FY18 Section Election: Ballot & Voting Period Announcement

Greetings SWE PNW!

The FY18 nomination committee is very excited to go live with the election survey for the SWE PNW officer election for the FY18 fiscal year. We have many highly qualified and talented candidates running this year! The final ballot is as listed below:

• President (elect 1):
  • Grace Lefebure
• President-Elect (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Elaine Reeves
• Treasurer (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Sherrie Rippe
• Secretary (elect 1):
  • Erin Kiselica
  • Marina Dannecker
• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1):
  • Marina Dannecker
  • Sonia Hingorany
• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach (elect 1):
  • Dana Day
  • Lynette Lopez
  • Sarah McDowell
• Section Representative (elect 1):
  • Theresa Krack
  • Wendy Jenkins

Voting is now live, and is open to all SWE PNW members. Please help us elect our section's next officers by voting! You can access the election survey at this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GKKS3XM

Short biographies for the candidates are available on the SWE PNW section blog, Rainy Day Reads. Please take a look at the information about the candidates and all FY18 section election related blog posts here. And follow along with the latest information on our FY18 Section Election Central webpage here.

The voting period is open as of Thursday, June 8, 2017 and it will close on Friday, June 30, 2017.

If you have any questions, please contact us at swe.pnw.nomination@gmail.com.

Respectfully submitted,
Cary, Kimber, Maria, and Tamaira
SWE PNW FY18 Nomination Committee

FY18 Candidate Bios: Section Representative

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Section Representative (elect 1):
• Theresa Krack
• Wendy Jenkins

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Theresa Krack

Theresa is excited to be running for the position of FY18 Section Representative!

She has been an active member and leader in SWE PNW since 2013 and has been a professional member for over 10 years. As one of SWE PNW’s Section Reps for the last two years, Theresa have actively represented the section in SWE business meetings and governance change discussions at both Society and Region/WELocal conferences.

One of her accomplishments with SWE PNW has been leading the strategic effort to integrate and upgrade the section’s virtual footprint and communication platform. This has been an ongoing, multi-year project that Theresa has combined with her role as Section Rep to improve the member-to-member engagement and communication of key SWE information.

Theresa completed a dual degree program, earning a B.S. (major: physics, minor: math) from the University of Wisconsin (UW) – Eau Claire and a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics from the UofM – Twin Cities. She completed her Master of Engineering in Management online through the UW – Madison while working full time as an engineer (and moving from Wisconsin to Washington). Theresa has worked in the aerospace industry on aircraft certification projects for approximately ten years and currently works at Honeywell Aerospace in Redmond, WA.

Going into the last year of Section Reps, Theresa believes this is a critical role for the section to have an experienced voice representing the section in the region, society, and governance discussions. She hopes to continue to be that representative voice for the section.

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Wendy Jenkins

Wendy Jenkins joined SWE in FY04 and quickly took on leadership roles.  Since moving to Seattle in 2009 she has held many section positions including Section Representative, Treasurer, and President.  She has also served at the region level as Senator and most recently Region Governor.  

Having spent the last few years in region level positions, Wendy is excited to once again get involved in the local section.  She hopes that her knowledge and experience will prove beneficial in helping the section reach its FY18 goals.  

Outside of SWE, Wendy enjoys hanging out with friends, playing softball, and traveling.  She recently left Boeing and now spends most of her time working towards starting her own home inspection business.

FY18 Candidate Bios: Vice President of Outreach

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach (elect 1):
• Dana Day
• Lynette Lopez
• Sarah McDowell

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Dana Day

Dana is a long-time advocate for STEM outreach for girls. Having served as the FY12 SWE-PNW President, she is familiar with the potential strength and passion this section has to give back to our communities by sharing our love stories about engineering. As FY11 President-Elect, she sought out a task force to bring back PNW's partnership with the local girl scout groups. Dana looks forward to growing that partnership as the FY18 VP of Career Guidance.

