In Pursuit of Diverse Solutions

In Pursuit of Diverse Solutions 6/3/00 - Final Report

Narrative Description

The goal of the Santa Clara Valley SWE Section has been to build relationships with other professional societies which are concerned with diversity. We thought that a conference produced in equal partnership would be a good way to do this. Thus we approached three groups, BDPA-IT THOUGHT Leaders, National Society of Black Engineers - Alumni Extension and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, about working with us on a full day conference on professional and personal development within a diverse environment. By working together, we hoped to include a broader range of topics and presenters than each organization alone could present. To the best of our knowledge, an event of this type and this scale had not been done before.

We began with an introductory lunch meeting in October of 1999 of one representative from each organization. The purpose was to take the time to get to know each other and our organizations. This low key meeting helped set the tone that existed throughout. It established everyone as having an equal representation on the committee and mutual respect and understanding.

In November, the planning began in earnest. We came up with our original title “In Pursuit of Real-Time Diverse Solutions in Silicon Valley” which we subsequently shortened to “In Pursuit of Diverse Solutions.” We compared organizational calendars and set the date. We investigated two possible sites and chose Oracle because they have a state-of-the- art conference facility and they were willing to underwrite much of the food costs. Their Diversity department became our highest level sponsor. Sponsor levels were: Gold, $5,000 or more, Silver, $2,500 - $4,999, Bronze, $1000 - $2,499 and Contributor, anything under $1000.

We functioned as a committee of the whole, mutually agreeing to no titles or chairpeople. Leadership roles happened naturally. We subdivided the major responsibilities as: SWE - treasury, fund-development; BDPA - registration; NSBE - coordinate speaker contact, fund-development and sponsor liaison; SHPE - secretary, website, facility liaison. The four of us brain-stormed the event flow, the desired workshops and all recruited speakers. To satisfy all of our members, the keynote speaker needed to be a woman of color. Each panel discussion had a diverse composition and there was a range of ethnicities among the workshop presenters.

Since networking across the societies was an important goal, we had a very relaxed schedule with generous times for informal discussions. In the course of the three general sessions, each organization had visibility. Esther Heller of SWE gave the welcome at the breakfast welcome session, Tamecia Jordan of NSBE gave the lunchtime invocation, Kevin Hinktson of BDBA introduced the keynote speaker at lunch, and Violet Cullors of SHPE did the closing at the end-of-day networking reception. Additionally, the presidents of each of the four societies spoke for a few minutes about what each organization is and does.

The morning breakout sessions were: Breaking Barriers: Learning the Unwritten Rules; Small Business Administration Resources; Creating Career Satisfaction; The Value of Networks and Affinity Groups. Our keynote speaker was Audrey Rice Oliver, the President and CEO of Integrated Business Solutions, Inc. Her address “In Search of Diverse Solutions: How do We Get There from Here?” was inspiring and motivational and well-received by the audience. The afternoons breakout sessions were: Career Transitions; How Much Identity do You have to Lose to Succeed?; Advancing Our Leadership Skills; Personal Finance. For descriptions and information on the speakers, as well as a detailed schedule, please go to either our website at: www.sv.shpe.org/JointConference or see our program brochure at: www.galarc.com/IPDSfinal.pdf

A month after the event, the four members of the planning committee met for an evaluation and celebration lunch and agreed to do another conference.

Measured Results

Our original target was 200 attendees, plus speakers and committee. We had 82 attendees. Although we were disappointed in the numbers, a few people commented that they liked the intimacy of the size and hoped we didn’t grow bigger.

There were one page evaluations using both ranked questions (1 was “strongly disliked” and 5 was strongly liked”) and open-ended questions to give people a sense of validation and a place for comments. Forty three evaluations were turned in. Almost everything was positive. Thirty five people said that their expectations were met, three said partially and the rest did not reply to the questions. The keynote speaker averaged 4.8, the opening 4.1, the closing, 4.0. The panel discussions ranged from 3.9 to 4.8, the workshops from 3.3-4.7. And the food and location (mainly the food) averaged 4.7.

It was a good event; it went smoothly; we set the tone that we wanted and clearly met a need in our professional, diversity community. Kevin Hinkston, President of BDPA said, “Every person who left that day, committee member, presenter or attendee, left smiling.” Here are some relevant quotes taken from the evaluations.

- [It was a] “unique event.”

- “The best part of it is interacting with DIFFERENT groups and talking to the speakers outside of the workshops.”

- “I really enjoyed the workshops because I really felt like part of the group and could related to some of the stories some of the people shared.”

- “The sharing of wisdom during an open discussion is powerful.”

- “Great networking with people I don’t ordinarily get to meet.”

- “ Very positive environment and group. I love being around such a diverse and tolerant group of ambitious people.”

- “Inspirational speaker as keynote is perfect. Please do it again!”

- “Joint conference was a great idea! More variety of speakers and workshops than those of my organization only.”

- “I just wish I could have attended more or even all of the [break-out] sessions.”

