Report of the DWC Outreach Committee

Greetings Everyone,

I hope that you all had a restful and relaxing holiday season! I am writing with an update from the DWC Outreach Committee. After initially taking over as chair (and now serving as co-chair with Sharon RedHawk Love), I have the pleasure of overseeing the newly-minted Outreach Committee "Ambassador Program." In brief, each member of the Outreach Committee has signed up to be the "ambassador" to one of our fellow ASC divisions. At the Annual Meeting in Denver, each of us attended the business meeting (or met with the Chair) of the division to which we are the ambassador. Our goal for this program is to help facilitate communication between the divisions. So far, the program has worked very well! Below is a small summary of the communication we have had with our respective divisions so far. We are all looking forward to continuing to act as liaisons between the DWC and our fellow divisions in the coming year.

In addition, the Outreach Table had another successful run at the Annual Meeting in Denver. Thanks to each of you who volunteered your time! Sharon already has called for Outreach Table volunteers for the Annual Meeting in Nashville, and has received several responses. Of course, we always need additional volunteers each year, so if you haven't considered staffing the table - please do! Simply, contact either Sharon (slr11@psu.edu) or me (burges26@msu.edu) and we will put you on the Outreach Table volunteer list. Prior to the upcoming Annual Meeting, we will send out a reminder and ask for time slot commitments. As a part of the anniversary celebration we want to ensure that the DWC has a strong presence at the Annual Meeting next year. The Outreach Table makes up a vital part of that presence, so please let us know if you are interested in volunteering! On a related note, we are still looking for the absent DWC banner that normally graces the Outreach Table, so consider this an official APB. Has anyone seen the DWC banner? Please keep a look out, and if anyone locates it please let us know!

Finally, very sincere thanks to the women who serve on this committee with me: my co-chair, Sharon RedHawk Love and members Vicki Waytowich, Heather Melton, and Michelle Miller. Thank you for all of your hard work!

Regards,
Amanda

************************************************************************
Amanda Burgess-Proctor,
Ambassador to the American Society of Criminology:
The ASC Executive Board meeting was very informative. I met with John Laub (outgoing President) and Chris Eskridge (ASC Executive Director), and they were both very receptive to having a representative from the DWC attend the meeting. One bit of information that may be of interest to curious DWC members: the childcare program that was scheduled to be available at the Annual Meeting this year was cancelled due to lack of interest. This was disappointing to the ASC Executive Board members, who were looking forward to having this service available. If folks are interested in utilizing this service next year in Nashville, please let me know and I'll be sure to pass the word along.

Sharon RedHawk Love
Ambassador to the Division on People of Color & Crime:
The DPCC just elected a new Chairperson (Vernetta Young), whom I met with at ASC. She had just taken on the position and asked for a grace period in which she would learn more about what would best serve the DPCC. She asked that I wait and make contact in the next few months, so she is on my calendar for March. In the meantime I have been in contact with the previous Chair and have volunteered to work on their newsletter to be sure we keep abreast of what the DPCC is doing.

Vicki Waytowich,
Ambassador to the Division on Corrections & Sentencing:
No report at this time.

Heather Melton,
Ambassador to the Division of International Criminology:
Although I was not able to attend the Annual Meeting in Denver this year, I have had contact with the Chair of the Division of International Criminology, Rosemary Barberet. She is very excited about our new ambassador program (even said that the DIC was thinking about starting one!) and welcomes anything that we would like to pass along to the DIC. A few things coming up for Nashville and the DIC - she is in charge of emerging international issues for the Nashville program and is trying to put together a panel on Female Genital Mutilation and on War, Rape, or Trafficking. Any submissions or ideas for collaboration are welcome! Please let me know if there is anything you want passed on to the DIC!

Michelle Miller,
Ambassador to the Division of Critical Criminology:
I didn't meet personally with the chair of the Critical Division. Instead, I asked permission to attend their meeting at the Annual Meeting. During the meeting I spoke briefly and told them about the DWC's Ambassador Program and offered to serve as a liaison between the two divisions. I mentioned that many of the issues of concern to the DCC (including the format of panels at the annual meetings and ensuring inclusive membership in the divisions) were also of importance to the DWC. Meda Chesney-Lind, the incoming Chair of the DCC, was very amenable to the liaison idea (as were others) and asked if I thought we could cosponsor an event, like the social. I told her I would be happy to pass that idea along to Susan Sharp - which I did. It was left that if Meda or anyone in the Division had an idea for collaboration with DWC they would work through me to set it up. An individual in the meeting also was impressed with the one page flyer that the Outreach Committee developed for the DWC, so I offered to send a copy of our flyer to Meda so she could have a template.

After the conference, Meda contacted me and I referred her to Susan Sharp and others on the Executive Committee about the co-sponsorship of a plenary. The eventual topic seemed to be Race, Class, Gender and Crime. The conversation appeared very fruitful, but I do not know what has been done to set it up.

In short, I would have to say the liaison role was successful in establishing a closer connection between the divisions. While there is a great deal of coordination that could continue, the two divisions have already had contact on at least two issues-- 1) the flyer; and 2) a co-sponsored plenary session.