Dana has been a SWE member since 2004, a SWE Distinguished New Engineer award recipient in 2015, and has held a several positions throughout SWE. Most notably, she was the FY15 Society Outreach Chair. Dana worked with the SWE Outreach director and her team to launch the Outreach Metric Tool and the popular SWENext program during her term. She also focused on building better connections and relationships with the sections and outreach advocates across the Society. For 5 years, she was on the core planning team for the Invent It. Build It. event that is held on the last day of the annual conference. She has continued to be a key figure in executing large-scale STEM Outreach events, including at the 2016 Joint Regions' ABJ Conference and the SWENext DesignLab event at WE Local San Jose.

Dana wants to continue to build on the SWE-PNW outreach foundation by building stronger partnerships with local STEM organizations, expanding our outreach portfolio, and enabling our members with the right training to become confident and effective outreach leaders.

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Lynette Lopez

Lynette Lopez is a manufacturing engineer at Boeing working on production of the 777 fuselage. She has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Northern Arizona University, and is currently working on an MBA from Pepperdine University. 

She began her SWE membership as the president of her university’s SWE chapter in 2005. For the past 3 years, she has led the Expanding Your Horizons events for SWE PNW, an event which focuses on introducing middle and high school girls to careers in STEM.

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Sarah McDowell

Sarah McDowell has been a member of SWE since 2013 as a mechanical engineering student at Washington University in St. Louis.  As a collegiate member, she planned and organized the Girl Scout Day event, which included various engineering-based activities for the girls ages 8-14.

She has always been passionate about encouraging young girls to learn more about STEM fields and gain the confidence and interest to pursue them throughout their education.  She also volunteered for Girls for Science, a Chicago-based organization that supplements the public schools' science curriculum by teaching middle school girls about various STEM subjects on intensive Saturday learning sessions.  Sarah has continued being an active SWE member since graduation and joined the PNW Chapter when she moved to Seattle in October 2016.

FY18 Candidate Bios: Vice President of Professional Development

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1): 
• Marina Dannecker
• Sonia Hingorany

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Marina Dannecker

Marina became a SWE member while she was an engineering student at UCLA. As a sophomore, she joined several committees for UCLA's collegiate SWE section. During her junior year, she was on the executive board as Evening With Industry External Chair. As a senior, Marina served as President of the UCLA section. In this role she lead a board of 16 people to organize outreach, professional development, advocacy, and mentorship events.

After graduating college, Marina moved to Seattle and joined SWE-PNW. This past year she has been a member of the Professional Development Committee and helped to plan events like technical tours. She is excited to continue being involved in SWE-PNW by organizing more events that help empower women to succeed in STEM fields.

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Sonia Hingorany 

Sonia Hingorany currently serves on the SWE PNW Executive Committee as one of the Section Reps focused on Membership Engagement. This year, she has organized several social events including happy hours (and head shots!) and a tour of one of Amazon's Prime Now Fulfillment Centers. Sonia looks forward to continuing her involvement with SWE and leading the professional development mission this coming year.

Sonia moved to Seattle almost two years ago for her full-time job. She currently works at Amazon in the North America Transportation and Logistics organization. Sonia earned her MBA from Carnegie Mellon University where she focused on concentrations in Information Systems and Operations Management. Before earning her MBA at CMU, Sonia previously worked at Accenture for five years in a technology consulting capacity. She earned her BS in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Cognitive Science from UCLA where she initially got involved with SWE. Sonia held a position on the SWE board for three years. She played several key roles in SWE at UCLA as the Internal VP, responsible for handling funding for the organization, as well as the Evening With Industry chair. 

Sonia likes to play soccer and tennis and enjoy the outdoors including running, hiking, and skiing. She loves to travel; Sonia has been to more than 30 countries and visited 40 states in the US. 

