RCR Update #4 – Election Results

Hello Region G Presidents!!  

I am pleased to announce the results of our FY10 Regional Collegiate Representative (RCR) & Regional Collegiate Newsletter Editor (RCNE) Elections!  

Congratulations to Rebecca Murphy of Ohio State for being elected RCR and to Poojitha Ennamuri of Carnegie Mellon for being elected as RCNE! I have full confidence in both of these ladies and I am sure Region G will make great strides over the next year because of them. During the next few months Karin the RCNE and I will be helping them to transition into the role, which will officially begin on July 1st.  

It’s getting close to that time again…. so please have a safe and wonderful Spring Break 09 wherever you end up!! This year is a mission trip to Costa Rica for me… woot woot!!   Thanks everybody!  

-Britney

March Hot Topic: Preparing Future Leaders

As one school year ends and another begins, it’s time to start thinking about Officer Elections.  Sure, it’s easy to have a vote at your monthly meeting & elect new officers, but how do you prepare them to successfully lead your SWE section?

This month’s Hot Topic includes a list of tips on how to smoothly transition officers by preparing the future leaders of SWE!

Tips for Sections to Prepare Future Leaders:

• Put together a mentoring program, and pair upperclass SWE members with some of the freshmen & sophomores.  Whether you are having a formal speaker talk to your group or an informal social event, this will allow SWE members in your section to educate each other through sharing their SWE experiences.
   
• Hold leadership retreats or seminars! This might be good to do by having your officers prepare presentations including “General Knowledge of SWE.”  Another idea would be to contact a Collegiate Leadership Coach to set up a time for them to come to your college and present a leadership module for you.  You can contact either Jennifer Vallero (jennifer.vallero@colorado.edu) or Laura Iannacci (laura.iannacci@gmail.com).
   
• Make binders for officers that can be passed down from officer-to-officer. For example, the section treasurer can keep a binder with fundraising letters, accounting information, and application forms to request funding from the University. By transitioning this information, the next Treasurer will have a head start on what they need to fill out for the year!
   
• Keep a monthly calendar! For each month, write down general tasks & events that your section usually does for each month. Pass the calendar down to future officers so that they won’t forget anything important. Some examples for the month of “August” would be to start fundraising for national conference, submit your student organization paperwork for SWE, host a membership kick-off event, and to submit Section Report #1 to the RCR!

 

Region G Events to Prepare Future Leaders:

• May 30^th, 2009 – Region G Leadership Summit; This May, Region G will be hosting its Second Annual Leadership Summit at Ohio University in Athens, OH.  The purpose of this Summit is to train future leaders of SWE – both at the collegiate and professional level.  I would encourage all officers of SWE to attend this event, as it offers valuable training, resources, and networking opportunities that can be taken back to your collegiate section.
   
• July 30^th – August 1^st, 2009 – Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF); This year’s CLF will be held in Chicago, IL.  The FY10 RCR, RCNE, Collegiate Senator, and SWEFLs from Region G will all attend this event, where they will meet with Regional and National Leaders in SWE and with other collegiate representatives from across the country.  This event will provide them with the necessary training, resources, and knowledge of SWE that they will need to carry out their roles in SWE!

How to Raise Money to attend SWE Conferences

At the request of the Youngstown State SWE President, Sarah Brothers, a survey was compiled to gather information on how collegiate sections from across our region raise money to attend SWE Conferences.  The following questions and answers were taken from this survey:

 

What are your section’s best fund-raising practices?

• We host a series of SWE lunches to raise money for conference trips. Last fall, we made about $600 total from two different lunches. A section spotlight of these events was posted on the region G blog a while back. -University of Louisville Section

• We offer robotics workshops and science activity fairs for children/teens.
  -Robert Morris University Section

• We host “Grilled Cheese sales”, “Bake Sales”, “Pizza sales”, and sel t-shirts/sweatshirts.
  -Ohio University Section

• We host a Career Fair every winter, with around 100 companies who pay to attend.
  -University of Kentucky Section

• We are in charge of the fall Engineering and High Tech Career Fair, which is basically our primary and only fundraiser. Companies pay around $500 to buy a booth and after all the bills are paid and cuts are taken, we draw in around $10,000 a year. In addition to the Career Fair, our section also sells SWE t-shirts.
  -Ohio State University Section

What resources have you used to finance your section’s trip to a SWE Conference?

