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In the 50 years since the founding of the Women’s Classical Caucus (WCC), both the landscape and membership of the profession have changed dramatically. There is much to celebrate in terms of how far our field has come, but also much we recognize that still needs to be done in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the profession. To meet the current times, the WCC Steering has updated its operating procedures to better utilize the digital environment and meet the needs of its increasingly diverse constituency. This presents the new WCC platform, whose goal is to provide year-round programming for members at each phase and stage of the academic lifecycle.

 

WCC tasks have been divided into six distinct but overlapping channels: 1) Membership; 2) Mentorship; 3) Treasurer; 4) Communications; 5) Secretary/Historian/Archivist; and 6) Programming/ Equity/ Outreach. Each channel oversees a distinct set of tasks to improve the WCC’s workflow and ability to serve its membership by providing information, support, and mentorship to meet various needs in the areas of research, teaching, and service. In this presentation, I discuss how the leadership of the WCC is translating its mission statement into strategy and action. I also show how the channels work together to put forward a program of activities that provide targeted support and activate the WCC membership to collaborate on various programming. WCC programming highlights include: a redesigned mentorship program, webinar series for professional development and practical pedagogy, workshops for specific affinity groups within the membership based on rank and phase of career (e.g. graduate students, parents, junior scholars, mid-career faculty, etc.), events and publications related to equity issues (e.g. bystander intervention training events, information when dealing with harassment), more frequent communication through a regular newsletter and updated website, and collaboration with other affiliate groups. Through this new and more diverse programming, the WCC looks to expand the impact of its work to meet the ever-changing needs, challenges, and worlds of its membership and profession at large.