Starting December 2019, the Senate moved its blog posts to SWE's All Together blog with a five part series about the responsibilities of the Senate and the strategic initiatives the Senate is investigating this year.


Get to Know the SWE Senate!

Get to Know SWE Senate's Strategic Planning Team

Get to Know SWE Senate's Leadership Pipeline Sub-Team

Get to Know SWE Senate's D&I Initiative Team
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Get to Know SWE Senate's Education and Learning Sub-Team

Thank you to members who responded to the January 2019 survey on Collegiate Leadership Engagement in the Society. Background information regarding this initiative can be found at: https://alltogether.swe.org/2019/01/survey-for-swe-senate-strategic-initiative/. The collegiate survey received 263 responses, and the professional survey received 446 responses. Member feedback from the survey and historical data from SWE records provided insight in the following areas:

• Familiarity with Society Positions
• Time Commitment
• Financial Commitment
• Perception of Member Qualifications
• SWE Career Map and Mentorship
• Value of Society Leadership Positions

A collegiate engagement task force was chartered for FY20 by the Board of Directors. The findings from the FY19 Senate Strategic Initiatives Sub-team will be one of many resources utilized by that task force. Stay tuned for more updates.

By: Anna Sparks

Members of the senate gathered in Anaheim, California for the Annual Winter Senate Meeting on Saturday, February 2, 2019. This was the second of two senate face-to-face meetings in FY19. There were very lively discussions throughout the day. In addition, the meeting had a special two month old guest who accompanied her mother. The meeting was truly inclusive and diverse.
Peter Finn, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Learning Officer of SWE, facilitated a strategic planning training session. The senate is the strategic body of the Society, and this training helped continue to sharpen the skill set and prepare the mind for a day of big picture thinking. Peter is a very effective presenter and appreciated for his efforts.
Discussion items included motion S-1903 to approve the strategic planning metrics dashboard. The metrics dashboard was developed by the Strategic Planning Sub-Team based on input from SWE leadership, members, staff, and McKinley Advisors. It will be used to review progress towards the Society’s long-term strategic plans as well as to develop future strategic plans. After reviewing the motion documentation and addressing concerns prior to the meeting, the senate passed the motion unanimously. There were no proposed bylaws amendments up for discussion during this senate meeting.
During special reports, the senate received updates and participated in key dialogue. Karen Horting, Executive Director and CEO of SWE, provided an HQ update including the upcoming WE19 Annual Conference in Anaheim, California in November 2019. Karen Roth, Society Treasurer, presented a finance update. The senate sub-teams discussed their respective efforts and potential research on strategic initiatives.
 
The meeting wrapped up with an interactive SWOT analysis exercise. The high-level dialogue was impressive and encouraged to continue in subsequent senate meetings.

The FY19 Senate will meet face-to-face in Anaheim, California on February, 2 2019 beginning at 8:00 AM.  There are no bylaws amendments to be discussed or voted on at this meeting.  There is currently one senate motion that will be voted on and the details can be found on the Amendments and Motions page.  Please see below for the published agenda.  If you would like to review any of the motions, the agenda, or attend the Senate meeting in Anaheim, please contact your Senators or Gail Dyer, Senate Secretary for more information. 

Various Society bylaws amendments occurred last year directly affecting collegiate members (see governance.swe.org for more information about these changes). One specific result of these changes was that all region positions were dissolved; therefore, several region-based leadership opportunities that were designated for collegiate members went away as well. Many leadership positions open to both professionals and collegiates at the Society level remain, though collegiate member participation in these opportunities is low. As part of the SWE Senate’s work this year, the strategic initiatives sub-team was tasked to determine and identify any barriers for collegiate leadership engagement at the Society level. Leadership engagement at the Society level includes and is not limited to membership or leadership in Committees, Task Forces, Senate and Board of Directors.
One of the avenues is conducting this research through anonymous surveys. All SWE members received an email on Thursday, January 3 with a survey link. The deadline to submit is Friday, January 25 at 5:00pm EST. Anticipated completion time is approximately 15 minutes.
Collegiate members are being asked about various experiences, thoughts and opinions on this topic. Additionally, professional members who have worked with SWE collegiate members from an informal [ex. mentoring] to a formal experience [ex. leadership committee coach] are being asked for feedback on this topic.
We greatly appreciate both the collegiate and professional member perspective and taking their time to provide input.
To learn more about the Senate visit: http://senate.swe.org/about-the-senate.html
For more information, please contact Strategic_Initiatives_Lead@swe.org

An informational session hosted by the SWE Senate.

Date: Saturday, September 15, 2018
Time: 1:00PM – 2:00PM CT
Register now!

Speakers: Olivia LeBlanc, Tamaira Ross, Hope Toole Schwalls

Are you interested in becoming a SWE Senator or nominating a candidate for the Senate in FY20? 
If so, please join FY19 Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Olivia LeBlanc, and Senators Tamaira Ross and Hope Tools Schwalls as we discuss the purpose and goals of the Senate, Senator roles and responsibilities, and leadership opportunities available within the Senate. 

