Sonora Region Weekly Notes

October 19, 2008 to October 25, 2008

Upcoming Events

 

Hot News!!

 

Region Resources & Links

 

COR Information


Upcoming Events

 

FY09 Programs and Services Assessment
The FY09 Programs & Services Assessment will be held on Tuesday, November 4 from 1 pm to 5 pm at the national conference.  COR reps are invited to attend.  There are limited seats and they are first come first serve.  People who are interested in attending need to RSVP with Nora Lin or Betty Irish. 

 

Region Meeting at National Conference

Currently the Region Meeting in Baltimore is scheduled on Thursday November 6, 2008 from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. The professional portion of the meeting will be held from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm, the joint portion of the meeting will be held from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm, and the collegiate portion of the meeting will be from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Drinks and snacks will be served. To visit the current schedule of events for the conference at http://www.we08.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=16&Itemid=33

FY09 COR Business Meetings Overview
The Council meeting in Baltimore will be a two-part business meeting.  The first part will be on Thursday, from 10 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.  Registration will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the meeting will begin promptly at 10.  The agenda for Thursday, November 6th will address consent items and regular motions.  Beginning at 10:45 a.m., there will be a short presentation by the Governance FIG, followed by a town hall style question and answer session facilitated by Colette Trohan. The meeting on Saturday will be from 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.  Registration will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the meeting will begin promptly at noon.  The agenda for Saturday, November 8th will address the remaining bylaws proposal items, as well as reports, recognition, and setting of the next Council meeting, prior to adjournment. Voting will occur at both meetings and attendance is required.  The same people attending and voting on Thursday should also be attending and voting on Saturday.  Therefore, if you as a representative can not make both meetings, an alternate fully educated and engaged on all of the topics and issues should be provided for both meetings on your behalf.

Call for FY09 Sonora Region Award Submissions- December 1, 2008  

Region Award Nominations are being accepted until December 1. Please go to the region web site or forum for complete award packages information http://swe.org/regionb/awards.html

The awards committee is still seeking judges for 2008 awards. Please contact the Region Awards Coordinator Deb Willems at RegionB_Awards@swe.org if you would like to join the committee or if you have any questions or suggestions on this year process.

 

Hot News!!!

 

Take the “Why SWE Survey”- Win a Prize for Participating

Take a moment to tell SWE why you are a member and what is important to you to continue your membership. We are looking for 500 participants to take the survey to tell us “Why SWE”. The results will be made into bookmarks and given to the region members as promotional material. The bookmarks can be used as a tool to inform others about SWE, promote membership, explain the benefits of SWE and gain additional participation in your section. Prizes will be given out to 5 members drawn at random from the participants. The survey link can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bcAo7ibTfqKCeEti5JikbA_3d_3d

 

StoryCorps- Needs SWE Members for interviews

Troy Eller, the archivist for the Society of Women Engineers, is arranging interviews with StoryCorps, a nationwide initiative to record and collect oral history interviews.  Last year was the first year that SWE collaborated with StoryCorps to record interviews with its members.  Interviews have been recorded between mother and daughter engineers, SWE award winners and past presidents, and friends and colleagues with interesting stories to tell about their education, careers, experiences, and involvement in SWE.  This year, StoryCorps will be recording interviews in the morning and afternoon of Friday, November 7 at the WE08 National Conference.  Troy is looking for participants – SWE leaders and SWE members, professionals and students – who have interesting, entertaining, or inspiring stories to tell about being women engineers.  Can you recommend any members in your region who might be interested in participating in the interviews this year. StoryCorps records interviews between 2-3 friends, colleagues, or family members.  The process lasts about an hour - the interviews themselves are up to 40 minutes long.  StoryCorps and Troy can provide a few suggested topics for the participants to discuss - how they first became interested in engineering, their struggles and successes in their careers, people who have influenced and supported them, their experiences in SWE, what they see for the future of women in science and engineering, etc.  At the end of the recording, participants receive a CD of their interview to take home.  With their permission, additional copies of the interview will be housed in the SWE archives and at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Please feel free to Troy Eller at troy.eller@wayne.edu if you have any questions about the interviews or if you know of someone who would like to participate.

 

Join the Sonora Region- B Community

Have you joined the SWE Sonora Region- B Community yet? The Sonora Region Community is a place to find information on upcoming region events, minutes from the region meetings, information on the region focus groups, and much more information. The community also offers a place to post discussions, ask questions, or take polls. To join the Sonora Region – B Community, logon on to My Communities from www.swe.org.  On the blue header titled My Communities, choose Manage Communities, choose Browse Communites S-Z, scroll down and click on the check box next to Sonora Region- B, then choose the join button. You will then be able to view all of the information for the Sonora Region. 

