Racial Equity Committee Meeting Minutes March 14

Section

Purpose

Speaker

Call to Order

The meeting was call to order by Keiona Gorham, Board Chair, at 6:02 p.m.

II.

Approve November Meeting Minutes

Alysia opened the floor for a motion to approve the minutes. Gorham motioned for approval of the minutes as they are, with no corrections. Molock seconded the motion. The November 1, 2022, meeting minutes were unanimously approved by all in attendance.

III.

Biennial Review Process

• Timeline for the Racial Equity Review

The definition of racial equity audit was read – At its core, an independent, objective, and holistic analysis of a company’s policies, practices, products, services, and efforts to combat systemic racism to end discrimination within or exhibited by the company with respect to its customers, suppliers, or other stakeholders. Not only are Racial Equity Audits designed to help inform investors about their current and future investments

from a social and financial perspective but are also intended to help companies craft their policies and practices to achieve their social justice goals.

The racial equity audit is an opportunity to dive in and be reflective and this would be audit for all programs, product services, and procedures.  It was proposed that we hire a consultant to do this process, initiate of a Request for Proposal (RFP) of a local and national search for a consultant. 

Opened for discussion:

The process would work alongside the strategic planning process as well or pushed out further?

We are required to audit every two years. This process would launch in January 2024. Giving a timeline if we decide to hire a consultant by the next Racial Equity Committee meeting. An RFP could be prepared in advance for review. Edits or changes could be made at the next meeting. We could determine when to launch the RFP. Interview and hire someone that can launch into the process in the late fall so that January 2024, they can get started. We are doing the analysis components, so that is our timeline. This would be after the strategic plan is completed. We would have some of the strategic plan to assist as one of the backbones of the audit.

Would we need a consultant team or an individual?

We would need a team of at least two to three people. We could do a process similar to the beginning of the strategic process. There will be some document review to see the intentions around racial equity and the ways to execute the work. There will some interviews, some stakeholder interviews, shadowing days with staff, and maybe some visits with the board.

Would all of the grantees undergo the audit?

We can make a decision about all of them being contacted and wanting their feedback, but it would not be an audit of their program.  If we are interested in offering racial equity audits in the future to grantees, that is something to consider with our capacity building funding. 

So, it is an internal process, not a process of the grantees?

Right. So, we are going forward with the RFP and hiring a consultant.  We will figure out the budget and present to the board in June.  We will begin the process of proposal for you all to review.

IV.

Profile for Community Members

• How does the committee identify community members to join?

The Racial Equity Committee is the only committee in our bylaws that can have members that are not Board members, non-voting members that are members form the community. 

We are about to do a board recruitment for voting board members, we have a presentation on the 21st and we will roll out a 2-month campaign. 

What is the profile of these members? Is this a space for current grantees to have some leadership opportunities inside BCFY? We will have two projects for this committee:

1. The racial equity audit, and
2. The learning agenda for racial equity for the organization, the board, and grantees

Profile – Who these members might be:

(Not comfortable with having unvetted people involved in the process)

• Grantees
• Young people that have gone through the Avis Ransom Institute
• Individuals that are committed to the work

The seats on this committee could be for one year. You all can decide, it is not offered in the bylaws. If would be a different group of young people, youth Board members are eligible to ne on the committee should they choose. 

What would be needed for community members in terms of basic knowledge? 

Working knowledge of or acceptance of how systemic racism impacts youth development. Racism is a system and therefor its impacts all other systems.  A good person from the community that understands and accepts those systems as being very deeply impacted by racism and other oppressive systems and is looking to learn and teach and understand how intersectionality works within them as well. 

We have good shape around creating the learning agenda that first might help us to create the profile or group of questions or body of knowledge for people to know before they join this committee.  

Timeline

• REF for the audit at the next meeting
• Devise a learning agenda (start with resources that we heard about tonight)
• Figure out a timeline for bringing in community members (Keiona & Alysia will work together) In the fall do a call community member.

V.

Adjourn

Keiona motioned that we adjourned until we come back together on May 9th. The meeting adjourned at 6:28 p.m.