DIVERSITY CONSORTIUM ACCOMPLISHMENTS: 2008

Dear Affiliates,
 
 

Long before I became active in the field of diversity and inclusion, many of you were already taking the steps necessary to diversify your organizations. You—the long-term core group of affiliates—were: developing and implementing zero tolerance policies; working to end harassment and racism; educating others in the community on the need to respect, accept and welcome others; creating welcoming and inclusive work environments; and serving as advocates and mentors. I have the utmost respect for the work that you have accomplished and would like to thank you for your ongoing commitment. Through our combined efforts we can give a voice to, create opportunities for, and provide equity and acceptance for all underrepresented groups within our community. We can effect social change.
 
 

Please allow me to recap some of the efforts that have enabled us to achieve our mission in 2008.  We began 2008 by reiterating our mission in a formal set of by-laws. We defined our goals and formulated action items to help us get there. By putting our thoughts in writing, we effectively created a plan. We have already made great strides toward meeting many of our goals and have achieved many of our short-term objectives.
 
 

1.  We became incorporated and await our not-for-profit status.
 
 

The Incorporation Subcommittee (consisting of Kristina Belanger, Judy Drake, Stephen Estes, Steve Flash, Carol Malison, and Schelley Michell Nunn) met several times throughout the year. We finalized our Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws and (with the approval of the affiliates) contracted with an attorney to incorporate. We are now incorporated as a self-perpetuating 501-c-3 not-for-profit educational organization consisting of no fewer than eleven board members. Our address is: P.O. Box 6714, Ithaca, New York 14851-6714. All other participants are affiliates of the organization, but only board members will be the voting membership. Elections were held in December.
 
 

Officers:

Stephen Estes, President

Schelley Michell Nunn, Vice President

Carol Malison, Secretary

Judy Drake, Treasurer
 
 
 

Board Members:

Kristina Belanger

Janie Bibbi

Audrey Cooper

Mary DeSouza

Tim Emnett

Vicki Estabrook

Steve Flash

Bill Hawley

Cindy Martin

Shanovah Moodie

Lenore Olmstead

Connie Park

Tiffany Phillips

Dave Richardson

Suki Tabor

Osupa T-Davis
 
 

2.  We clarified and finalized the mission of the organization.
 
 

The mission of the Diversity Consortium is to serve as a catalyst to promote the benefits of diversity and inclusion through educating, enhancing awareness of, providing a supportive network for and sharing best practices with all affiliates of the Corporation.
 
 

3.  We created several goals necessary to achieve the mission.
 
 

A.  One of our primary functions is to promote workplace diversity and

inclusion by recruiting, hiring, promoting, retaining, and providing

educational and growth opportunities for all.
 
 

Collectively, we represent a wide cross section of this community, including: government, not-for-profit, education, housing, aging services, youth services and private sector. Our core group provides opportunities to underrepresented groups in the fields of education, housing, employment, banking and other services. At the start of each monthly meeting, the affiliates share information about community happenings, employment opportunities and information about diverse talent with whom they are working. There are generally a few minutes following each meeting where individuals network, share information and resources.
 
 

B.  We strive to provide high-quality, dynamic, and responsive programs and services in diversity and inclusion issues to the community.
 
 

C.  We are a community resource on diversity and inclusion topics.
 
 

This past year, we provided three educational programs to the community, all with excellent turnout. Constance Thompson presented, “Establishing a Foundation for Diversity and Inclusion in Your Organization” on March 24th and “Best Practices in Diversity Recruitment” on April 14th. I presented “The Business Case for Diversity” on November 18th. In total, these efforts raised approximately $1,500 for the Consortium.
 
 

We partnered with the Chamber of Commerce and The Society for Human Resource Management of Tompkins County and provided advertising support to the Native American Homecoming Festival. We had a strong showing at the World of Skills Job Fair and some affiliates were represented at community events such as the GIAC festival, Dragonboat Race, and Homecoming Festival.
 
 

D.  We will facilitate and provide guidance to organizations that are developing and adopting diversity and inclusion practices.
 
