2027 New England Regional Committee: Safety, Inclusion and Accessibility Coordinator

About the role

The Safety and Inclusion Coordinator works as part of the committee to ensure a safe and inclusive environment for event attendees, and serves to champion the Association’s Code of Conduct. This role ensures the safety, inclusion and accessibility needs of conference attendees are met. This role serves as part of the attendee relations team.

Responsibilities

General

• Serve as a member of the association’s Safety, Diversity and Inclusion Committee to coordinate event with association efforts.
• Monitor HelpScout and respond to safety inquiries.
• Facilitate an environment that encourages knowledge of, respect for, and development of skills to engage with those of other cultures or backgrounds.

Before the conference

• Ensure the association’s Code of Conduct is current and shared with event attendees as part of the registration and communications processes.
• Ensure a good, streamlined process is in place for reporting and addressing any safety and/or Code of Conduct reports.
• Audit and offer accessibility, safety and inclusion suggestions to improve the conference, website, session slides and related technology.
• Audit and offer recruitment and selection suggestions to strengthen presenter diversity.
• Audit and offer recruitment suggestions to strengthen attendee diversity.
• Assist members of the event committee in broadly incorporating inclusive strategies across all efforts.
• Work with the registration coordinator to identify all special needs of attendees including diet and physical accommodations when event is on-site.
• Work with executive director to arrange accommodations as required to support attendees.
• Contact, as needed, any attendee that has accommodation questions or issues.
• Promote the conference through personal social media and professional networks.
• Confirm the venue meets ADA requirements, including for physical barriers, auxiliary aids and signage.
• Coordinate with the venue to ensure they make reasonable accommodations as needed.

At the conference

• Assist with conference setup.
• Attend all committee meetings.
• Work with marketing and communications team to monitor comms channels for code of conduct, accessibility and related issues.
• Monitor all assistive and support services personnel to make sure that things run smoothly.
• Connect, as appropriate, with any attendees that require support services to make sure that their experience at the event is a positive one.
• Organize staffing of tools such as the association safety phone hotline, event/session chat and Slack so that they are consistently monitored and managed.
• Intake, document and process any Code of Conduct violations or reports that occur, while maintaining strict standards of performance and confidentiality.

After the conference

• Provide a final Code of Conduct report to the Association Safety, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
• Provide accessibility input to the chair for the overall event assessment.

Qualifications

Required

• Membership in the association, which can be fulfilled at application. (Free general membership for higher education professionals would meet this requirement.)
• An understanding of and empathy for the needs of attendees.
• A highly respectful, responsive communication style.
• Understanding of complex topics such as inclusion in language, representation, etc.
• Ability to operate within strict standards of confidentiality and process.
• Must be conscientious and have the ability to follow through with details when arranging for the needs of attendees
• Attention to detail and ability to self-manage multiple responsibilities.
• Knowledge and ability to review and resolve website and document accessibility issues.

Preferred

• Familiarity with the Association.
• Previous experience on a crisis, diversity, safety or related team (professionally or as a volunteer)
• Previous experience managing accessibility accommodations for an event
• Training on issues such as diversity, inclusion, ADA compliance, sexual harassment, reasonable accommodations, etc.
• Ability to work with project management/team communication platforms such as Slack, Clickup, etc.
• Google Drive proficiency.

Estimated time commitment

The safety, inclusion and accessibility lead is expected to virtually attend scheduled committee meetings and to organize and lead other scheduled team meetings. The time commitment for committee work varies, with a minimum of 6 hours per month and a peak commitment of 20 hours per month (attendance at the Event notwithstanding).

Length of appointment

Up to 12 months.

Growth opportunities

• Experience creating safe and inclusive environments.
• Opportunity to learn while volunteering on a flexible schedule.
• Experience serving on a committee for the Association
• Experience building relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• A broader network of contacts that can help positively influence your career.
• Access to Digital Collegium volunteer rewards.

Conference attendance

Event attendance is required. Event registration is waived for this position.