Craig’s Corner March 2022
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Are We Doing Enough?
It was wonderful to see many of you in Staunton at our winter conference week before last. I want to extend a very special thanks to Matt Lawless and Angela Lawrence for putting together a great conference agenda – our sessions were very well attended, and I heard many positive comments about the sessions and the venue. I hope you found several “nuggets” of inspiration you could take back with you to your communities, and I hope you also found time to “relax, refresh, and recharge” from the daily routine of the office. For those of you who were unable to attend, I hope you will make plans to join us for the VLGMA annual conference, to be held June 8-10 in Virginia Beach – details to follow soon!
During the month of February, we commemorated Black History Month, and in March we celebrate Women’s History Month. Just a few days ago, President Biden announced Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to serve as the country’s next Supreme Court Justice; she is the first Black woman (and only the sixth woman ever) to be nominated for the nation’s highest court. Our Supreme Court, as with many of our government institutions, has long been dominated by white men. Change is occurring, but at a very slow pace.
As I reflected on the importance of this announcement, I realized that while we have come a long way in becoming more inclusive as an organization, we need to provide more opportunities to support and encourage members of color and women in our profession. For many years, local government appointed leaders did not always reflect the makeup of the communities they served, and nearly all of the appointed leaders were men. While appointed leaders are now much more diverse, VLGMA must continue to foster equity and inclusion in our programs and activities. As past president Cindy Mester reminded us last year, VLGMA’s vision, mission, and core beliefs “are the underpinning of our ethical principles, and help us facilitate community building where every one is valued, respected, and included.”
In another initiative to become more inclusive, VLGMA leadership recently held several discussions on how to better engage younger members who are early in their careers, and ensure that our organization is providing them the support they need to grow in our profession. We will be discussing this initiative more at our annual conference in June; if you are interested in sharing your thoughts, and would be willing to serve on a committee to help develop this further, please let me know.
From time to time, we include a column in our monthly newsletter entitled “Community Conversations.”Space in the newsletter is dedicated to an activity or discussion going on in one of our communities that would be of interest to our membership.If you would like to share an activity, event, or issue in an upcoming newsletter column, please reach out to me.
Our organization continues to grow! Please join me in welcoming our newest members - Chris Coon, Deputy County Administrator, County of Louisa; Nate Sulya, Management Fellow, Town of Colonial Beach and Todd Wood, Assistant City Manager for Operations, City of Waynesboro.
In closing, I’d like to share a quote from Maya Angelou – “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” I appreciate all that you do for your communities, and I am thankful to each of you for your support of VLGMA –
All the best,
Craig