PDXWIT, the largest professional organization in Portland, has spent nearly a decade building community within the Portland technology community. As part of assessing that role, the organization decided that it was time to evolve their mission statement.
PDXWIT operates with a consensus-based decision-making model. Once the board landed on the new proposed mission statement based on the themes of creating access, dismantling inequities and fueling belonging, it was time to put it in front of our staff team of four to review and share feedback. We made adjustments based on that feedback and then shared it with our 140 volunteers. We got fantastic suggestions as well as validation that we were on the right track. While this approach took longer and got messy along the way, we believe it was the only way to ensure an equitable process. Which brings us to today, sharing this new mission statement with you:
We are building a better tech industry by creating access, dismantling inequities and fueling belonging.
“It was important that we stopped naming certain populations (in the mission),” Executive Director Elizabeth Stock told the Portland Business Journal. “We learned as an organization about erasure and the unintended value system on who gets named in messaging and who gets grouped together.”
For more, see the post by PDXWIT and the coverage by the PBJ.
[Full disclosure: PDXWIT management served as mentors in residence for PIE Shop. I am the cofounder and general manager of PIE.]
