WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The town's diversity committee is ready for a rebrand.

 

At its Monday meeting, the people appointed to serve on the Diversity, Inclusion and Racial Equity Advisory Committee agreed unanimously to ask the Select Board to accept a new name for the panel.

 

Growing out of discussions at the committee's recent retreat, the volunteer body suggested that it be renamed the Race, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

 

The new name is one part of a new charge that the committee is asking the Select Board to approve, updating the charge that DIRE received in November 2022, two years after it was formed in the summer of 2020.

 

The proposed new charge preserves the existing core mission of the committee, deletes some language related to process that does not reflect how the committee has functioned and identifies seven themes for newly named committee's work: housing affordability and equity;  initiatives to increase accessibility; Stockbridge Munsee community partnerships; Black history, inclusion in local history; inclusion and belonging in schools; Pride celebrations and support; and town meeting initiatives (including review of potential new citizens petitions and revisions to Article 37 from Town Meeting 2020).

 

"We struck the section of the [2022] charge under the heading 'recommendation process,'" Andrew Art said in presenting the proposed updated charge to his colleagues. "The reason for that is that the DIRE Committee has its own process for making recommendations that has been set forth since its inception."

 

The new charge also recommends that DIRE's membership be capped at five with the option for the Select Board continuing to appoint additional, non-voting members with expertise in specific subject areas. Currently, the board is defined as having seven members, though only four members — Andrew Art, Ursula Bare, Shana Dixon and Smalls — are appointed.