Challenges and the Future

Our diversity committee had the idea of this conference well over a year before we submitted the proposal for the grant. We knew that we had to build some kind of personal relationship with members of the other organizations before we could approach them with the idea. As chair of the committee, I tried making cold calls and contacts, mainly to NSBE and SHPE officers, offering a reciprocity around member events. People were receptive but nothing came of it. Fortunately, the Professional and Technical Diversity Network (PTDN) was created in Silicon Valley in early 1999 and SWE became actively involved. There we were able to meet members of other organizations and establish our credibility. Then we could put out the idea. Applying and receiving for the grant money helped get us off the ground. The PTDN relationships also helped us to secure the site and several of our sponsors.

Our biggest challenge was merging the cultures. As we went along, we learned that we really did have different ways of doing things. SWE, in particular, is used to a smaller number of people working on bigger projects. Our senses of time and urgency are really different. We’re now working on the next conference, with two returning planners and two new ones, and are discussing increasing the participants.

We’re all humorously discussing how our members respond to deadlines, with SWE members being the first to register and BDPA members waiting until they arrived that morning.

Because we had taken the time to build good working relationships, all disagreements were handled in a respectful manner and things were worked out. The prime example of culture conflicts was the invocation. BDPA and NSBE routinely have invocations at their events, SHPE has them at major events. SWE does not have them. It was a challenge to explain why we didn’t. I pointed out that we have Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, agnostics and atheists among our members. This contrasted greatly with the predominantly Christian make-up of the other three groups. Based on our discussions, Tamecia Jordan of NSBE introduced it by explaining that it was the custom of most of the groups to do so. She also gave a careful invocation that was spiritual without being religion specific. I did later receive a complaint from a SWE member, to whom I explained the situation and that I felt that it was appropriate for the situation. Again, being open and respectful and getting all view points out helped.

The event was such a success that we all wanted keep doing it. All four organizations felt that an annual event was too much but we’d lose connection to wait two years. So, we are now planning the second conference, scheduled for Sept 29, 2001. Because we have a turn over in half of the planning group, we are needing to take the time to build the relationship and the team. Fortunately, Oracle has agreed to donate their facility again.

We want to expand the size this year. We’re discussing adding other partners and having backup representatives from each organization. We would also like to increase student attendance to twenty per cent. A major challenge will be finding funding since the diversity departments of many of our large companies are now dealing with budget cuts. However, we know that they like to support this conference because they do outreach to multiple organizations at one time. And we all are determined to make it happen.

Respectfully submitted,

Esther A. Heller, SWE-SCV Diversity Chair

In Pursuit of Diverse Solutions 6/3/00 - Financial Statement

Expenses: Budget Actual

Facility usage 2000 3,000.00

Food [1] 8000 3,012.60

Professional (paid) speakers 1800 1,000.00

Gifts for non-paid speakers/panelists 300 438.52

Luncheon keynote speaker 1000 1,500.00

Printing / administrative 300 350.30

Publicity / postage / other communication 200 22.36

Childcare (3 workers for 6 hrs) 200 0.00

Promotional items 200 0.00

Contingencies 500 0.00

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Total $ 14,000 $ 9,323.78

Income:

Registration Fees [2] 5,400 1,555.00

Seed Money

SWE - Exxon /Mobil SWE Grant [3] - Silver Sponsor 2,600.00

BDPA 1,000.00

NSBE 200.00

SHPE 500.00

Oracle (in-kind facility $3K, plus food)- Gold Sponsor 5,500.00

Cisco Systems - Bronze Sponsor 1,000.00

Corsair Communications - Bronze Sponsor 1,000.00

Microsoft 500.00

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Total $ 5,400 $ 13,855.00

Income - Expenses - 8,600 4,331.22 [4]

Project Title: In Pursuit of Diverse Solutions

Project Manager: Esther A. Heller Section: Santa Clara Valley

Email: esther@galarc.com Phone: 650-321-9713

Deliverables: Indicate type (i.e. document, web page, brochure, etc.), title, and media (hard copy, email file, disk, etc.)

A one day conference. Program brochure is found at:

www.galarc.com/IPDSfinal.pdf

Website: http://www.sv.shpe.org/JointConference/

Select the one primary Strategic Priority this project addressed: Diversity

SWE Committees to which this report and deliverables would be of interest:

Project Audience (age, sex, diversity) Female: 73 Male: 29

Contact Hrs: 7 per attendee

SWE Volunteers (No.) 6_ Estimated Total Hours: 300

Non-SWE Volunteers (No.) 8 Estimated Total Hours: 450

Executive Summary: A short summary of what the Project was and what it accomplished.

This one-day professional conference produced through a diversity focus did the following:

- built relationships among the four organizations involved

- took an open and honest look at the realities of a diverse workplace

- gave all participants a forum for in-depth networking across cultural lines

[1] Food budget based on $50 per person for 200 people; actual cost was much lower for only 100 people.

[2] Fee estimate based on 160members at $25, 40 nonmembers at $35, fee structure changed to include early and later fees with 47 paying, 10 members admitted free as “day of event” workers.

[3] $260 (10%) not received, pending this report.

[4] Because of surplus, seed money was returned to partners and excess distributed to be held by each for 2001 conference, now being planned for September 30, 2001.