Sedro Woolley Area Girl Scout Bridge Building Contest - Mentors Needed

Erica Fifer is a civil engineer and Girl Scout leader in Western Washington. She is planning a bridge building contest for 4th grade girls in the Sedro Woolley area, which is about 1 hour north of Seattle.

One thing they are looking for are engineers (women or men, but women would be great) to help with the events and be mentors. Below are some of the key dates, activities, and types of volunteering role.

Key Dates & Activities:

• January 16th - Initial meeting
• This is when they will go over the majority of the information and have girls start discussing and drawing their designs.  
• This would be a 2.5-3 hour time commitment.
• January 30th - Finalize drawings and get drawings approved
• The teams would come with their drawings done.  
• Mentors will review them, make suggestions and approve the final drawing.  
• Girls will be given their bridge building kits and start on building if they have time.  
• This would be about 2 hours.
• February 13th - Optional day
• Girls to come get help with bridge building and get questions answered.
• February 27th - Testing and STEM festival day.
• They will be testing each bridge to find the break load and plan to have different groups and individuals come in and have STEM booths.

So here's the types of volunteers they are looking for:

• Bridge Building / Examples
• She is looking for adults to make bridges that they can have completed before January 16th.
• These would be entered into the 'adult' or 'professional' division and to give girls some ideas to start with. 
• A kit would be provided and you'd have until January 16th to build a bridge. 
• Mentors
• She needs folks to be mentors.  
• The idea is that each group of 2-3 girls will have a mentor assigned to them, each mentor will have 3-4 groups (depending on how many groups and mentors they get).
• They want to be sure the girls are doing the drawing and designs, but they want a mentor to help out by answering questions, making suggestions and making sure the drawings and design seem reasonable.
• This would be a commitment to be at the events on January 16th and 30th for up to 3 hours each day.
• STEM Festival February 27th
• They are also looking for companies or groups to host booths at the STEM festival.
• They are going to invite all Girl Scouts in the area and families and friends.  
• This will likely be 4 ours or more and is still in the planning stages

If you could contact Erica Fifer by November or December 2015, that would be great.

FY16 Region J Positions Still Available

Want to make a bigger impact in SWE? Then consider helping out at the regional level! The following positions are still open. Anyone interested contact Wendy Jenkins or your SWE PNW Section Reps (swe.pnw.section.reps@gmail.com) if interested.

Region J Social Media Chair: 

• The social media chair is responsible for maintaining the region’s social media accounts, posting and sharing articles and needed.  
• This is a great opportunity for someone wanting to get involved but without a huge time commitment.  
• All that’s needed is some social media savviness.

Region J Conference Coordinator: 

• The conference coordinator serves as the Region J representative/liaison into regional conferences, particularly for years when we’re doing a joint conference with Regions A and B. 
• Great opportunity to be in the loop on region  conference planning.

Region J Assessment Chair: 

• The assessment chair is a new role for this year. 
• This role requires you to work with the Region J treasurer to do financial assessments and audit the region’s financials. 
• This is a good opportunity to learn more about SWE’s finances.

Region J Webmaster: 

• The webmaster is responsible for maintaining the Region J website, making updates to the page as requested. 
• This is a great opportunity for someone wanting to get involved but needing flexibility with their availability to volunteer. 
• You don’t need extensive web design skills for this one – the interface for updates is pretty user friendly!

Region J Newsletter Editor: 

• The newsletter editor is responsible for collecting articles and putting together the Region J newsletter, which goes out roughly once a quarter. 
• This is another good opportunity to get involved with a lot of flexibility, and a chance to stay up to date on what is going on in the region. 
• You also have a chance to get a little creative!

Region J Mentoring Co-Chair: 

• The role of the mentoring chair(s) is to run the region J mentoring program. 
• Information on how the FY15 program was run will be provided form past chairs, but there is a lot of flexibility in this role and opportunities for new ideas and improvements. 
• Can be either just professional mentoring, or both professional and collegiates, potentially partnering with collegiate leaders in the region.