Equity Advocates Announce Future Changes

Equity Advocates will be going through changes in the next few months. The Minnesota GIS/LIS Equity Advocates Ad Hoc Committee is set to sunset at the end of 2021. The Committee made and surpassed its goals during the two years it was active and has worked with the MN GIS/LIS Board to ensure that diversity and equity initiatives are rolled into board member duties. Another driving factor was the amount of time it takes for the leadership team to give the committee the time and resources it needs to thrive. There are other organizations whose sole purpose is to provide resources and opportunities to enhance equity initiatives in the geospatial field. Many of the members of the MN GIS/LIS Equity Advocates committee will be joining those. We invite you to become involved in any of these organizations.

• Women in GIS
• Women in Geospatial+
• Ethnically Diverse Geospatial Engagement (EDGE). Please reach out to Heidi Fish (to let her know of your interest in EDGE activities and/or joining the steering committee. The commitment would be bimonthly or quarterly steering committee meetings, with subgroups meeting on their own schedule as they choose.

To that end we have decided to make the following change:

Starting with the 2022 Annual Conference, the SIG will be renamed “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Special Interest Group (DEI SIG)

We will continue to:

• provide information regarding other interest groups such as Women in GIS, Geospatial+, EDGE, and others
• provide a place to gather to discuss content regarding diversity, equity and inclusion in our organizations and workplace
• provide an environment in which to provide feedback to WLIA regarding diversity, equity and inclusion pertinent to its activities
• seek out opportunities for DEI enrichment through coordinating with WLIA to host speakers, training and other opportunities to the WLIA membership

If you know of any other organizations or initiatives that are focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion please contact Kelly Felton or Jennifer Borlick so we can add them to the list. As part of the DEI SIG, we will be asking members to update us on various initiatives and opportunities.

Please note: The Equity Advocates Slack Channel and LinkedIn Group will be shuttered on December 31.

Thank you for the success of Equity Advocates over the last two years. We look forward to sharing more with you into the future.