 

Four of our affiliates worked with the Ithaca City School District on their workforce diversity and equity initiative and/or served on interview teams for the district’s high-profile positions. Schelley Michell Nunn and Melina Carnicelli organized teams to address the district’s issues surrounding recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. Connie Park and Stephen Estes served on this team along with community members consisting of Stephanie Baptiste, Joe Greenberg, Tina Nilsen-Hodges and Jeff Tomasik to create an action plan addressing the school district’s overall plan for recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.  Unfortunately, we lost one of our members when Melina Carnicelli retired from the School District.  As part of the action plan mentioned above, I participated in the interviews to replace her.
 
 

E.  We will work to establish and promote standards for diversity and inclusion. [We will focus on this area in 2009.]
 
 

F.  We will facilitate diverse workforce employment, recruitment and retention opportunities for area employers and employees.
 
 

Workforce Employment: Our résumé databank is now functional. There are a few candidates in the files, and affiliates are strongly encouraged to both discuss this opportunity with diverse candidates and get their approval for us to add their résumés to the bank of talent. Please forward résumés to: sestes@tompkins-co.org (MS Word or Adobe Acrobat PDF).  You are also strongly encouraged to tap into this resource any time you are recruiting for a position.
 
 

Recruitment: During this past year, Shanovah Moodie updated The WDIC’s Diversity Recruitment Resource Guide.  We also updated the web site with links to our own employment pages and to enable us to post jobs for third party businesses wishing to use our web site as a recruitment tool.

Retention Opportunities: Though the economy is in rough shape, the word from our affiliates is that we are taking proactive measures to avoid negative impact to our employees. Hiring freezes and pauses have been imposed, budget reductions are being met through attrition, there is a concerted effort to reassign staff within organizations and we are all open to the idea of placing talent elsewhere.

4.  Various affiliates received awards this year as a result of their recruitment, employment and retention initiatives.

The Tompkins County Legislature proudly presented Jerry Stern, Highway Technician for the Highway Division, with a proclamation declaring Tuesday, May 6, 2008 to be Jerry Stern Day in Tompkins County in honor of Jerry’s commitment to diversity.
 

Tompkins County was presented with the 2008 “Employer Appreciation Certificate” by VESID and the New York State Department of Labor for their commitment to providing employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities.
 
 

The City of Ithaca was acknowledged by Black Enterprise as being 3^rd lowest in crime for a city of its size and 16th on the list of best places for African Americans to retire.
 
 

USA Today listed Ithaca as their number 1 emerging city.  "The town is attractive, activities are plentiful and education attainment is high," but they also said that we have "lots of snow and precipitation."  I think we can all agree on the accuracy of that statement.
 
 

Alternatives Federal Credit Union was referenced in an article by Black Enterprise on its micro loan program.
 
 

Cornell University was acknowledged by Black Enterprise as being 25th out of the top 50 colleges for African Americans.

Cornell University was presented with the 2008 “Disability Services Award” by VESID and the New York State Department of Labor for their efforts to provide programs and services for students and staff with disabilities.

Cornell University was as recognized in 2008 by the Association for the Advancement of Retired People as the best place for people over the age of 50 to work.

Cornell University, for the third consecutive year, has been named to Working Mother magazine’s list of “100 Best Employers for Working Mothers” in the United States for creating a positive work environment for women, including working mothers.

Cornell University has been named by Conceive Magazine as one of the top 50 most family-friendly employers in the United States in 2008 because of the benefits it offers to employees who hope to be parents.

There has been some discussion regarding the DC taking more of a lead role in responding to and helping others work through high-profile issues in the community. We have yet to determine what the programs, services and resources are that we will provide in relation to that initiative.
 

5.  Promotion of the Consortium
 
 

Diversity Consortium employers have all been provided DCTC business cards with the DC logo to display in conjunction with agency logos when participating in job fairs. We wish to show the community that there is solidarity among affiliates and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion throughout our organizations. Connie Park and Vickie Estabrook, members of the DC marketing committee, have other ideas in the works and will be coming up with promotional materials for the Roundtable event soon.
 
 

6.  Diversity Consortium web site
 
 

In the past, the Tompkins County Personnel Department has provided an “in-kind” value to the Diversity Consortium by hosting and providing staff to maintain the web site. I have updated the web site and will maintain it throughout 2009.
 