FY18 Candidate Bios: Secretary

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Secretary (elect 1):
• Erin Kiselica
• Marina Dannecker

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Erin Kiselica

Erin Kiselica is originally from Syracuse, NY, and graduated with her Bachelors in Computer Science from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in 2012.  She moved to Seattle in early 2016, and is currently a Software Engineer at Amazon in the International Expansion organization.  As part of her role, Erin builds and supports software for India-first initiatives focused on improving seller experience.  In her spare time, she enjoys exploring Seattle, reading as many books as possible, and learning to play new board games.

SWE has been an important part of Erin's life since her freshman year of college in 2007.  As a collegiate, she held various leadership roles including Webmaster and Outreach Coordinator, organizing RIT SWE's award-winning overnight outreach program 2 years in a row.  As a professional, Erin continues to be involved in SWE through outreach, as a society scholarship judge, and served as Section Representative for SWE Philadelphia in FY16.  She hopes to continue to grow her involvement with SWE PNW this year!

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Marina Dannecker

Marina became a SWE member while she was an engineering student at UCLA. As a sophomore, she joined several committees for UCLA's collegiate SWE section. During her junior year, she was on the executive board as Evening With Industry External Chair. As a senior, Marina served as President of the UCLA section. In this role she lead a board of 16 people to organize outreach, professional development, advocacy, and mentorship events.

After graduating college, Marina moved to Seattle and joined SWE-PNW. This past year she has been a member of the Professional Development Committee and helped to plan events like technical tours. She is excited to continue being involved in SWE-PNW by organizing more events that help empower women to succeed in STEM fields. 

FY18 Candidate Bios: Treasurer

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• Treasurer (elect 1):
• Ann Mary Myers
• Sherrie Rippe

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Ann Mary Myers

As a participant of PACCAR Emerging Leadership Roundtable in Spring 2016, I had to go through a program to find my personal strengths were and it was determined that my top five qualities were:

1. Activator – Outstanding in bringing thoughts into action
2. Ideation - To find connections between seemingly disparate things
3. Analytical – Search for reasons and causes to factor in everything that affects a situation
4. Futuristic – Inspired by what the future could be and inspiring others with this vision
5. Significance – To stand out and get recognized

I am passionate about advocating for changes in workplace to create an inclusive environment that addresses the needs of women in a way that increases productivity. In the past, I have been an active member of Society of Automotive Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I have served as the Vice Chairman and Treasurer for the local IEEE chapter during my undergraduate days and have been a mentor to college students at Seattle University in the recent past. This is my first year with the Society of Women Engineers and I look forward to being a leader with SWE.

_________________________________________________________________________

Sherrie Rippe

Sherrie Rippe is a Tooling Stress Engineer at Boeing Commercial Airplanes in Everett, WA. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her Masters and Bachelor in Civil Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Her passion is helping others grow in their professional and personal lives, she serves as a Board member for the North Seattle College Education Fund and is a Professional Career and Life Coach. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, spending time with her husband, and playing with her two dogs and cats.

I am currently running for Treasurer of our section for FY18.  I have learned a lot about Non-Profit accounting in my time as a board member for North Seattle College Education Fund, and I would love to continue to increase my knowledge and aid in the fiscal health of our section. I have experience developing and revising policies and procedures, and would enjoy working with the executive board to ensure all of our procedures and policies are up to date. As a professional member, I have served as SWE-PNW Membership Chair FY09 thru FY11, as SWE-PNW Secretary FY12, and SWE-PNW Section Representative FY15. I am eager to apply my knowledge of how SWE operates to the role of treasurer.

