Latinitas hosted its first-ever Advisory Council meeting this past week, ringing in this new and exciting era with the community. The Advisory Council has been a dream of Latinitas for some time now, offering those who support the organization a better way to champion it and make change. As it stands now, The Advisory Council has thirty-three members, and that may grow.
As Latinitas Programs Development Manager, Estefanía Romero, explains, “Our team has carefully identified members of our network whose unique perspective and expertise will greatly contribute to the impact and success of Latinitas.” These people represent every form of supporter, from volunteers to even sponsors.
The current members come from cities all over the state of Texas and span different tech companies, entire industries, and cultural backgrounds. This isn’t unintentional. When creating the Latinitnas Advisory Council, it was imperative that the organization prioritize diversity. Having all sorts of different walks of life represented meant opening the organization up to fresh ideas that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. People like San Antonio’s Michelle Cantu, a local comedian and former Latinitas Emcee, or Houston’s Dr. Albert Dejesus, Director of the Center For Latino Studies at UHD, or even Austin’s very own Denise Guzman from Atlassian.
As it stands now, the Latinitas Advisory Council hosts quarterly meetings in which the organization lets the members in on some exciting things to look forward to, and together we work on how to best go about them. For example, outside of being an introduction, the first meeting detailed our approach for Amplify Austin, an annual fundraiser put on by I Live Here I Give Here to uplift local nonprofits. As we brainstormed ideas on how to best get our message out there, we also devulged more upcoming events. Our future conference, StartUp Chica, an exciting podcast our Executive Director Gabriela Kane Guardia is going to be a part of at SXSW EDU, and plans for our annual fundraiser, the Purple Party, with a twist.
The Advisory Council serves as a sort of sounding board for the organization; a way to speak to the public, express our plans, and have a group of qualified individuals who uplift our mission offer their own two cents. For us at Latinitas it’s a way to get real-time insight into what our supporters want to see, and for Advisory Council members it’s a better way to help. To, as Estefanía puts it, “Be a connector and advocate for Latinitas in the community.”
Though Latinitas has already identified people to join the Advisory Council, if you would like to be a part of this exciting change and feel as if you qualify, please reach out to estefania@latinitasonline.org to express your interest!