Status Report: Outreach to Underserved Communities

April 2019 - October 2019

Doug Dirks, Jeff Weber, Joshua Young

Areas for Committee Feedback

We are requesting your feedback on the following topics:

All questions are featured as agenda topics

Activities Since the Last Status Report

Activity 1

• Development of a draft outreach engagement strategy
• Identification of priority community events (SACNAS, AISES, etc)

Progress has been made on the following:

• Designing structural changes (e.g. modifications to how equipment awards, internships, workshops, and committee placements are announced and selected)

Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:

• The only known dependency is regarding funding and time both of which have been dedicated to this effort. Since this is a new project, other dependencies or risks have not been identified at this time.

Ongoing Activities

We plan to continue the following activities:

• This is a new activity as an intentional project

New Activities

Over the next three months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Community services will participate in the AISES and SACNAS meetings this fall
• Develop outreach stakeholder list for broadening distribution of opportunities (equipment awards, internships, etc)

Over the next twelve months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Implement changes to the process of how Unidata opportunities are announced and awarded
• Plan exhibition or other activities at subsequent appropriate conferences
• Identify relevant metrics (contacts, partners identified, meetings attended)
• Identify sustaining partnerships for the next five years

Beyond a one-year timeframe, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• This effort is an ongoing commitment for the next award period (5 years); however, during this first year we are piloting efforts and then will apply lessons learned for the next 4 years.

Relevant Metrics

Relevant metrics should be discussed and decided for reports going forwarded

Strategic Focus Areas

We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:

1. Providing Useful Tools
   Better understanding these communities and characterizing their needs will allow us to develop more fit for purpose tools that can and will be adopted
   
2. Supporting People
   Unidata has always served the broad geoscience community; however we are making a concerted effort to expand our reach to underrepresented individuals and organizations as an emphasis of our new award

Prepared September 2019