Welcome Back to the Diversity Matters Blog!

Dear colleagues and friends –

Welcome back to the Diversity Matters blog! We are excited to announce that we will be back on the airwaves with the second season of Diversity Matters beginning on Friday March 2nd (10 AM eastern) on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel.

Season two will build on the important connections between the world of work and the world at large. We will celebrate and honor the voices and efforts of people who work to build inclusiveness by embracing diversity in their workplaces, communities and beyond. Our hope is that those involved in community work learn from the lessons of workplace diversity efforts and likewise workplace champions will be inspired with the tools, insights and lessons of change agents working at the grass roots community level. While season one had it’s primary focus on the workplace, in season two we are committed to building the connections between inclusiveness inside and outside the workplace – in communities, families, social networks and the like.

We set the benchmark high in season one with an incredible line up of guests and provocative topics and we will continue to bring you powerful voices of experience in the field and insightful topics. We are in the process of scheduling guests for season so if you have any suggestions for guests and/or topics that support inclusiveness at work and in the world, please let us know.

When we surveyed our listeners last fall, we heard a message loud and clear that we need to more actively integrate this blog into our vision of engaging people in dialogue about diversity. Given the birth of our podcast, we were somewhat lax last year in keeping up with our blog posting. This season we commit to utilizing the weblog more fully.

This blog provides a way for you to interact directly with us and with each other:

• to comment about the shows that have already aired,- to offer questions and comments to guests if you’re not able to call in,
• to pose questions to other listeners, and
• to provide feedback and suggestions to Judy and I as we evolve in this process.

Judy and I are new to this medium, so along with many of you, we’re on a steep learning curve and exploring different ways technology can extend the conversations we would like to have about diversity at work. So please learn with us – share your thoughts about what we are doing and how we are going about it.

The Diversity Matters radio show can be heard two ways:- live each Friday at 10 am EST (starting March 2, 2007) via business.voiceamerica.com or on-demand from our website. All of season one is archived on our website (http://www.diversitymatters.info/). We typically take callers during the live broadcast, but not everyone can access the show at that time.

Thanks again for your continued enthusiasm and support.

Stay tuned,

Richard Friend, Ph.D.
Co-host