Katie Preece 

The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group (VMSG) aims to provide a constructive, supportive, inclusive and professionally stimulating environment for all members, where all in the community are welcome and valued.
In 2020, VMSG published the first VMSG Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report, which summarised statistics about the gender of attendees and presenters at annual meetings between 2016 and 2020, and presented results of a members survey which asked questions about gender, sexual orientation, place of residence, and career stage of members. The report outlined numerous recommendations for future VMSG meetings, aimed at ensuring the conference encourages and supports equality, diversity and inclusion in our community. However, the 2020 report highlighted that there was a lack of data on important characteristics of the community, such as ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic background or disability.
Following the 2020 report, and in the wake of the COVID pandemic, which saw large changes in working practices and conference organisation, VMSG re-surveyed its members in October – November 2023. The survey asked questions linked to respondents’ career, protected characteristics, experiences of discrimination and harassment at VMSG and in everyday work or study, and asked questions to gain opinions and suggestions related to VMSG events and policies.
The following report reviews progress on the recommendations which were outlined 2020, presents the results from the recent 2023 survey, and makes some updated recommendations in light of survey responses.