All meetings run by or financially supported by British Geophysical Association (BGA) grants are required to be accessible and inclusive to scientists of all backgrounds. If  a meeting benefits from BGA funding,  Equality Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) issues should be considered throughout the planning process and  conference itself. The BGA recognises that organising conferences can be a lot of work and some organisers may not feel they have adequate knowledge of EDI issues to fully address this. For this reason, the BGA has developed the following guidelines and templates outlining EDI issues that must be considered at BGA sponsored events to make this as straightforward as possible. Conference organisers will be expected to demonstrate consideration of the following guidelines to the BGA EDI officer on request, though we recognise that some points will be dependent on logistical and/or budgetary constraints.    

The aim should be to implement as many accessibility measures as possible as default, given conference attendees may be reticent to request personal accommodations or adjustments directly. However, it is important to recognise that those with additional access needs are themselves best placed to let conference organisers know what is required to ensure that they can fully engage with a meeting, so requesting accessibility- and inclusivity-related information from attendees at the earliest opportunity is key. 

As a starting point, the BGA recommends all organisers read the guide produced by the University of Oxford Geography department as a primer on organising an inclusive meeting.

A shortform accessible meeting checklist for organisers to work through and consider is provided by the BGA below, with templates and examples for organisers to use and/or adapt: 

• EDI meeting statement
• Code of conduct
• Harassment reporting procedure
• Demographic information collection form 
• Meeting Feedback form
• List of diverse networks to advertise meeting  
• Guide on creating accessible posters/talks to share with attendees

A more extensive BGA Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity consideration check-list for meeting organisers can be downloaded here. 

These BGA guidelines are based on successful strategies implemented at the BGA Postgraduate Research in Progress (PGRiP) 2023 meeting, additional resources (SIGACCESS, Meeting frameworks must be more inclusive, and How to make professional conference more accessible for disabled people), and the policies of the BGA parent institutions; the Royal Astronomical Society and Geological Society. They also benefitted from feedback from Diversity in Geoscience-UK (DiG) leaders.  The BGA is always open to updating and improving these guidelines so please contact the BGA EDI Officer to provide suggestions.