 

ABJ Pictures

Take a look at some of the pictures from the ABJ Meeting online at http://www.swe.org/regionB/ABJ_FY09.html

 

Region Outreach Program- A SWEeter Future

Today we begin the SWEeter Future Program for Region B!  Throughout FY09, the Sonora Region is tracking the impact we have on the future of engineering. Our goal for the Region is to impact 2000 children in grades K through 12.  With all of the sections throughout Region B participating, it should be easy to meet our goal! We have set up a SWEeter Future Program Tracker, which can be found by visiting the following link:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=i4M41sM6rK_2fLhHZH4IUU3Q_3d_3d

We ask that you visit this survey throughout the year to report all of the outreach activities of your section.  This simple survey simply asks for the name/date of your event, how many professional members attended, and how many K-12 attendees participated.  We've also included a "comments" box in case you'd like to include any lessons learned, best practices to share, etc.  All of the Program data will be collected by Lt. Governor, Kerrie Greenfelder, and a summary will be provided at the end of the fiscal year. Now for the best part….The section(s) having the most outreach impact by the end of the fiscal year will be rewarded with a stipend to provide a scholarship!  It's a win-win for everyone! If you have any questions about the Program, please do not hesitate to contact Kerrie.  We're looking forward to meeting our outreach goals for FY09!

 

Celebrate SWE Guidelines

Celebrate SWE is a fun event to connect with friends from across each region.  SWE leaders want to ensure that the spirit and enthusiasm of the celebration does not detract from the event.  This year in addition to awarding the Fellow, collegiate member and advisor awards, the Distinguished New Engineer (DNE) recipients will receive their award at Celebrate SWE.  Please follow the attached guidelines during the evening to make this a fun evening for all. Please share these guidelines with your sections. They will also be reviewed at the Region Meeting on September 28th.

Region Resources & Link

 

FY09 Calendar

The FY09 Calendar has been posted on the Region Websites. The calendar includes all of the Section Report due dates (September 5, 2008, January 30, 2009, and May 20, 2009) and the dates of the four region meetings. Any new events will be added to the website, so be sure to visit weekly. http://www.swe.org/regionB/events.html

 

Changing your SWE User ID

It is very helpful to people managing communities to be able to identify contributors.  Having users names 938863 and 773940 make it difficult for community leaders in the course of managing membership to a given community.  Therefore, here are instructions on how to change your SWE user id. Please go to the database at https://www.swe.org/MSC-SWE/directory.aspx. After you sign in, update your information and then scroll down.  In the lower left hand corner there is a link entitled Edit My Profile!  The second major heading below your preferred address is Member Service Center Login.  This is where you can change your User ID. Please choose something so people will be able to identify you like your first and last name.  I changed mine from 751439 to Patricia Eng  -  and yes I could enter the space.  The kicker is that once you change your user ID, that is how you will have to sign in from now on.  Funny how that works, but then when you enter a discussion, people will know who you are . . . . . You may also want to take this opportunity to create a SWE alias for your e-mail.  I have one and when I decide I want to change network providers, I just change the pointer for my SWE alias.  I like the extra spam filter that SWE has….

 

IRS Form 990- Sections with gross receipts of $25,000

Check the "Region and Section Resources Community" for the IRS Form 990, which is required for sections and regions with annual gross receipts of $25,000 or higher.  This form is required to maintain tax exempt status.

COR Information

 

COR Governance Issues

Attached is a three page summary of the proposed changes in governance that the Bylaws Committee is working on. Please ensure that all Region Council Members have read these documents before coming to Conference for the COR meeting.  Expect to see a draft of the National Bylaws changes in the next week.

 

The SWE Senate, which would replace the existing Council of Representatives, is a high functioning deliberative body focused on the long-term strategic position of the Society.  The Senate also retains legislative duties such as changing bylaws and setting individual dues.  Senators would conduct the business as is currently outlined in the bylaws, focusing on national Society concerns.  

 

Council Motions and Proposed Bylaws Amendments Posted
Four motions have been submitted to the Council for review and to be addressed at the Council meetings in Baltimore.  Those four motions are posted on the Council of Representatives (COR) Community under Resources.  To just see the motions, select "View All" in Resources and then select "Motions" from the Category View pull down.  To comment on these motions, separate Discussion Threads have been opened for each motion.  As previously mentioned, any additional motions for consideration must be brought to the Council meeting on November 6, along with 175 copies of the motion and supporting documentation. In addition, twenty-three bylaws amendments have been submitted.  As bylaws amendments are required to be posted for the entire membership, a separate Bylaws - FY09 Amendments Proposal Community has been established.   One file containing all of the proposed amendments has been created.  To comment on these, separate Discussion Threads have been opened for each amendment.  As the 45 day posting deadline has past, no additional bylaws amendments can be submitted for review at this time.