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.

The Society of Women Engineers Bylaws Committee has reviewed proposed changes to the Society’s bylaws and are presenting them to the membership. The Senate will conduct and electronic vote on these proposed changes in June.

The exact wording of the changes is linked below:

Motion S-1809: Collegiate Section Counselors

Please contact your senators if you have any comments or concerns on these changes. Feel free to contact Alexis McKittrick at secretary@swe.org with questions on the process.

Source: http://alltogether.swe.org/2018/04/proposed-society-bylaws-admendment/
Published: 4/30/18

On April 3, 2018, Penny Wirsing, FY18 President Elect initiated the call for new committee members to join in FY19.  

In an email to members, Penny wrote,  "The power of our committees and our volunteers is what moves SWE forward. Society committees are also a major aspect of our talent development pipeline process. I encourage both collegiates and professionals to join the SWE volunteer team for FY19."

To learn more about the committees, you can listen to podcasts or read descriptions to find a committee that matches your interests and availability.  There are a wide range of opportunities and levels of commitment.

If you would like to join a committee, please complete the simple committee member volunteer application by May 1, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

 If you have questions about a particular committee? Find contact information for current committee chairs on the committee contact information page. 

Have you listened to SWE's Diverse Podcast?  The Diverse Podcast is available on Soundcloud, Apple, and Android devices free to listeners who want to learn more about SWE or women in engineering and technology. 

Recent episodes of the podcast have been dedicated to topics around the changes taking place in the Society governance structure including collegiate voting rights.

Society election voting begins on April 1st, and this year, collegiates will be voting in the election of Society level leaders including Senators and the Board of Directors.  The Senate encourages all members to learn about the candidates and vote in this election. 

Links to the governance specific podcasts are posted on the governance website and available here:

Governance Update March 2018, Diverse Episode 39 Penny Wirsing, SWE’s FY19 President, talks with Mary Beth Biddle, FY18 SWE Faculty Advisor/Counselor-Elect, about collegiate voting rights under SWE’s Governance Update.

Governance Update March 2018, Diverse Episode 38 with FY19 SWE President Penny Wirsing Penny Wirsing who talks with Mary Beth Biddle, FY18 SWE Faculty Advisor/Counselor-Elect, about how Collegiate Faculty Advisors and Counselors will be helping with SWE’s Governance Update.

Governance Update Januray 2018, Diverse Episode 29 with FY19 SWE President Penny Wirsing talks with FY18 Collegiate Director Ingrid Arambula about SWE's Governance Update for Collegiate Members.

Governance Update May 2017, Diverse Episode 18 with Karen Roth on Section Support
Governance Update October 2016, Diverse Episode 7 with Natalie Vanderspiegel on Senate perspectives

Please download and listen to learn more about the changes taking place this year. 

By Kelsey Harper, FY18 Region H Collegiate Senator

SWE members from around the Midwest converged in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in early March for a WE Local conference. The weekend was a great experience for all to learn more about SWE, share best practices, and attend professional development seminars. Two Senators, Lynn Davenport and Kelsey Harper attended WE Local Milwaukee. We had the opportunity to present about Society Committee opportunities to attendees, including many Region H leaders; with a specific focus on encouraging collegiate leaders to consider committee positions as we transition away from regions. We discussed the different committees and who to contact if interested. Particular encouragement to join committees was given to collegiate members who might be on co-op, graduating in the near future, or looking for additional leadership positions.

WE Local conferences are a more intimate setting than Society Conference and allow leaders to talk in smaller groups with constituents. Talking with members at meals and networking hours about their ideas and concerns is a great way to learn more about what strategic issues the Senate will need to consider going forward. As the last few WE Locals of the year wind down we look forward to meeting more SWE members.

Pictured: Senators, Lynn Davenport and Kelsey Harper, with the Region H Leadership Team

By Pamela Buzzetta, FY18 Region I Professional Senator

The Annual Strategic Planning Sub-Team led by Deputy Speaker, Natalie Vanderspiegel, convened again last week to conduct the Annual Strategic Plan Review (ASPR). The team is responsible for reviewing and revising the Society’s strategic objectives as needed to align with the vision and strategic goals. This year, the meeting also included special guests from the 5-Year Strategic Plan Task Force led by Special Senator, Dianne Beever. 

The 5-Year Strategic Plan Task Force investigated the changing landscape of engineering and technology professions and the needs of our membership with a longer outlook. Using the Strategic Planning Assessment (SPA), environmental scans, competitive analysis, reports from the NSF on engineering and diversity, and input from senior leadership, this team discussed and reviewed the Society’s mission, vision, and strategic goals. The team presented proposed updates for FY19 and beyond to the Board of Directors and the Annual Strategic Planning Sub-Team at ASPR.

Together, the teams reaffirmed the mission and vision of SWE while providing recommendations to update the strategic goals within Professional Excellence, Globalization, and Advocacy. The group also spent a portion of the meeting discussing Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) within SWE and in the engineering profession. Special Director Cheri Chappelle used her extensive corporate experience in leading D&I objectives to set the basis for the discussion during the ASPR.

Both, the sub-team and task force are now busy at work making the final changes and putting together the recommendations for the new strategic plan to present to the board next month. Look for the new approved strategic plan in the coming months!

Photo of ASPR attendees in Minneapolis, MN on February 9, 2018. Photo credit: Natalie Vanderspiegel