FY18 Candidate Bios: President-Elect

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• President-Elect (elect 1):
• Ann Mary Meyers
• Elaine Reeves

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Ann Mary Myers

As a participant of PACCAR Emerging Leadership Roundtable in Spring 2016, I had to go through a program to find my personal strengths were and it was determined that my top five qualities were:

1. Activator – Outstanding in bringing thoughts into action
2. Ideation - To find connections between seemingly disparate things
3. Analytical – Search for reasons and causes to factor in everything that affects a situation
4. Futuristic – Inspired by what the future could be and inspiring others with this vision
5. Significance – To stand out and get recognized

I am passionate about advocating for changes in workplace to create an inclusive environment that addresses the needs of women in a way that increases productivity. In the past, I have been an active member of Society of Automotive Engineers and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I have served as the Vice Chairman and Treasurer for the local IEEE chapter during my undergraduate days and have been a mentor to college students at Seattle University in the recent past. This is my first year with the Society of Women Engineers and I look forward to being a leader with SWE.

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Elaine Reeves

Elaine Reeves has been active in SWE since being a founding member of her school’s student section in 2001. She enjoys helping students and professionals throughout their professional journey.

Elaine was a SWE student member at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN through 2009, also serving as vice-president and president. She graduated from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, MN in 2009 with a B.S.E.E. (Electrical Engineering), B.A. in Physics, B.A. in Vocal Music Performance, and a minor in Applied Mathematics. Elaine assisted the SWE MN section as Co-Chair of the Professional Development Committee and Professional Advisor to both St. Cloud state and the University of St. Thomas.

In 2012 she moved to Redmond, WA to work for Microsoft as an EMC Test Engineer and is currently an Environmental Compliance Engineer. She‘s also in the process of finishing her M.S. in Electrical Engineering at the UW. Currently she is a section representative and the college relations chair for SWE-PNW, where she represents our section at the both local and regional levels. As college relations chair, she has fostered the relationships between local student organizations and SWE-PNW. Being one of the section representatives these last 2 years has been a very enjoyable and enriching experience. She aims to continue to serve the section to help further the vision SWE-PNW is working towards.

Outside of work Elaine participates in RunDisney races with her husband. They are actively exploring Washington with their two dogs and looking for more adventure.

FY18 Candidate Bios: President

The FY18 nominating committee is very excited to present the following candidate bios for the elected positions listed below:

• President (elect 1):
• Grace Lefebure

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Grace Lefebure

I moved to Seattle 4 years ago from West Chester, PA to work as a Stress Analysis Engineer at Boeing on the 777X Moveable Trailing Edge Flaps. I graduated from the University of Virginia in 2012 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in biomedical engineering.

I currently serve as the President of SWE PNW. Before that, I held the roles of Vice President of Professional Development and Newsletter Editor in our section. Each of these roles has taught me a lot about engaging SWE members in both the virtual space and in-person. As newsletter editor, I communicated events, activities, and news to our members and worked with the virtual brand team to ensure consistent interaction with members. As the VP of PD, I leveraged those virtual platforms to advertise and encourage conversations about the in-person technical, social, and networking events.

As President, I identified a need for more consistent knowledge transfer between officers. As a volunteer organization, we have frequent turnover from year to year, and I’ve seen knowledge get lost as people move out of SWE PNW leadership. Our leadership team has been building infrastructure and creating guides so that knowledge is not lost from year to year. In the President role next year, I will continue this effort, enable our leadership team to host events that connect engineers both professionally and socially, and grow our relationship with the community to build the next generation of engineers.

FY18 Section Election: Candidate Slate & Petition Period Announcement

Greetings SWE PNW!

The FY18 Nomination Committee presents the following slate of candidates for SWE PNW officers for the FY18 fiscal year to the consideration of the section membership.

• President (elect 1):
  • Grace Lefebure
• President-Elect (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Elaine Reeves
• Treasurer (elect 1):
  • Ann Mary Myers
  • Sherrie Rippe
• Secretary (elect 1):
  • Erin Kiselica
  • Marina Dannecker
• Vice President of Professional Development (elect 1):
  • Marina Dannecker
  • Sonia Hingorany
• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach (elect 1):
  • Dana Day
  • Lynette Lopez
  • Sarah McDowell
• Section Representative (elect 1):
  • Theresa Krack
  • Wendy Jenkins

We would like to offer our congratulations to the slated candidates running for FY18 officer positions!

