Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts - 2021 Update

July 22, 2021

Cicerone community members,

One year ago, we published an open letter outlining the actions we intend to take to further a mission of inclusivity and diversity. While we've made some progress, we still have work to do. We're posting this update to let you know what we've done and what is still to come. 

The first commitment we made was for the visuals on our website and advertising materials to illustrate the level of diversity we hope for in our industry. We made progress on this goal in updates to the imagery in our BeerSavvy e-learning course. The global pandemic resulted in a reduction in our investment in both marketing materials and web development in the last year. But, we remain committed to this goal and expect more changes to the imagery we use in the next year.

Exam content was an area of investment during the last year. Given our certification exams are the driving force of our program, we assembled a diverse group of beer industry professionals to conduct a formal review of our exam questions. Among other tasks, this group helped us identify any perceived bias in question language or content. While this process is ongoing, the vast majority of questions we administer are now peer-reviewed, and we've made changes to our exam content as a result. 

We also pledged to expand our outreach to include substantive forms of engagement with diverse businesses in the industry. The pandemic has limited our ability to engage physically with these businesses as we had hoped we could. However, we are thrilled to have had the opportunity to partner with five different organizations dedicated to supporting underrepresented groups in the beer industry. We've subsidized exams and learning materials for more than 100 individuals who otherwise may not have access to the program through these partnerships in the last year. We aim to increase our reach by 30 percent in the next year. Opportunities for program participation among those who lack internet or credit card access remain, and we remain committed to evaluating methods of serving that group.  

In addition to the goals outlined, we are honored to have been invited to join a group of beer industry associations intending to create a program to foster and encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts industry-wide. This program is still in the early stages, but you can expect to hear more in the coming months. 

As always, we invite input and feedback from you, the Cicerone community, to help us further the cause of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the beer industry. We encourage you to reach out to inclusion@cicerone.org.