• Aside from the lunch mentioned above, we ask all the engineering department heads for money and the student government for money too. Additionally, we may only raise enough money to cover all the travel expenses except for the registration fee for each member, so sometimes the members have to pay part of the trip too.
  -University of Louisville Section

• We use the funds from robotics workshops and science activity fairs for children/teens.
  -Robert Morris University Section

• We use University Allocation Funds & Company sponsorship.
  -Penn State University Section

• To attend regional conference, we’ve used funding from the University President.
  -Youngstown State University Section

• To attend conferences, we use College of Engineering Funding.
  -Ohio University Section
   
• We use the money raised at our Career Fair.
  -University of Kentucky Section
   
• The Dean of the College is a big supporter of SWE, so often he will use ’student opportunities funds’ to pay for our trips. We have to apply for the money using a short form, detailing how we will spend it, but otherwise its not a whole lot of work. We certainly send him many thank you’s!
  -Ohio State University Section

Before attending a conference, how far in advance do you start to raise money to attend a conference?

• For Nationals we start in the summer, and for Regionals we just start that semester.
  -University of Louisville Section

• We start raising money 1-2 months before a conference.
  -Robert Morris University Section

• Over the summer is when we filled out the paperwork to apply for funding through our school.
  -Penn State University Section
   
• We begin raising money for conferences from the beginning of the year all the way up to the conference. For example, September to November when the National conference was held.
  -Ohio University Section

• The University of Kentucky Career Fair is in the winter, February, and we use that money all the way until the next Career Fair (over 6 months in advance).
  -University of Kentucky Section

Do you have any additional advice about raising money to attend national and regional conferences?

• All of the kids and parents love our section’s workshops and they usually make over $1000 for and require only 3-5 people for 3 hours, plus they are very easy! Try it!
  -Robert Morris University Section

• Ask Engineering dean and engineering departments for funding.
  -Ohio University Section
   
• Make friends with company representatives! I have tons of reps that come and do info sessions that I get face to face contact with. I would then contact these reps personally with an email stating specifically what the section needs money for.
  -University of Kentucky Section
   
• Leverage the college as much as possible! And if you do get support, be sure and show them how much that money helped and they will be more inclined to fund you more in the future!
  -Ohio State University Section

 

If you have additional advice on raising money to attend SWE Conferences, feel free to leave a comment or to take the survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wyPW8irjeX4VNDuueZiuNg_3d_3d

Section Spotlight: Penn State University “THON”

Article written by: Heather Thomas

School Section: Penn State University

Name of Event: Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance MaraTHON

Event Date: February 20 – 22nd, 2009

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The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance MaraTHON is the largest student run philanthropy in the world.  THON is a 46 hour, no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon, in which organizations select dancers to participate. 700 dancers, over 100 captains, over 3,000 committee members, and thousands of spectators fill the Bryce Jordan Center for the event. The Penn State Dance MaraTHON raises money for the Four Diamonds Fund that benefits pediatric cancer at Hershey Medical Center.  This year THON raised $7,490,133.87! Since 1973, over $50 million dollars has been generated for kids with cancer.

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Penn State SWE was very involved with THON this year. We collected money by “canning” over four weekends.  When we “can” we stand on street corners and at business with empty coffee cans collecting donations.  Another form of fundraising is writing letters to family and friends.  Because of the dedication of our members, Penn State SWE raised $22,633.00!

In addition to fundraising, Penn State SWE “adopt ed” a family.  We were paired with the Aidan Roth family. Aidan (age 14), our THON child, is a cancer survivor.  This was the family’s first time attending THON, and they said it was life changing. They now plan to attend every Dance MaraTHON until “forever.”  SWE stays involved with the Aidan Roth Family year round. We have had them at Penn State and visited them in their town.

Overall, Penn State Dance MaraTHON is not just a 46 hour event. It is a year round on going effort to end childhood cancer. For now we dance for a cure. One day we will dance in celebration.

For The Kids, FTK!

To learn more or donate, visit www.thon.org

RCR Update #3 – Bylaws Info

Hello All,

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I have the following information to pass along to you from Laura Gimpelson which should help clarify the bylaws process. Please continue to ask questions of myself, Karin, Jessica Rannow, or Laura as you work through this process.

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Thanks!

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Laura’s Info

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1.    Sections that only insert the section number and name into the template can hold a section vote to approve the bylaws and then forward the approved bylaws to the national secretary after inserting the following footer “Section GXXX Approved Bylaws mm/dd/yyyy”.  The national secretary will handle the final processing step and notify the bylaws committee chair when the bylaws have been posted on the SWE Governance document webpage.

