WE14 : A Global Exchange For Change

Kinchen at WE14

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has an annual conference that brings together leaders, businesses, organizations, universities, and professionals. It is a chance to reach the best and brightest women engineers. WE14 was held in Los Angeles, California last week, 22-26 October 2014.

Incredible and Wow! I was attending in my role as Charlotte Metrolina Section President along with our Vice President Divya, our section representative Rebecca, and Angela who is our SWE Region D Secretary. We had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends.

This was my first national and international conference! WE14 was hosting ICWES16, the 16th International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists. This combined event only happens every three years. There with over 8,000 attendees! There were more than 75 sessions to choose from and I only had time to attend about 10 %. I am looking forward to the virtual recordings of the sessions I missed!

It was also a great opportunity to reconnect with Tennessee Tech University SWE collegiate SWE members as their professional SWE counselor. Our next South East Regional Conference will be at TTU in March 2015, with TTU hosting!

My primary focus was as a volunteer, to Inspire the Next Generation of Women Engineers as a Role Model and help with the Invent It, Build It! We had 100 more girls than planned for a total of 600! I was responsible for 110 in my team section. I had some great engineering volunteers helping me including two women Air Force pilots. A record event! There were so many creative and innovative ideas, it was great fun. We built space exploration landing vehicles for 2 astronauts (marshmallow size). We also built electronic dance pads. These activities introduced the following engineering process steps: Identify, Brainstorm, Choose, Design, Test, Show, Redesign.

The next National SWE conference will be in Nashville, TN in October 2015. For more information about SWE go to http://www.swe.com

Call for Section Award Nominations for 2014-2015

The Society of Women Engineers Charlotte-Metrolina Section issues a call for nominations for the Distinguished Engineering Service Award.

 

This award is presented annually by the Society of Women Engineers Charlotte-Metrolina Section to an individual who best exemplifies the engineering profession through leadership and service as judged by the selection committee from submitted nominations.

 

The judging criteria evaluate the contributed time and effort in one or more of the following areas: public service, public awareness, professional development and leadership, and other as specified by the nominator. The nominee’s volunteer efforts must be: current, an investment of substantial personal (uncompensated) time, personal and direct, and public service.

 

The nominee should be informed of their nomination and will be recognized at the Annual Awards & Recognition Banquet in June 2016.

 

Nominations are due to [email protected]by March 1, 2015. Additional details are in the Nomination Form attached.

Executive Council Planning Meeting: Minutes

Southeast Region D

Charlotte-Metrolina Section, D-002

Executive Council Planning Meeting Minutes August 2, 2014
(printable PDF version)

The Society of Women Engineers Charlotte Metrolina (SWE-CM) Section held its FY 2015 kickoff and officers planning meeting on 02 August 2014 at Lake Norman, 351 Grasshopper Circle Mooresville, North Carolina. The purpose of the meeting was for planning the 2014-2015 year activities.

Attendees present:

Agenda topics and discussions:

Treasurer’s Financial Report and Annual Budget

FY14 budget, last year’s bank statements and IRS filing completed Jul 7th 2014 were reviewed and approved. Voting was unanimous on two topics:

  • Post Office expense, unanimous vote to keep current P.O. Box
  • Website expense, unanimous vote to keep current server, Go-Daddy.com
  • FY15 budget, after a few updates, will be sent out via by the treasurer for concurrence and a vote.

Social Media

  • Face Book /Twitter – voted not to have a Face Book site or Twitter unless a dedicated Chairperson could support a two year commitment. Best Practices should be followed as outlined by SWE headquarters.
  • Website- SWE paid platform is a template based site and available to Sections, vote to keep current website for FY15 was unanimous as it better meets our Section needs. Website updates need to include Officer Bios and picture for each officer. Executive officers were provided with admin privileges for www.swe-cm.org POC is Fern Blair [email protected]
  • Notification Mailings – Mail Chimp was presented to the officers and will be used to set up advance notifications for FY15 activities. POC is Fern Blair [email protected]
  • Newsletters – partially automated, to go thru Section Secretary, Theresa Myers, for distribution. Newsletter will be quarterly.
  • Palm Cards – social advertising media was discussed and after reviewing and approving a design, created by Ms. Blair, the officers voted unanimously for the purchase of palm cards for the SWE-CM Section. These cards have SWE-CM Section information and no personal information. Section information includes FY15 Power Hour Locations with dates and a QR barcode. The barcode can be read by a number of app enabled phones. Scanning the barcode on the card will take users to our www.SWE-CM.org website. These cards will be ordered as a batch of 1,000. These cards will be useful to hand out at SWE-CM Power Hour events and at SWE Conferences. POC is Cheryl Kinchen, [email protected]

Social Networking and Membership

  • SWE-CM Power Hour – Although all are welcome, these monthly events target our young professional women in their 20s-40s for professional support, networking, and membership building. Events are to be first Fridays 6pm-8pm unless otherwise scheduled. POC is Divya Radhakrishnan [email protected] or Rebecca Turner [email protected]
  • Outreach Women’s Engineering Conference with Professional Engineers of North Carolina (PENC) this is a conference requiring a $350 fee by the Foundation of the Carolinas (non-profit). Individual conference costs at $35 each are estimated to offset the fee and the net profit will go towards scholarships to Engineers Camp Charlotte at Queens University in the summer of 2015. Camp is $350 for a week. A vote for SWE-CM Section to cover the fee with reimbursement based on proceeds was unanimous and the treasurer will handle payment to the Foundation of the Carolinas. POC is the Outreach Committee Chair, Angela Berry [email protected].
  • Engineers Are Epic, scheduled with Girl Scout Hornet’s Nest Council for September 27th 2014 and February 21st 2014 (during Engineers Week) POC is the Outreach Committee Chair, Angela Berry, [email protected]
  • University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNNC) Collegiate SWE – SWE-CM will support the College of Engineering Picnic in October 2014 POC is the Outreach Committee Chair, [email protected]
  • Citizen Schools, voted not to support Fall program but to support Spring program Feb-Apr 2015. POC is the Outreach Committee Chair, Angela Berry [email protected]

SWE Calendar of Events

The events for 2014-2015 year were discussed and finalized. To see the Calendar of Events, please visit our Calendar >>

 

Joint Social Event with UNCC SWE

 

Four members of SWE Charlotte-Metrolina and two members of SWE UNCC enjoyed an evening at The Wine Palette in the Plaza-Midwood neighborhood to paint “Charlotte in Spring.”

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L to R standing – Cheryl Kinchen, Angela Berry, RoseMary Seymour, Divya Radhakrishnan L to R seated – Megan Razick, Chrissy Drake

 

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Call for FY15 section election nominations

Society of Women Engineers Charlotte-Metrolina Section members,

 

The Section is beginning the process of electing our officers for the next fiscal year (FY15 runs July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015).  This email serves as a call for nominations for the following positions:

President

Vice-President

Treasurer

Secretary

Section Representative

Alternate Section Representative

 

Duties of the positions are described on the Officer Duties page of the website.

 

Please respond to Angela Berry by Wednesday May 7, 2014 12:00 p.m. if you are interested in a position or wish to nominate a fellow member for a position.

Angela can be reached at [email protected] or 704-432-5259.  Please do not hesitate to contact her if you have any questions regarding the nomination or election process.

 

Sincerely,

Theresa Myers

FY14 Secretary

SWE Charlotte-Metrolina Section