 By the end of this session, attendees should be able to:

1. Discuss the role of the Senate in the Society
2. Understand the requirements and commitments of a SWE Senator
3. Recognize how to get involved with the Senate through the nomination process

There will also be time for Q&A. 

Please contact senate-deputyspeaker@swe.org  with any questions.

By: Alexis Wasserman, Senator

The FY19 Senate is proud to announce that Dhanu Thiyagarajan has been elected as a Special Senator for this fiscal year. I have had the privilege of working with Dhanu for the last few years though our various roles within the SWE Senate and the WE16 Local Host Committee. I along with the rest of the Senate look forward to working with her this year on the Senate.
 
Each year the Senate has the option to elect up to three Special Senators to bring in people with specific experiences and knowledge to fill any gaps that may be identified based on the current year’s goals.  The Senate leadership recognized that a collegiate voice was missing from this year’s Senate.  Dhanu was an ideal choice to fill in this gap due to her previous experience within the society and leadership to make positive change for collegiate members within the society.
 
Specifically, Dhanu represented SWE Region E as a collegiate senator in FY18, where she was instrumental in making and gaining support for senate motion S-1809: Collegiate Section Counselors.  Dhanu not only recognized an existing problem and potential solution; she also helped the SWE leadership understand the diversity of SWE collegiate sections and their needs as she gathered support for the motion. 
 
In FY18 Dhanu additionally supported the senate’s efforts to ensure a strong communications flow under the new SWE governance structure, in which a transition away from regions has removed a previous communication mechanism.  She ensured that communications preferences of collegiate members were understood and considered in developing the plan for Senate communications.
 
For FY19, Dhanu will join the Senate Strategic Initiatives Sub-Team and will lead a new strategic initiative focused on collegiate member engagement.  Her past leadership and experiences described above have made her well-suited to champion this initiative.
 
Dhanu joined SWE in 2011.  She served as section president of University of Pittsburgh SWE and was named an Outstanding Collegiate Member at WE15. Dhanu is currently a graduate student member of SWE.

Dhanu’s election was one of the first two motions in front of the FY19 Senate as S-1902.

In October 2017, the Senate voted to changed the bylaws and dissolve geographical region boundaries of SWE members in the United States.  The Senate and SWE are looking forward to the collaboration this change will enable across not only regions but our international members.  

The Region Governance Team listened to the concerns of members and is hosting a webinar to address questions related to roles and responsibilities within the Society after these changes take place. 

A roles and responsibilities matrix has been developed to support SWE members in recognizing who to contact and how to locate information once the Region Governance structure dissolves on July 1, 2018.

Please review the document and bring your questions to the webinar on Monday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m. CT with the FY18 Director of Regions, Lisa Rimpf, and FY18 Deputy Director of Regions, Libby Taylor.

For any questions, please contact hq@swe.org.

By Dhanu Thiyagarajan, FY18 Region E Collegiate Senator

Background:
With the passing of the motion to dissolve regions, a lot of concern arose about support for collegiate sections. Collegiate sections range from being heavily involved with societal activities to not knowing that SWE as a society exists. There are a multitude of reasons for this big variation in collegiate section participation, but previously, one consistent factor existed to try and bridge this gap: the region collegiate team (RCT). With the RCT dissolution starting July 2018, a lot of thought and discussion is happening to determine a variety of ways to keep collegiate sections engaged. One of the methods is to further utilize and engage counselors.
 
Again, there are a wide variety of section and counselor relationships. The most common ways that sections utilize counselors are as a connection between collegiate and professional SWE sections; a network between their collegiate section and the Society; and, a mentor to guide their section. The way each section utilizes their counselor is determined by the section’s leadership and their needs for the fiscal year. Some sections are well established and don’t need guidance on how to run a section or gather information about societal SWE, so these sections are looking for someone who can be a bridge to a professional SWE section. Other sections are new or re-emerging and need guidance on how to run a SWE collegiate section and learn about what resources are available to them from SWE at the society level. Therefore, the responsibility of what a collegiate section hopes to utilize their counselor for is placed on the section’s leadership.
 
The proposed motion:
The goal of Senate motion S-1809 is to provide sections with a bigger pool of possible counselors, so that each section can find a counselor that best fits their needs and goals for the fiscal year. Graduate students are able to provide a wide array of unique experiences that may be beneficial to certain collegiate sections for them to prosper. By providing an increased number of counselor candidates, the intent of this motion is to help ensure that every collegiate section has an active counselor. It is critical to the mission of the society to ensure that collegiates stay engaged even without the RCT looking forward. Senate motion S-1809 would be one step forward in the right direction, because collegiate sections would have increased opportunities to elect a counselor that best fits their goals allowing them to develop into stronger sections.
 
Note from the motion makers:
Each of us supports this motion, because we have been in situations where we would have benefited from this change. Some of us have been involved with collegiate sections that did not have a counselor presence. We had a difficult journey to lead our sections without guidance and learn that societal SWE exists; nonetheless get involved at the society level. Some of us are graduate students who help other collegiate sections, unofficially in a graduate advisor/counselor role. We understand the importance of a strong mentor for each collegiate section and understanding societal SWE; by supporting this motion, we hope that more collegiate members will understand their pathway forward within SWE like we did.