The Racial Audit Implementation Team came into being almost one year ago. There are six members of the team, two of whom were part of the Racial Audit Team. Bridget Cabrera, our Executive Director, is also part of the team. The team has been challenged by a number of logistical things in the past year – finding dates in everyone’s busy schedules to meet monthly, taking time out to prepare for and attend General Conference in the spring, and working only by Zoom meetings. 

One of the things we discovered early in the process of working together was that we needed to build a strong level of trust among team members. The work we are doing requires a level of trust that makes it possible to say the difficult things that need to be said as we examine the themes of the audit. 

Right now, the team is in the midst of digging deeply into each of the six themes of the audit – examining what the themes say about MFSA, unpacking the language of the themes, and the ways in which these themes came into existence. What does the data tell us? And what do the stories about MFSA tell us? As we examine the themes, we are discussing how we might help the MFSA board and the MFSA chapters determine how to look at their work through the lens of these themes. We are also discussing what actions might work best for us to interrupt these themes in our organization. How might what we are discovering benefit from the recommendations for action provided by the racial audit team? 

As we continue this work, the Racial Audit Implementation Team will be providing additional reflections on the themes and what we are discovering and discussing. Just as the racial audit took longer to do than expected, we are finding that the implementation process is a much longer-term process than anticipated. We are moving at a speed that we believe provides the best possibilities for reducing further harm and for changing the nature of MFSA in the best possible ways.

by Co-Convener Rev. Karen Nelson