Candidate biographies are available on the SWE PNW blog for your perusal. We highly encourage all section members to read the bios of these highly talented candidates! The FY18 election posts on the SWE PNW blog can be found here.

The petition period is now open for feedback and changes to the slate. The petition period is 15 days per the section bylaws, and will close on Tuesday, May 30, 2017. The details are provided below for the process (from our bylaws) to nominate additional candidates.

“Additional candidates may be nominated by petition, provided that:

1. The member is eligible for the position;
2. The member was given written consent to being placed on the ballot;
3. A minimum of two percent or five of the voting members of the section, whichever is greater, have signed a petition or endorsed an email to place the candidate’s name on the ballot; and
4. The petition, together with the written consent, is submitted to the chair of the nominating committee by May 30th, 2017 or fifteen days after the slate is announced to the members of the section, whichever is later.”

After the petition period closes, voting will open to the section for the FY18 election.

If you have any questions, please contact us at swe.pnw.nomination@gmail.com.

Respectfully submitted,
Cary, Kimber, Maria, and Tamaira
SWE PNW FY18 Nomination Committee

PechaKucha Presentation Style

In April 2017, we introduced the section to the PechaKucha presentation style through an online skills workshop.

PechaKucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds, for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The images advance automatically and you talk along to the images.

In Session 1, we introduced the style, discussed several TEDx talks, did a quick on-the-fly demo/practice run, and finally brainstormed topics that could be done in this style. You can watch the replay of the full session here or just the SWE PNW PechaKucha demo deck here.

And here is the list of References & Resources that we discussed:

• PechaKucha homepage: http://www.pechakucha.org/
• PechaKucha FAQ: http://www.pechakucha.org/faq
• TEDx Talk: How PechaKucha Changed My Life: Eddie Selover at TEDxOrlando
• TEDx Talk: PechaKucha: Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein at TEDxTokyo
• TEDx Talk: Pecha Kucha "designing space" | Nicole Hollway | TEDxGatewayArchSalon
• PechaKucha Playlist: Popular Videos - PechaKucha & TED Talks (video)

Looking for some ideas to help get you started on you first PechaKucha presentations? Here's the topic brainstorming from Session 1:

• executive summary of technical topic
• use the style to present a technical challenge to colleagues to start brainstorming
• Event recap or report
• ​Focus on an area of SWE PNW and give more info
• Tell us your SWE Story
• Conference recap (Society, Regional, WE Local, recent, flash back, non-swe)
• ​my summer/holiday vacation
• Family traditions
• Hobby/interest
• Where I Grew Up (Hometown)
• Why I Like ______ (TV/Book/Movie/hobby/etc)
• A day in the life _____ (of my pet, on the job, my kids, etc)

While we were able to have the second sessions (timing didn't work for some of our presenters), we hope to have an online session for PechaKucha presentations in the future. We encourage you to keep an eye out for these events and the replays!

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Article By: Theresa Krack, FY17 Section Representative & Virtual Brand Coordinator

Collegiate Section Spotlight: Everett Community College

Guest Contributor: Kristine Washburn, Faculty Advisor, Society of Women Engineers, Everett Community College SWE

The EvCC SWE club has been around for nearly a decade and became an official CIG in 2013. Our main club activities are networking, outreach, and leadership and professional development.

We also like to make liquid nitrogen ice cream and play video games and board games together. Our big annual event is Dinner with Industry: a mentoring night where students can chat with local professionals over dinner. We send students to SWE conferences every year.

To fundraise for that, we host campus events like a videogame night before finals each quarter and we have a dunk tank at the college's spring fling where students can pay to try and dunk their engineering instructors. With the new WSU-North Puget Sound campus next door we hope to partner on events with their SWE in the future.


