Women In FCERM: an update & a thank you!

Like most folk working in #flood risk management or #emergency response I’ve found it hard this winter to find space to concentrate on anything other than the immediate situation in front of me. Be that the flooding in Doncaster in November, ongoing issues in December, the record breaking river levels and associated floods in the Severn and Wye valleys and across Yorkshire in February, and of course now the response to #COVID-19.

It’s the right thing to do absolutely no question, but it is hard to ‘let’ other things wait. And for me one of those things I had to leave 'waiting' is the progress I wanted to make on #WomenInFCERM. But actually that’s where I have been proven wrong.

Over the last year we’ve been slowly growing the network of people involved. We’d expanded to a stage where we needed some structure - different folks pointing at different bits of our ‘offer’ and giving the chance for more people to get involved. So as ever I was delighted and humbled to understand just how much these amazing volunteers have managed to achieve - alongside their busy day jobs - over the winter. So I thought I'd share their progress with you and give them a big thank you at the same time!

Mentoring

We’re coming to the end now of our mentoring trial. Eight amazing women have given up their time to support more than 30 others on a range of topics from improving their personal presence to career development whilst maintaining a work life balance. They’ve done this primarily through virtual means and I think it’s safe to say everyone involved has both enjoyed and benefited from the experience. We have some learning to implement of course but planning for round 2 is already in train. Lots of folk have been involved but I want to say a massive thank you to @AmyShaw and @KathrynPettit who have done the organisation and driven this on with their enthusiasm. 

Website

AECOM very kindly created www.WomenInFCERM.org a while back but we’re only just starting to make the most of it. A group of people are coming together to front this and you’ll see the site develop over the coming months. If you’ve got ideas of things you’d like to see on the website, or you want to help out then please do let us know.

Awards

A highlight of year one was our first ever Women In FCERM Awards kindly sponsored by Jacobs. @AnitaCamilleri from Capita was the winner of our female award and @MikeBowen from Jacobs the winner of our male award. Both have such inspiring stories behind them and what they are doing to help others is amazing.

We opened nominations for the 2020 awards on 9 March, just after #IWD2019, and you can submit your entry here. There are two categories just like last year. Please do tell us who you see making a difference to #gender equality in your world so we can help to share their story. Given the circumstances we're extending the deadline so you have until 1 May to get them in. The rather marvellous @RachelWalters is behind this one and deserves a whole load of thanks for this - and everything else she does.

Benchmarking

A key piece of work has been our research to establish the a benchmark for gender equality across the FCERM sector. This is absolutely vital if we’re to be clear our offer going forward is what our members want and to ensure we’re focussing on the right things. Capita, Black and Veatch, JBA and AECOM have kindly volunteered to help us with this and have done a great job of keeping it moving. Given the current circumstances we've paused our questionnaire to help us gather the information we need to understand but we hope to send this out to organisations involved in FCERM in the early autumn.

Flood and Coast

Planning for our Women In FCERM session at Flood and Coast 2020 was in full flight. I'm sure you’ll be aware the conference and exhibition has been postponed to 8-10 December now but we’re still working on it. I am delighted to say that @EmilyClarke has agreed with CIWEM that attendance at our session will count for CPD: great news!

Networking events

These have been our staple since we started. They are a great source of connection, inspiration and sharing. We're so grateful for the support we've had from Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, JBA, Arup, Jacobs, AECOM, Atkins and Mott MacDonald in sponsoring these events and the many colleagues who have organised, run or shared their story at these. We are planning more - in a virtual capacity over the summer and hopefully face-to-face again in the autumn; so if you’ve missed those then there will be an opportunity to get back in touch. 

Despite all that, I wouldn’t be being authentically me if I didn’t also confess to worrying about the things we’re not doing! So thank you to those of you who have agreed to join our Strategic Steering Committee overseeing and shaping the work of our various groups - I will be in touch again when we all surface from this temporary reality we’re inhabiting.

But I do see, and I hope you will agree, that Women in FCERM has, through its volunteers, made amazing progress in just 2 years. The world is currently in the middle of a highly innovative 'social experiment' of balancing caring responsibilities and home-working, making dispersed teams effective and considering well-being in a way we never have before. I can’t help but think we need to be ready to use what we learn from this to help achieve our goals of gender equality and a different way of working so we create a ‘new normal’ rather than go back to square one. And I’m confident #WomenInFCERM will be there and ready to help.