The LMG EDI Advisory Forum brings together colleagues from across Libraries, Museums and Galleries with an interest in promoting Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within their work and across LMG activities, collections, and structures.
Members act as EDI champions and change makers and work to embed a culture of collective responsibility around EDI across LMG through their work as a group and through their individual and collective actions. Members will work to encourage a safe and respectful environment across LMG and will be key to supporting LMG’s mission to be a more inclusive place to work, study, and visit.
Membership of the forum is voluntary and is open to new staff to join. These Terms of Reference have been shaped through a series of workshop discussions and jamboards. They will be regularly reviewed to ensure that they accurately capture the ambition and work of the forum.
The forum has five key roles:
Convene: the forum will draw together colleagues from across LMG interested in promoting EDI and will raise our collective awareness, capacity, and ability to address EDI issues as a department.
Contribute: the forum will help identify, support and deliver activities that underpin LMG’s commitment to EDI, including events and initiatives outlined within the LMG REC Action Plan, working with other colleagues across LMG, including by creating task and finish groups.
Advise: the forum will make suggestions for tangible ways in which LMG can deliver on its EDI objectives and the ways that these can be embedded throughout the LMG strategic plan, including in relation to people and culture, space, programming and collections. The forum is a safe and supportive place where any LMG colleague can bring an idea for discussion and draw on the experience and interest of forum members in an advisory capacity.
Share: the forum will be a place for knowledge sharing across LMG of ongoing or emerging EDI activities, and training and development opportunities. It will explore and expose lessons learnt from EDI initiatives and offer collective insight to inform future activities.
Collaborate: with other University networks, working groups, and panels to collectively raise the prominence and embedding of EDI at a university level, and enhance LMG’s role within this.
The advisory forum will meet both in person and online. Its structure will be inclusive, led by its members.
Co-convenors: the forum’s activities and meetings will be led by two co-convenors, who will be volunteers from amongst its members. These will be important roles to lead and support the work of the forum, whilst also offering developmental opportunities for the co-convenors themselves.
Co-convenors will:
Work with members of the forum to identify areas of priority work to support the implementation of LMG’s strategic plan and REC action plan;
Present the work of the forum, its activities and discussions to LMG staff more widely, and encourage their engagement and contribution;
Take a lead in forming the agenda and discussion points for each meeting, structuring these around the priorities of the forum;
Be visible champions of the work of the forum within and beyond LMG;
Be supported in their role by other members of the advisory forum.
The role of co-convenor will be voluntary and is open to any member of the forum. They will need to be undertaken alongside a colleague’s substantive duties although modest adjustments may be made in these if pre-agreed with their line manager. It is not expected that the role of co-convenor will exceed 3-4 hours a month, including meetings. The time commitment required will be reviewed regularly and co-convenors will be supported both by the director and other colleagues.
The current co-convenors are Alice Howarth, Tiye Frierson and Shirley Yearwood-Jackman.
Forum members: members of the advisory forum will attend meetings whenever they are able and to engage in discussions in a proactive, supportive, and courteous manner.
If required, and if they are able, members may also contribute to and lead work outside of the forum’s meeting structure, including to plan associated events or initiatives, and attend other meetings.
An annual call will be made for new members to join the group, whilst also providing an opportunity for current members to step back if they wish.
Types and regularity of meetings: Across 2024, two types of meeting will be held to enable the work of the forum:
Six-weekly meetings: held every six weeks, these will last for one hour and be held online. They will provide an opportunity to discuss and develop emerging and ongoing initiatives, be used for knowledge sharing, and priority setting.
Semester meetings: at the end of each semester, in person, providing an opportunity for discussion and setting of priorities, review completed initiatives.
Rotating notetaker: members of the forum will take it in turn to record the discussions and outcomes of meetings, this will be agreed at the start of the meeting.
Communication of forum’s work: Information regarding the existence, role and remit of the forum will be included within staff inductions and regular updates will be provided of its work via the monthly LMG newsletter and all-staff meetings. The forum will have a dedicated page on the staff intranet outlining its membership and its role and remit.
Budget: the forum will have an annual budget of £5,000 to support events and programmes that expose and support EDI work occurring across the department. The spending of monies from this budget will be at the recommendation of the co-convenors, with approval by the Director. The amount will be reviewed annually.
Membership
Following a call for volunteers in October 2023, the current members of the group includes (as of February 2024):
Clare Barrett, Customer Services
Paul Catherall, Learning Development and Academic Liaison
Thomas Dillon, Special Collections and Archives
Tiye Frierson, Business Operations (Co-Convenor)
Sam Gill, Learning Development and Academic Liaison
Matt Greenhall, Director, Libraries, Museums and Galleries
Alice Howarth, Open Research (Co-Convenor)
Gwen Jones, Customer Services
Patricia Jonker-Cholwe, Customer Services
Jessica O’Shea, Customer Services
James Rice, Customer Services
Niall Rowe, Systems Team
Naomi Scott, Business Operations
Fiona Sneddon, Customer Services
Catherine Starkey, Customer Services
Anna Stebbing, Customer Services
Olivia Thompson, Special Collections and Archives
Shirley Yearwood-Jackman, Learning Development and Academic Liaison (Co-Convenor)
These terms of reference will be reviewed regularly and will be published on the LMG staff intranet.