Everett Community College SWE Contact Info: kwashburn@everettcc.edu

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This guest article is part of SWE PNW's Collegiate Section Spotlight series, where we ask the local collegiate sections to showcase their section so we can share information up at the professional section level. These guest articles are coordinated by Elaine Reeves, Section Representative and College Relations focal for SWE PNW.

An Intro to the Bearded Pineapples & Call for Mentors

Guest Contributor: The Bearded Pineapples

Hi! We are the Bearded Pineapples. We are an all-girls FTC robotics team. In FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge), teams of students in 7-12th grade build robots that are 18” by 18” by 18” to compete in a game that is different every season. (In the 2016/17 season, the game was Velocity Vortex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49Q3kqrSv0, and you can watch some matches played here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnP2dMP2B7c). Additionally, teams can win judged awards, which are based off of the technical documentation in the team’s Engineering Notebook, or on what the team has done to grow the program.

FTC is part of a larger program, FIRST robotics. Over the last two years, we were part of FIRST LEGO League, the program for kids ages 9-14, and were one of 15 teams sponsored by Girl Scouts of Western Washington. One year ago, we outgrew this program. We were looking to continue on to FTC, but Girl Scouts of Western Washington did not sponsor teams at this level. We decided to help Girl Scouts of Western Washington explore what was needed to sponsor FTC teams, and now we are ready to create several more teams!

To do this, we would love to find more (preferably female) mentors who can help teams learn skills like programming, technical documentation, and mechanical engineering. Our team owes a lot to our female mentor, Toni Carlstrom. We submitted a video to nominate her for the Compass Award, an award given out to an outstanding mentor, which she won.

Mentors would ideally be working with teams around twice a week for around 2-4 hours each, though this number varies considerably from team to team and from mentor to mentor. The FTC season runs from September to mid-January, but can extend until March or April for teams that advance.

Students who participate in the program benefit greatly and learn many important life skills – and have tons of fun. Talulla, a member of our team, has discovered her love for mechanical engineering, and will attend Tesla STEM High School next year. She wouldn’t have known how much she enjoys mechanical engineering without FTC.

Are you interested in learning more about FTC? We are hosting an open house at the Girl Scout of Western Washington Bellevue Office (13029 NE 20th Street Bellevue, WA 98005). We will play some matches with some other teams and answer any questions. Please join us! Find the flyer on our website: http://beardedpineapples.com/blog.

Interested in mentoring, either regularly or just occasionally? Please contact us at beardedpineapples@gmail.com!

Call for FY18 SWE PNW Officer Nominations

Hello SWE PNW!

We hope that this note finds you well! As we are preparing for a great FY18, we are opening the nomination period for the SWE PNW elected officer positions. This is your chance to discuss your interest for any FY18 positions!

The elected officer positions are:

• President
• President-Elect
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Vice President of Career Guidance/Outreach
• Vice President of Professional Development
• Section Representative

Each position will have the following responsibilities:

• All elected and non-elected officers will be asked to attend the summer and winter organizational planning sessions
• All elected and non-elected officers will be invited to the monthly executive council meetings

Additional details of each elected position are included at the end of this blog entry.

Please note that FY18 is the LAST year for the Section Rep role as the regions will be dissolved at the end of FY18. For more information on this, please refer to our blog, FY18 SWE PNW Election & Section Rep Role Update.

If you have any questions about making a nomination for any of these positions, please feel free to reach out to the Nomination Committee. We are more than willing to help answer your questions to the best of our ability!

Your nomination at this point need only consist of your name and position(s) of interest. Please return all nominations by email to swe.pnw.nomination@gmail.com by March 19, 2017.