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2.    If the section changes any part of the bylaws template even to add school required language, then send the draft to bylaws-chair@swe.org.  Do not hold an approval vote!!!  If the bylaws committee has comments, the section will need to address the comments and receive the committee’s approval before the section can approve the draft bylaws.
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Britney Marie Thompson
Society of Women Engineers
Region G Collegiate Representative
University of Kentucky
606-305-9777
rcr-g@swe.org

RCR Update #2 – Region Conference Wrap-Up

Hello Region G Presidents!

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Regional Conference 2009 at the University of Akron was a great success! I am glad that so many of you were able to come and participate. I hope you found it very informative, inspiring, and enjoyable.

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I encourage you to check out the Outstanding Collegiate Section award information on the SWE website and start compiling your data. Every section is capable of winning an award, no matter how small or large. Give yourself a great reason to go to the banquet at National Conference in California… win an award! This award packet is due May 31st.

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Every collegiate section must submit at least a first draft of bylaws by May 31st or there will be consequences such as rebate withholding initiated. With that said… don’t fret! Most of you will be able to make the necessary edits to the templates in only a few minutes. Then, simply put them to a vote for approval by your section and send them off to bylaws-chair@swe.org with your section name and number in the file name.

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The ’standard collegiate bylaws’ template is what most of you need to use, where you will only have to insert your section identification and a few other changes. There are only 4 main officers listed, but you probably don’t need to add others since they typically are ‘director of _____’ or something like that. Also note that you can’t have two of any officer, such as two Vice Presidents. However, I believe it is permissible to have Vice President of ABC and Vice President of XYZ, as long as ABC doesn’t equal XYZ. Don’t quote me on that, you’ll have to ask the committee chair or something.

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The ‘collegiate section bylaws 2′ document contains an explanation of how to go about making large changes to the bylaws template. (It might also be a useful read for those doing only the standard changes.) For instance, if your school has different requirements than SWE, you might need to start a dialogue with the bylaws committee in order to work up a set of bylaws they will agree to.  SWE Communities also has several examples of finished bylaws and other information if you’d like to check that out.

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Please put these bylaws on your agenda to wrap up quickly. There are only a handful of our sections who have started the process, even fewer who have completed.

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If you have questions about either the conference presentation or the bylaws, email me and I’ll do my best to get you an answer!

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Have a lovely week!

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–Britney Marie Thompson
Society of Women Engineers
Region G Collegiate Representative
University of Kentucky
606-305-9777
rcr-g@swe.org

Call for FY10 Committee/Task-Force Chair and Chair-Elect

Hello!  The message below was sent out in a SWE e-blast.  If you are interested in becoming more involved with SWE on the national level, then joining a SWE Committee or Task Force would be a great way to start!  Also, if you are looking for more leadership experience, I would encourage you to apply for a chair or chair-elect position.  These roles are open to ALL SWE members – including collegiates!

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From: Nora Lin, SWE FY10 President-Elect

We are pleased to announce the call for FY09 Committee/Task Force Chair and Chair Elect applications. The application process will allow all SWE members the opportunity to express an interest in these types of leadership roles within the Society. It will also allow us the opportunity to better match our members’ strengths and interests to the needs of the Society.

Please review the open leadership positions FY10.  The description of each leadership position can be found here. Please fill out the Chair / Chair Elect application form with the requested information and return it in Word or PDF format along with a photo (headshot at 300 dpi resolution) in a .jpg file to hq@swe.org by April 1, 2009.

All applications will then be reviewed and applicants will be notified by June 1. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact headquarters at 312.596.5244.

The following positions have been appointed by the Board of Directors

· Leadership Pipeline Task Force
· Region Conferences Task Force
· Strategic Award Task Force

The following groups will be transitioning from COR to Senate

· Senate Communication
· Senate Mega Issues

The following groups’ work will be completed, or transferred to other Committees or Headquarters the next few months; hence there is no call for group leaders for them.  We thank all volunteers who have worked on these groups.

- Senate Governance FIG

- Leadership Pipeline Task Force

- Region Conference Task Force

- Strategic Award Task Force

The following committees are not included in this call as the current chair and chair-elect will continue their services for another year:

· Government Relations & Public Policy

Thank you for your interest.

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