Policies & Governance

2021 Diversity Task Force Action Plan 1

AWM Leadership will be periodically revisiting this and as such it should be treated as a living document.

AWM formed a Diversity Task Force (DTF) to examine how well AWM was supporting its community members with intersectional identities. The task force report, issued in 2018, made several recommendations for improvement. AWM began discussing and implementing changes beginning in  2018. This Action Plan is intended to document the first phase of a more formal response. It was first discussed at the March 25, 2021, meeting of the AWM Executive Committee and was approved at the September 29, 2022, meeting. Our timeline for completing this phase is two years.

In this Phase One action plan, AWM will address a subset of the DTF findings:

• Difficulty recruiting members and leaders from minoritized ethnic and racial groups
• Recruitment techniques that rely on inner networks
• A lack of support for trans women and other gender non-conforming or gender minority mathematicians
• A lack of inclusion of younger mathematicians in programming and decision-making 

Associated recommendations from the DTF are to:

• Make a greater effort to recruit minoritized members into leadership positions, and measure this by tracking demographics of EC and other leadership positions
• Make a greater effort to diversify plenary speakers, and measure this by tracking demographics
• Explore partnerships with other organizations, and measure this through tracking the number of such partnerships

Below we detail the steps the AWM intends to take or has already begun taking, divided according to EC structure. In all such steps, we commit to considering all forms of inclusivity and equity, whether or not a particular aspect appears in the task force report.

Management Team (Executive Director, President, and Past-President or President-Elect):

1. Institute broader solicitation for plenary speakers, EC position nominations, awards and other AWM opportunities.
Management has already created forms to solicit nominations for speakers and EC positions, and has received nominations for the 2022 Research Symposium and EC elected positions. We are in the process of instituting a schedule for regularly disseminating calls for submissions in these areas, as well as for award nominations. Next, we will establish regular data gathering processes to track demographics and other measures to demonstrate effectiveness in broadening participation. This will also address the DTF finding that the organization relies too heavily on inner networks. Finally, we will develop and maintain a contact list for networking with individuals and institutions.

2. Expand partnerships with other organizations.
AWM Management will reach out to organizations such as NAM and Spectra to determine ways that AWM can support the missions of those organizations. In addition, AWM will seek partnerships with other mathematical organizations that will support ethnic, racial, and gender diversity in mathematics.

3. Reexamine AWM’s gender-based mission statement and rephrase to be more inclusive of other gender identities.
AWM has consulted with Spectra about how best to support its members on the full gender spectrum and will present a revised mission statement to the EC.

4. Identify ways to include younger voices in AWM programs, committees, and the EC.
The Management Team will explore opportunities for student chapter representation on the EC and will charge the EC Standing Committees to consider where an early career seat might be appropriate. In addition, we will create structures, such as the Rising Star speaker sequence for the 2022 Research Symposium, that highlight the excellent work of our early career community members. We will track progress toward this goal by counting the number of early career participants in our various programs.

5. Initiate and support programs that educate the AWM community about issues of race, gender, and class, as well as developing key skills such as leadership and collaboration.
AWM has begun workshops (previously Moving Toward Action, now Aligning Action at Crossroads) to provide a baseline education in racial, ethnic, and gender harassment awareness and mitigation. We also have offered panels, such as the 2021 Equity, Ethics, and Bias in Math panel, to share expertise on these issues with our community.  In the future, we will develop workshops to cultivate skills that will give members of minoritized communities the skills to achieve positions of power that can help shift cultural norms. In addition, we are collaborating with other organizations to develop educational materials for our community.

6. Gather information and goals for the next diversity task force analysis as we work through this initial action plan.
One example of a topic to include more explicitly in the next task force report is disability. It was not included the original task force report and was not mentioned by participants.

Awards Portfolio

1. Establish data gathering and tracking processes to evaluate the demographic distribution of nominees and awardees of AWM awards.
The Awards Committee has already established an evaluation process related to demographics of awardees and nominees. To support those efforts, the committee will also improve data gathering processes.

2. Develop processes to increase the diversity of nominees.
An ad hoc Awards Canvassing Committee was convened several years ago. The Awards Committee will reconsider the charge, duties, and processes of that committee.

3. Streamline awards nomination and evaluation processes to provide more equitable access.
The Awards Committee will establish a schedule for examining a subset of AWM awards each year. It will consider the wording of the call for nominations as well as the material required for each award considered.

Membership Portfolio

1. Increase student membership retention after graduation.
The Membership Committee is currently reviewing the Individual Membership Dues and will consider the introductory membership rate as part of this process.
The Membership Committee will explore ways to advertise more effectively to graduating members. It plans to review promotional materials. It also plans to write a Facebook post and an email to be sent out to all student members at the end of the summer/early fall each year.

