By Sonya Byers, CEO, Women in Transport
And that’s 2021 pretty much wrapped for Women in Transport.
I am so proud of everything the team has achieved during a time of uncertainty, change and transformation.
In March, the exceptional Christine Hurley retired. We are delighted that her treatment is progressing well and wish her a full recovery. We welcomed our new virtual Executive Support team, Karolina Kuprescenkaite and Kerinder Bhogal, who have done a fantastic job supporting us.
In May, we renewed our governance, Jo Field was elected as President and we welcomed five new board members. We now have a team of almost 60 volunteers and I am so grateful to every single one of them, our members and our supporters for their support and engagement. It is a huge privilege to work with such passionate, dedicated and supportive individuals.
Just a few of the 2021 highlights from our workstreams:
Treasury – we became VAT registered in July 2021 and our volunteer treasurers have worked hard to ensure new processes are in place and support our growth.
Marketing – interest and engagement across all our social platforms has continued to grow and we now have over 19K followers reaching almost a million people through our updates.
Membership – individual membership has grown by 27% since February 2021 and we now have over 300 corporate members.
APPG – we published ground-breaking research with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Women in Transport on gender perceptions of working in transport.
Regions – we launched the Scotland hub, Jenni Daglish and Beverley Clyde stepped up to lead the North East Hub and Dal Kalirai joined to lead West Midlands. Our regional hubs are now being proactively supported by Asiya Jelani and there’s some exciting developments for 2022.
External Partnerships – we’ve welcomed 17 new partners, forming alliances with other organisations including Women on Boards and Arthur Ellis Mental Health Support. We’ve also been looking at how we can support school engagement through partnering.
D & I Bus Group – we now have 22 members in the group, we’ve continued to meet quarterly Zoom to share best practice and promote diversity and inclusion in the bus industry. In March, we launched a free, downloadable D&I calendar. In 2022, we will be launching the Inclusive Employment Journey – a major project collaboration with the Confederation of Passenger Transport.
Professional Development – we launched applications for the fifth year of our Advance mentoring programme in October, generously sponsored by TXM Recruit, Xanta Rail, Network for Skills and National Express. Our 30 matched pairs will officially start their mentoring relationships in January and we wish them the very best.
Our inaugural Lead programme launched in April 2021. This 100% virtual, leadership development programme is supporting the next generation of women leaders in transport and building a legacy alumni network. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Our first cohort has graduated and are starting to receive their ILM 5 qualifications, our second cohort are now mid-way and cohort three kicks off in the New Year! Join our January Find Out More session to meet the delivery team and some our Lead alumni.
Events - we have organised and hosted 42 events including panel discussions, professional development workshops, audiences with inspirational women in transport, book clubs, informal networking and a walking tour (and that’s not including any of our partner events).
There have been many opportunities for our members to raise their profiles in the sector with speaking opportunities. Events included Highways UK, Move 2021, LTT 2021 Local Transport Summit, All Party Parliamentary Group for Hate Crime, Transport Planning Day Parliamentary Reception, Violence Against Women & Girls - Women's Advocacy Group Roundtable and Solar and Storage Live.
And finally, we are delighted to be on the steering committee for the Landor LINKS free event series, Gender on the Agenda. The series focuses on the benefits – and the methods – of creating places and mobility networks that work for women and girls, and on the future of women in the urban / transport professions. Watch the series so far here.
A truly exceptional year! Thank you to our amazing volunteers and members for supporting Women in Transport and each other throughout 2021.
We will be 'closed' for two weeks between Wednesday 22nd December 2021 and Wednesday 5th January 2022. This will provide an opportunity for our volunteers to have some much needed rest and relaxation and came back refreshed for the New Year.
Wishing you a safe and happy festive season and a very Happy New Year 2022 from all of us at Women in Transport.
Remember to add info@womenintransport.com to your email contacts. We've become aware that some of our emails to members have been going to spam/junk mail recently, so please add us to your contacts to ensure you receive our emails. If you are not a member, you can join here.
We launched our member consultation survey in December 2021 - please check your spam/junk mail if you haven’t seen it. You have until 14 January 2021 to respond and it’s your chance to help us shape the future of Women in Transport.
Follow us @transportwm on Twitter, on Linkedin at Women in Transport and at @transportwmn on Instagram for events, news and updates.