Implementing: Tools to Succeed

Key Concepts

• Create the tools, relationships, programs, policies and bylaws for bar leadership to implement Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity goals.

• It is about more than putting new people in the room or creating a sense of belonging but developing the systems that make all of that and the steps in between, possible.

• By asking the right questions and in turn developing initiatives, actions and programs to address them, equity creates the conditions for inclusivity.

• The Associations have well-intentioned leaders requesting support and direction to build Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity.

• The Associations need the tools, consistent procedures and coherent institution-wide strategies to successfully achieve their Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity goals.

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Engage section councils and chairs to implement the Toolkit and your section’s EDI goals

Share the planning and implementation of equity, diversity & inclusivity goals - one person cannot be solely responsible for achieving a section’s goals
Promote the engagement and commitment of the entire section council, chairs, and leaders to ensure success

Create your section’s diversity and inclusivity team

Include your section's council members as part of these teams
Consider creating teams to implement each individual pillar in this toolkit
Consider using microvolunteering opportunities to help your section and your teams implement the action steps in this Toolkit

Designate section council members as ambassadors to the diversity bars

Create relationships and facilitate outreach with diversity bars
Serve as personal ambassadors at Association events and diversity bar events and consider promoting attendance over the section’s online community and other platforms

Encourage section chairs and chair elects meet with the Joint Steering Committee 2-3 times a year

Encourage section chairs and chair-elects to attend section leadership meetings with the CBA|DBA Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity Joint Steering Committee 2-3 times a year

Solidify new bylaws, policies, and procedures to achieve EDI goals

Identify needed section bylaw changes to achieve equity, diversity & inclusivity goals
Update section bylaws to encourage rotating leadership
Consider stating your section's commitment to equity, diversity & inclusivity in bylaws to show accountability and public commitment
Add the CBA’s Mission and Values Statements to your section’s bylaws

Design robust and consistent engagement with the diversity bars

Encourage your section leaders, section chairs, and members to attend more diversity bar events and meetings
Create a microvolunteering opportunity for a member who, with the support of the section’s CBA staff liaison, can be responsible for publicizing diversity bar association events to your section leaders and in your section’s communications, newsletters, emails and meetings
Utilize the section’s online community to publicize diversity bar events and promote attendance by section leaders
Invite diversity bar leaders to speak at your section meetings
Design joint social and networking events with diversity bar associations and other CBA sections, the CBA YLD, committees, and other internal stakeholders
Design an annual meeting with the CBA/DBA Presidents’ Diversity Council, section chairs and other council members
Recruit microvolunteers from the Specialty/Diversity Bar Associations

Engage and invite the CBA YLD to your section leadership

Learn about the successes of the YLD in engaging diverse members in leadership positions and throughout their division
Link to the YLD task force & their equity, diversity & inclusivity plan

Schedule educational programing on how to lead an inclusive meeting and design inclusive events

Plan an annual orientation for your section council, officers and chairs that includes equity, diversity & inclusivity goals and strategies
Utilize the summer months, before your section’s new year begins, to launch onboarding, training and programming for your section’s leadership
Ensure that your educational programming prioritizes equipping leaders with equity, diversity & inclusivity core competencies like:
- Designing inclusive meetings and events
- Implicit bias and interrupting implicit bias
- The National Conference of Women’s Bar Association’s Good Guys Program and Toolkit

Invite diverse speakers to your section’s orientations, onboarding, training, and programming
Encourage section leaders to request specific programming or CLEs from the CBA|DBA Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity Joint Steering Committee that will be helpful to your section leaders and members
Collaborate with community partners like the Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program(CAMP), Center for Legal Inclusiveness (CLI), Specialty/Diversity Bar Associations, and CBA-CLE on programming
Study the Inclusive Behaviors Guide provided to all CBA leaders to learn what you can do personally to learn more about equity, diversity & inclusivity

Add EDI to your section’s CLE curriculum each year

Commit to putting on two annual events that have an equity, diversity & inclusivity focus
Commit to putting on two annual CLEs with an equity, diversity & inclusivity focus
Commit to having each of your section’s council members attend two diversity bar events annually
Include staff liaisons in programming to provide assistance
Have section council members complete an Individual Leadership Action Plan