2. Connect student chapters more strongly to national AWM.
In 2021 we overhauled the Institutional Membership categories and pricing so as to simplify the administration and create a systematic way tracking of student members and nominees, as well as to encourage student memberships and student chapters. (The proposal was passed by the Executive Committee in December 2021.)
The Membership Committee will explore the possibility of having the Student Chapter Committee appoint a student representative to the Membership Committee.

3. Encourage early career membership
In the 2021 overhaul of the Institutional Membership categories we stipulated that free faculty nominations be given to visiting/adjunct/junior faculty. This proposal was passed by the Executive Committee in December 2021.
The Membership Committee will explore the possibility of having a Membership Desk at the Project Next Networking Event at MathFest as well as at the Graduate Student Poster Session at the JMM.
The Membership Committee will also explore the possibility of adding a sponsorship option. Currently the Contributing Member category includes a free student nomination. We are considering extending this option to allow for the possibility of gifting a membership to other (typically early career/adjunct/aspiring) mathematicians and/or a corporation sponsoring a student chapter.

Policy and Advocacy

1. Reexamine AWM’s gender-based mission statement and rephrase to be more inclusive of other gender identities.
P&A reworked the Mission Statement to be more inclusive and the proposed updates were approved by the Executive Committee in October 2021.

2. Audit the AWM website for consistency with the new mission statement and inclusiveness.
Policy and Advocacy will develop a sustainable process for monitoring and updating the AWM website.

3. Make statements that support inclusivity. 
P&A made a number of statements between 2018 and 2021 covering related topics:

1. 2018 Policy Statement on Diversity and Inclusion
2. 2018 Statement of AWM Concern for Transgender Civil Rights Protections
3. 2018 Statement of Deep Concern about the Location of ICM2022
4. 2019 Response to Dr.Thompson’s Letter in the AMS Notices (regarding Diversity Statements)
5. 2020 Solidarity with the National Association of Mathematicians
6. 2020 Strike for Black Lives
7. 2020 Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping
8. 2021 Statement in Support of AAPI Community
9. 2022 Reiteration of Concerns around the 2022 ICM
10. 2022 Concern for Transgender Civil Rights Protections

In the future, P&A will continue to track current events and trends with a special focus on DEI issues, and make statements/endorsements where appropriate.

4. Recruit outside the AWM network and bring in younger students for Hill Days. 
The Government Advocacy Committee (GAC) subcommittee of the P&A has worked with groups outside the traditional pipeline, including a diverse high school STEM chapter and a college which primarily serves first-generation college students.

5. In the (post-covid?) future, the GAC subcommittee of the P&A will shape the messages for future Hill Days to emphasize inclusivity and to highlight legislation that would support minoritized communities specifically.  The GAC will also actively recruit Hill Day participants from a more diverse population in the DC area.

Education and Outreach Portfolio 
The members of the Education & Outreach Portfolio have discussed the AWM’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force Report and identified the following concrete steps that we can take in support of the AWM’s goals.

1. Each committee will review its programs for ways to be more inclusive of gender minorities and, upon review, act to increase their programs’ inclusivity if possible (addressing Theme 3). 
Some of our programs are currently restricted to women (for instance, the AWM/MfA Essay Contest requires that interviewees must be women with mathematical careers); this sort of restriction will be discussed.

2. Each committee will review the language used to discuss its programs and alter it to make it more inclusive if possible (addressing Theme 3).
Some of the language on our website or in other materials specifically targets “women” or “girls” even when the programs themselves are more inclusive; we will make our language more inclusive of other gender minorities in mathematics.

3. Each committee will discuss and implement ways to acknowledge and thank our volunteers and to make volunteering less burdensome (addressing Theme 7).
This might include general offers of letters of support for volunteers, especially those whose service is not publicly visible, or finding ways for volunteers to provide a recorded presentation that could be shown at multiple events.

4. Each committee will devise a plan to advertise its programs more directly to people with gender identities and sexualities that have been historically excluded from math (addressing Themes 3 and 9).
Very few of our committees have a marketing strategy; we will advertise our programs through other organizations such as SPECTRA.

5. Each committee will devise a plan to advertise its programs more directly to people from ethnic minorities that have been historically excluded from math (addressing Themes 2 and 9).
Very few of our committees have a marketing strategy; we will advertise our programs through other organizations such as NAM, SACNAS, and Indigenous Mathematicians. We will also reach out less officially to groups of people such as mathematics department chairs at HBCUs.