, and cross movement alliance building
   3. Emergence Collective:
      1. Program & impact evaluation (qualitative and quantitative methods)
      2. Building a learning culture 
      3. Needs assessment
      4. Strategic planning
      5. Facilitation
      6. Organizational & program development 
      7. Data management systems
4. Charley Sullivan (Kansas) asked if the men’s coaches association was going to be approaching DEI work as well (specifically in the effort of hiring a more diverse coaching pool/female coaches/coaches of color).  Liz Tuppen responded that she was not sure where their focus as a coaches association was but they have been working with some of our board members in an effort to mirror our association and that the creation of a DEI committee will be recommended to them.
5. Sub-Committee Review (will ask that a rep/chair from each sub-committee speak)
   1. Mission Statement and Values: We’ve had three subcommittee meetings and our four co-chairs have met several times; We have developed a draft Vision Statement, which we can be seen here
      1. Process update
      2. Feedback on Vision Statement 
      3. Update on discussion with the CRCA Board
      4. Steps to make the DEI Committee and Standing Committee in the CRCA
   2. Early Identification, Recruiting & Retention: Sent survey to full sub committee. Full sub-committee meeting Thursday, 7/23. Created objective and template for all CRCA coaches to begin Early ID, Retention and Recruitment 
   3. Hiring and Retention: Created YR1 objectives and hiring and retention protocol to share w full committee
   4. Reports and Assessments: 
      1. got data from NCAA regarding rowing breakdown going back to 2012. Working on what kind of questionnaire to send to coaches/rowing staff. 
      2. Still working on identifying what data is most important to college and the best ways for doing it
      3. Working on creating a survey to send to the CRCA membership that collects valuable information and is easy enough that we will get 100% participation
      4. Members shared resources in that chat that may help this committee collect and use statistical data:

6. Grants and Sponsorships: No meeting yet, brainstorming and introductions to be ready to move forward to support Mission/Vision/Values committee direction
7. Culture and Education: 
   1. Liz (as co-chair of CRCA Con’t Edu Committee) is working on scheduling a meeting with RISE to discuss an ongoing partnership and curriculum for the CRCA membership.  Would ideally like to partner with this subcommittee in those efforts.
8. Partnerships and Community Outreach
9. Liz Tuppen will create a Google Doc Directly for committee members to fill out
10. During the subcommittee reviews it was clear that there will be a lot of overlap and crossover between all the subcommittees and it will be important that we have clear avenues for communication and collaboration.  It was also acknowledged that there will also be crossover between the DEI initiatives and the Sport Sustainability Committee.
11. Claire Kuehnal (Syracuse) provided a suggestion that perhaps now, at the onset of DEI,  the co-chairs and subcommittee leads form a leadership group to help and make sure that vision and framework are made together and also help ameliorate the workload.