 

We adopted a motion to charge a $25.00 dollar fee for nonmembers to post jobs on the Diversity Consortium website. Jobs can be posted any time from the 1^st to the 30^th of the month; on the last day of the following month the postings will be removed, ensuring that jobs are posted for at least 30 days.
 
 

All affiliates have a link from the DCTC web site to their individual employment pages. I will be updating the list of affiliates as soon as everyone has paid their 2009 dues.
 
 

We have also created a secure section of the web site, where access requires a user name and password. We will be maintaining our records in this section as well as the résumé bank. Please feel free to send résumés of diverse talent to sestes@tompkins-co.org for posting.

7.  2009 Roundtable Event, Clarion Hotel, on May 7, 2009
 
 

The following individuals agreed to serve on the Roundtable subcommittee: Carol Mallison, Audrey Cooper, Judy Drake, Kristina Belanger, Schelley Michell Nunn, Mary DeSouza, Lynette Chappel-Williams, Connie Park, Stephen Estes and Vicki Estabrook. These individuals have partnered with Deb Shigley of SHRMTC.
 
 

The group has made considerable progress with regard to the 2009 Roundtable event. Speakers are lined up, the Clarion is booked, and Judy is looking into whether or not we can tap into “Human Resource Certification Institute” accredited individuals to provide some of the sessions so that participants can obtain educational credit for attending. A timeline and roster of duties will be created as things progress.
 
 

8.  Partnerships
 
 

We have partnered with SHRMTC for the Roundtable event and they have been serving on the committee to help get this squared away.  As a SHRMTC board member and Diversity Director, it is my responsibility to participate in SHRM diversity trainings, conference calls and teleconferences at both the State and National level. This will enable me to: keep abreast of current happenings, experience the best practices in the field of diversity and inclusion, provide for more effective liaisons with members of the Tompkins County Diversity Consortium and share information in both directions in order to keep the membership of these two organizations informed of trainings of mutual interest and other diversity-related happenings.
 
 

We have also partnered with the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce.  This group has provided refreshments and provided prominent advertising on their web site for some of our training sessions.  One goal is to get the for-profit sector interested and involved in diversity initiatives.
 
 

9.  Annual Membership Dues for 2009
 
 

In August of 2008, the dues for 2009 were agreed upon by the affiliates as follows:

Small organizations: $25.00 for two affiliates

Mid-sized organizations: $50.00 for three affiliates

Large organizations: $100.00 for five affiliates
 
 

It was further determined that organizations could purchase multiple memberships to enable more affiliates to participate in the consortium.
 

10.  Committee Development:
 
 

There were some changes made to existing committees, as more members decided to join the listed committees below:
 
 

Executive Committee:

Nominating Committee: Audrey Cooper, Chair; Osupa T-Davis, Cindy Martin and Vickie Estabrook

Bylaws Committee: Carol Mallison, Kristina Belanger, Schelley Michell Nunn, Steve Flash, Judy Drake and Stephen Estes

Roundtable Committee: Carol Mallison, Audrey Cooper, Judy Drake, Kristina Belanger, Schelley Michell Nunn, Mary DeSouza, Lynette Chappel-Williams, Connie Park and Vicki Estabrook

Fundraising Committee: Schelley Michel-Nunn, Shanovah Moodie, Stephen Estes

Education Committee: Kristina Belanger and Mary DeSouza

Marketing Committee: Connie Park and Vickie Estabrook

Membership Committee: Shanovah Moodie, Judy Drake and Lenore Olmstead
 

I apologize if I neglected to mention any initiatives or individuals. Putting our accomplishments down on paper has made me realize just how remarkable and busy 2008 has been! Please make sure to report out thoroughly at every meeting (and I will see if I can do a better job of summarizing at the end of 2009!).
 
 

I am honored that you have selected me to serve as 2009 President of the newly incorporated Diversity Consortium of Tompkins County, Inc., and would like to thank you for placing your faith and confidence in me. I am looking forward to an exciting and productive new year.
 
 

Best regards,
 

Stephen Estes, DCTC President