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Leagues and Governing Bodies

DE&I schedule central to virtual Winter Meetings

The entire baseball world — from longtime major league executives to recent college graduates hoping to land a job — was supposed to descend upon Dallas this week, where they’d mill about in the Omni Dallas Hotel lobby and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center as part of the annual Winter Meetings.

 

With the pandemic disrupting almost every in-person baseball event since mid-March — including owners meetings, the All-Star Game and the postseason — the event has been replaced by scores of virtual meetings, many of which will focus on efforts surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion. 

“I have been incredibly impressed, especially being new to baseball, with how much we have been able to accomplish in this virtual reality with respect to our players, our employees, our partners across the league,” said Michele Meyer-Shipp, MLB’s chief people and culture officer, whose hiring was announced in August. “It’s been pretty incredible.”

While this year’s event will be devoid of some hallmarks, notably the Baseball Trade Show and PBEO (Professional Baseball Employment Opportunities) Job Fair, MLB has spent a few months planning for virtual meetings as it became clear that it would be imprudent, if not impossible, to stage an in-person event even at reduced scale. 

In addition to having leaguewide virtual meetings on baseball technology, community relations, marketing and other disciplines, the league will maintain a robust agenda of DE&I virtual gatherings. The importance of this year’s agenda is underscored by the broad societal reckoning on social justice and the hiring by the Miami Marlins of Kim Ng as the first female general manager of a men’s team in North American sports.

Toward that end, Meyer-Shipp pinpointed a few events. The first is the Katy Feeney Leadership Symposium, an invitation-only forum focusing on career advancement for existing female executives in baseball that honors the late MLB executive; Meyer-Shipp will be the keynote speaker for an event that has 40 attendees expected.

The other is Take the Field, a professional development session designed for women interested in careers in coaching, scouting and player development, as well as advancement in those roles. Between 100 and 150 women will take part in that latter session, which is targeted for women in on-field and baseball operations roles or interested in those roles. None of the events has a fee to attend.

Another key event is the Supplier Diversity Summit, which baseball executives discussed shelving this year because it wasn’t in person. But Meyer-Shipp said those sessions are even more important in 2020 considering the resources small business owners need amid the pandemic. 

The biggest fallout is the absence of traditional networking opportunities and recruiting events. Instead of in-person receptions there will be panels and fireside chats. Meyer-Shipp believes the overall program can at least be nearly as effective virtually. 

“For myself, being the leader of people and culture, that is the biggest thing we are all worried about,” she said. “That loss of that face-to-face interaction, meeting and greeting and socializing with others. … We are losing the in-person, let’s not lose the opportunity to connect nonetheless.”

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