It is AARMS’ policy to positively encourage and support the participation of persons from underrepresented groups.  The answers you provide in this section will help us to understand, statistically, the participation of such persons in AARMS activities. This form will not collect your name, your email address or any information that will personally identify you.

Your answers to the questions in this part are used for statistical purposes.  This information will help AARMS to better understand our community, and may be used in the future to modify our EDI policy.

1.  A standard questionnaire will be used to collect personal identity information from individuals who are involved with AARMS including committee members, panel members, decision makers, recipients of AARMS funding and participants in AARMS Programs.  This policy statement on Self-identification information will be included with every questionnaire.

2. Completion of the questionnaire will be on a voluntary basis; individuals are entitled to decline.

3. Organizers of AARMS sponsored activities will be required to administer the questionnaire to all participants in the activity for which they are responsible.

4. Information collected will be limited to dimensions of personal identity which are directly relevant to the following purposes:

1. to identify individuals from underrepresented groups who may benefit from targeted support programs;

2. to enable the AARMS Executive Committee, or other AARMS decision makers, when assessing applications for access to AARMS programs, to give extra weighting to applications from individuals from underrepresented groups; 

3. to collect statistics on participation in AARMS governance and activities, in order to understand the extent to which any group may be underrepresented; and for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of AARMS EDI policies towards those groups over time.

5. Self identification information will be accessible by the organizer who has collected it and, where applicants are applying for access to AARMS resources or benefits, by the decision makers who assess those applications.  Self identification information will also be aggregated into statistics in which individuals will not be identifiable.  All self identification information, except for the aggregated statistics, will be deleted after it has been used for its intended purpose.

6. AARMS initially recognizes the following significantly underrepresented groups: indigenous people, members of the black community, and people whose gender identity is not male.  AARMS will add other groups to this list as our research reveals the need to do so.

7. AARMS reserves the right to change the self-identification questionnaire at any time, to reflect changing priorities in EDI and changing knowledge about the AARMS community.

8. Although every individual is entitled to decline this questionnaire, doing so may restrict access to benefits targeted at underrepresented groups.