The Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair is a volunteer Officer position on the OWCA Executive Board.
Position Details
- Length of term: 2 years (January 2024 to December 2025)
- Time commitment: 4-6 hours per month (includes synchronous and asynchronous work)
- Renewable?: No
- Elected by: OWCA membership
Qualifications
We welcome applications from anyone passionate about diversity and social justice, regardless of prior experience with professional associations. The Executive Board will support you as a new Board member and help you to implement your ideas.
You should apply for this position if you:
- Would like to develop/hone skills in remotely organizing and leading people in working toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice
- Would enjoy working with others to strategize and implement initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice
- Have ideas for ways OWCA can recruit and support a more diverse membership, most notably in terms of racial identity, or ways OWCA can leverage its power to promote social justice within the writing center community
Responsibilities
If elected, you would serve 1 year as Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair, followed by 1 year as Diversity & Social Justice Chair.
Year 1: Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair
As Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair, you would do the following within your monthly time commitment:
- Work closely with the Diversity & Social Justice Chair and receive mentoring as needed
- Attend Diversity & Social Justice Committee meetings and lead the meetings when the Diversity & Social Justice Chair is not available
- Help take notes during Committee meetings
- Help Chair and Committee as a whole to set goals for year and make consistent progress toward those goals
- Help work with the Accessibility, Virtual Events, and Conference Committees throughout the year
- Attend monthly Executive Board meetings to report on your committee’s progress, review items that need Board feedback/approval, and vote on Board and committee projects
Year 2: Diversity & Social Justice Chair
As Diversity & Social Justice Chair, you would do the following within your monthly time commitment:
- Work closely with the incoming Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair and mentor them as needed
- Chair the Diversity & Social Justice Committee, which involves scheduling and leading committee meetings, delegating tasks to committee members for both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, and organizing committee files
- Set, maintain, and track progress toward the OWCA annual member demographic survey and report
- Work with the Conference Committee and Accessibility Committee throughout the year to help make the OWCA and its conference inclusive, welcoming, and equitable
- Attend monthly Executive Board meetings to report on your committee’s progress, review items that need Board feedback/approval, and vote on Board and committee projects
The Diversity & Social Justice Committee
In the past, the Diversity & Social Justice Committee has worked synchronously and asynchronously to accomplish the following:
- Create and distribute a yearly demographic questionnaire to OWCA members
- Analyze results from the demographic questionnaire and draft a “Member Demographics” section for the OWCA Annual Report
- Collaborate with the Virtual Events Committee to host an anti-racism event
- Compose the OWCA’s Anti-Racism Statement
Currently, the Diversity & Social Justice Committee is working to accomplish the following:
- Revise and distribute the demographic questionnaire for 2022 members
- Create a public archive of resources related to Diversity and Social Justice for writing centers
- Write a General Diversity Statement for OWCA
- Work with OWCA members to identify actionable means of supporting the intersecting communities they represent
Learn More
To learn more about this position and the OWCA, you can attend an Informational Session.
You can also review the following pages on our website:
If you have questions, please email election@onlinewritingcenters.org.
How to Apply
Please create ONE of the following:
- written statement (200-300 words) OR
- video statement (2-3 minutes). Video statements should be uploaded to YouTube and include edited closed captions for accessibility (please review the OWCA Guide for Video Applications for assistance).
Your statement will be shared with OWCA members for voting. In your statement, please answer the following questions:
- Why do you want to be more involved with the OWCA and to hold the position of Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair?
- How have you worked toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and/or social justice within your professional or personal life?
- What ideas do you have for creating a more diverse and inclusive organization?
Submit
Applications for this election are due November 15 (by end of the day).
