This guest blog is by Mimi Clemens, an ELGL member and part of the UNC MPA research team helping to collect data for the 2019 Diversity Dashboard in North Carolina.
My name is Mimi Clemens. I am a first-year MPA student at UNC Chapel Hill. You may have met or seen me at the North Carolina City and County Management Association’s (NCCCMA or “N-triple-C –M-A” as the UNC MPAs call it) Winter Seminar.
It was great meeting many local government leaders in North Carolina during the speed networking event! I hope to hear from many of your offices soon regarding the Diversity Dashboard.
I think I speak for my cohort when I say we all had an amazing time learning about the current challenges and accomplishments local governments are pursuing across North Carolina. Thank you everyone who organized the Winter Seminar and we will see you all at next year’s Winter Seminar.
As for the Diversity Dashboard, the UNC MPA Research Team will be sending out the 2019 Diversity Dashboard surveys soon. Please make sure to check your Inbox!
You should receive an email from either Tom, Sarah, Maddie, or myself soon. If you have any questions about the survey, do not hesitate to contact us. This year, ELGL has partnered with Public Input to develop the 2019 survey.
Public Input is a community engagement software company, founded by Jay Dawkins, whose goal is to make state and local government more responsive to the needs of the people. As a bonus, they are based right here in Raleigh!
The ELGL Diversity Dashboard is a survey designed to collect demographic information on the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) or Assistant Chief Administrative Officer (ACAO) of local government organizations throughout the United States and Canada.
As future government leaders, we want to discover if local governments are becoming more diverse and representative of the communities they represent. ELGL will be collecting demographic data, specifically on the gender, race, age, and veteran status of these local government leaders.
While ELGL will be collecting data on local governments at a broader scale, the UNC MPA Research Team will be analyzing the North Carolina data specifically and providing a report on the diversity of local governments in North Carolina, including if there are any changes compared to the previous year.
Our final report will include growing trends, local governments that have changed compared to last year, and reports on how organizations are using position recruitment or diversity, equity, and inclusion training in North Carolina.
Just as a reminder, local government organizations do not need to be members of ELGL to complete the survey. After the data is collected, it will be compiled and shared without personal information attached into an OpenGov dashboard.
In the dashboard, the demographic data can be viewed by local governments in maps, charts, and graphs. We hope you participate in the survey and take a look at the data that is collected from your communities. Please let us know if you have any questions and we hope to hear from you all soon!
Make sure to check back to this blog in the upcoming months. We will be updating you all on our findings throughout the semester.