Thread: UNAVCO IRIS Joining Forces Newsletter - February 2022

Started: 2022-02-08 09:23:57
Last activity: 2022-02-08 09:23:57
Scott Johnson
2022-02-08 09:23:57
*Joining Forces Newsletter February 2022*
*Improving Field Safety for All*

[image: photo of three people working with an instrument outside]

Field projects can take place all around the world, and the presence of
staff who are familiar with these locations and with the experiences of
local communities is critical in understanding the scientific and societal
context for the research being conducted. Unfortunately, geoscience
continues to be one of the least diverse of the academic fields, and one
significant factor in this is that fieldwork environments may not be safe
or welcoming to members of underrepresented groups. As our two
organizations merge into the EarthScope Consortium, fieldwork will remain a
central component of the support that we offer to the community and we are
committed to ensuring the safety, comfort, and inclusion of field
participants of all identity groups.



UNAVCO has recently focused on addressing these issues by examining our
internal field practices and policies to identify areas for
improvement. An Inclusive
Field Safety Subcommittee
https://www.unavco.org/committees/idea-committee/?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
analyzed two papers
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01328-5?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
recently written
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EO150525?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
by members of underrepresented groups within the geosciences, which have
concrete recommendations for increasing the safety of minority field
participants. Based on these recommendations, they developed an action plan
specific to UNAVCO fieldwork operations. The full report
https://www.unavco.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Inclusive-Field-Safety-Action-Plan_15NOV2021.pdf?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3,
which included approximately 25 action items, was approved by the senior
management team and the Safety Committee has begun the process of
integrating these recommendations into our field practices.



Work on inclusive field safety at IRIS has largely been focused outward to
collect and disseminate resources from the seismological and broader STEM
community. IRIS has been conducting follow-up calls with Principal
Investigators who utilize the PASSCAL Instrument Center for their seismic
field deployments (e.g., instrumentation, logistics, training). These calls
provide an opportunity for the facility to gather helpful feedback from our
users–—both in terms of facility equipment and support, as well as
practices related to field safety and inclusion. IRIS plans to assemble PI
feedback and best practices into a field safety and inclusion training
module that can be offered to future PIs and their field teams. This work
is part of the larger IRIS-wide Anti-Racism Action Plan developed and
implemented by the IRIS Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)
Working Group
https://www.iris.edu/hq/about_iris/jedi_efforts?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
in response to two Calls to Action from Geoscientists of Color.


IRIS and UNAVCO have long-standing commitments to our communities and these
efforts demonstrate the first steps towards embedding the values of
accessibility, diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in our operations.
As the merger proceeds, this joint effort will eventually lead to a
comprehensive and unified set of safety policies that propagates the best
possible field practices and guidance to our staff and the
Principal-Investigator-led teams that we support. As part of our continued
engagement with the community, both through our governance as well as
community-wide initiatives like URGE
https://urgeoscience.org/?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3,
we welcome feedback at jedi<at>iris.edu and idea<at>unavco.org.



*-Annie Zaino and Justin Sweet*
*Did you know?*

The merger of IRIS and UNAVCO to the EarthScope Consortium requires an
extraordinary degree of coordination, many elements of which are
interdependent and need to come together at the right time. In order to
make consistent progress on the merger, a number of IRIS and UNAVCO Board
members and facility staff are currently participating in merger committees
and planning teams. These groups meet regularly and communicate through a
Merger Steering Committee. The committees include:

- The Steering Committee is developing a detailed timeline to
orchestrate all details of the end-2022 merger. The role of the Steering
Committee is to oversee the entire merger process.
- The Programmatic Planning Team is led by IRIS and UNAVCO Presidents,
this committee of senior management is exploring management structures for
the EarthScope Consortium.
- The Governance Planning Team, led by the IRIS and UNAVCO Board Chairs,
is developing a strategy for EarthScope elections for the inaugural Board
of Directors, as well as for coordinating the initial structure of
community governance for EarthScope. Soon a staff member will be reaching
out to each member to confirm member representation for each EarthScope
institution.
- The Financial Services Planning Team is charged with merging all
business processes.
- The Human Resources Planning Team is charged with supporting the
staffing transition and employee policies for EarthScope. This includes
subcommittees working on benefits and retirement plans.
- The IT Planning Team is actively working on establishing common
business information technology.
- The Communications Working Group is developing plans for all aspects
of EarthScope communications including social media, website, and
newsletters.



The IRIS and UNAVCO Boards of Directors meet jointly every two months to
finalize decisions on merger business following continuous asynchronous
discussions to steer vision and execution of the merger.



*(Image: Anna Shlyapnikova/Wikimedia)*
News

*Joint Board Meeting*
The IRIS and UNAVCO Boards met jointly, in their final composition until
the corporate and community merger at the end of this year, met on January
10, 2022. During this meeting they:

- discussed and planned a Boards-to-community outreach program and
governance workshop
- discussed and approved several Human Resource-related resolutions
- agreed to meet bi-monthly to make large-scale decisions


*Annual Meeting*
A virtual joint IRIS-UNAVCO Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 30
to present highlights from both organizations and share information about
our next steps toward aligning our activities and implementing our planned
merger. You can view the recording here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipiQQlH_X9o&utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
(and access the slides here
https://www.unavco.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/joint_annual_meeting_slides_share.pdf?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3).

*Community Science Workshop*

IRIS and UNAVCO will be jointly hosting the 2022 SAGE/GAGE Community
Science Workshop on June 14-16th in Pittsburgh, PA. This year’s workshop
theme, as selected by the workshop science committee, will be: *New
Horizons: Advancing Seismology and Geodesy for both Science and Society*.


After an extended period of virtual meetings, we are hopeful that an
in-person workshop will provide an opportunity to reconnect with friends
and colleagues and discuss all the exciting science we have been working
on, as well as our future collaborations. We are closely monitoring the
evolving COVID situation and will do everything we can to ensure a safe and
welcoming meeting environment. Check out the workshop website
http://www.iris.edu/workshop?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
for more information.

*Questions? Feedback? Reach out via our feedback form
https://sites.google.com/iris.edu/united/feedback?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3.
A member of the Steering Committee will follow up with you.*
http://unavco.org?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3

http://unavco.org
http://unavco.org?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
https://sites.google.com/iris.edu/united/home?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3

Joining Forces Website
https://sites.google.com/iris.edu/united/home?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3
http://iris.edu?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3

http://iris.edu
http://iris.edu?utm_source=newsletter_jf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=n3

20:06:40 v.01697673