Recommitting to the Committee

Hi! Welcome to an update from Whiteboard’s Change Committee. We’re an internal team committed to activating on our Anti-Racism Plan. At the end of every quarter, we take a moment to reflect on our progress as a company. We review what we've done well, and what do we need to do better, and we believe in doing this work in the open. So—let’s review!

With the start of a new quarter, we’re regrouping as a committee. Last quarter, we realized we needed some reorganization, and we’re excited to be solidifying a more intentional system moving forward. We’re inviting new members and giving other members the chance to bow out of the committee for this next season. Members are committing for 2 quarters, and there will be the opportunity to return or step down for the next two quarters. We required current members to “reapply” and in that process, members had to reread the plan and recommit to the committee. We are changing our meeting rhythms and emphasizing the priority of the committee to the members.

We’re thrilled to welcome new members and motivate those returning to reconnect to the mission of our work. These internal adjustments—while they may seem small—are helping Whiteboard create a more sustainable and effective process for taking action on the individual goals.

We have had some big and small movements on the individual goals.

We are happy to announce that Goal 5, “Develop a protégé program,” is underway! Taylor Jones, Whiteboard CEO and Co-founder, is leading this, working with a creative entrepreneur to offer appropriate guidance on starting an agency and working in the industry. As noted in our anti-racism plan (and the About page of many, many agency websites), creative agencies tend to be overwhelmingly white, even though there are so many BIPOC creative professionals. Goal 5 is all about supporting BIPOC creative professionals through strategic partnerships—and ultimately, greater opportunity for those professionals to grow their portfolio and business. We can’t pursue anti-racism in the agency space if we’re not actively supporting agencies led by people of color.

We still have two goals that have not yet been activated on: developing an industry directed initiative focused on advancing anti-racism within the digital design industry (Goal 9) and launching one community impact project (Goal 12). The plan is to start preliminary work so that we can hit the ground running with these goals in 2022. In our last meeting, we assigned team owners to these goals to start researching and preparing for the new year.

Goal 2, “Offer and require staff participation in at least one anti-racist education or training opportunity per year,” is on it’s way to being fulfilled for 2021! We are really looking forward to our required staff training in November that will be led by ARCC, a Chattanooga-based organization. We are also wrapping up our first optional book club in October. A small group of us at Whiteboard read through “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad and we’re planning to start a new book in November.

Our ongoing goals like team hangs and lunch & learns (Goal 7 & 8), hiring strategy work (Goal 1), and brand materials (Goal 10) are progressing along. While some could use a little more push and movement before the end of the year, we’re looking to the new committee energy to propel us towards where we need to be.

We recognize there is a lot we have yet to do, but we’re encouraged by the people and conversations around us that are building (and challenging!) the internal culture at Whiteboard. Thanks for following along!