Thank you,
SWE PNW Nomination Committee
Tamaira Ross, Cary Kaczowka, Kimber Hinson, & Maria Barna

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President

• Represent the section before the public and preside at meetings of the section and its executive council
• Appoint the chairs of all committees, with the approval of the executive council, except chair of nominating committee
• Authorize the disbursement of section funds within the budget approved by the executive council
• Coordinate activities and execute the business and policies of the section between meetings

President-Elect

• Serve as president in the year following their term as president-elect
• Assume the duties of the president if the president is temporarily unable to serve
• Assist the current president with all duties

Secretary

• Maintain records of the section, record meeting minutes at all EC meetings, maintain and update bylaws as needed.
• Support the virtual brand committee by maintaining connection between the virtual brand committee and the executive council.

Treasurer

• The treasurer manages and reports on SWE PNW’s budget, bank accounts, grants/donations and performs financial audits. If needed, a committee will also lead fundraising drives.

VP of Career Guidance/Outreach

• This position leads explore engineering workshops, the University mentoring program, certificate of merit (COM) and COM scholarships, collegiate scholarships.
• The committee funds and manages relationships the following organizations: Kids in Science and Engineering (KISE), Expanding your Horizons (EYH), community outreach booths (PSEC, schools, etc.)

VP of Professional Development

• This position leads and manages technical talks and tours, skills development events, social/networking events, and the book club.

Section Representative

• Represent the section as a voting member on monthly region conference calls and inperson
• region meetings. Act as a liaison between the section and the region.
• Submit section reports to the region (3 per year).

FY18 SWE PNW Election & Section Rep Role Update

Society Bylaws Update
As you may know, SWE is in the process of updating its governance structure. One of the changes that impacts us at a section level is the passing of society bylaws amendment S1704: Region Council.

This amendment changes the section representative determination from 1 representative per 100 members (no more than 4) to 1 section representative per section or MAL.

Impact to SWE PNW Bylaws
SWE PNW has previously had 4 section representative slots on the ballot based on our section's membership (we're one of the largest sections). Additionally, our section bylaws outlines that the President-elect shall serve as a section representative (Section 3, Article B, Item 4).

To support the society level bylaws amendment, the SWE PNW Executive Council (EC) met on Sunday, February 19, 2017 to discuss how we would approach the FY18 election cycle. Quorum was established as a majority of the members of the EC were present, two of whom were president, vice president, or section representative:

Position	Name(s)	Attendance
President	Grace Lefebure	X
President-Elect	Open	---
VP, Outreach	Rosie Pham
VP, Professional Development	Katie Elliott	X
Treasurer	Suzanne Hakam	X
Secretary	Connie Starr	X
Section Representative	Elaine Reeves	X
Section Representative	Kalyani Mallela
Section Representative	Sonia Hingorany	X
Section Representative	Theresa Krack	X

After discussion of our section Bylaws, Theresa Krack proposed the following motion:

• For the FY18 election cycle, the President-elect position will not be considered as a Section Representative for the section;
• For the FY18 election cycle, there will be one (1) Section Representative slot on the ballot; and
• For FY18, the President-elect will not serve as section representative.

The motion was seconded by Grace Lefebure and opened for discussion.

After the discussion concluded, the vote was put to the EC. All those in attendance voted in favor of the amendment. Having establish quorum, the motion passed.

Update from WE Local San Jose Region J Meeting
Following the SWE PNW bylaws meeting, there was clarification given on the future of the Section Representative role as a part of the Region J meeting at WE Local San Jose on Sunday, February 26, 2017. The following information and clarification was provided:

• The restructuring to take focus off geography is to be in place by the end of FY18.
• Regions shall be dissolved by the end of FY18.
• At the end of FY17, Sections will elect their last Section Representative.
• The elected Section Representative will serve the FY18 term.
• After FY18, the Section Representative role will no longer exist as it was a role tied to reporting to and interfacing with the Region level.

If you have any questions about this motion or the impact to the FY18 SWE PNW election cycle, please contact your section representatives at swe.pnw.section.reps@gmail.com.

SWE Society Governance Updates
For additional information on the item related to the governance updates, please refer to the following:

• WE16 Senate Meeting: Bylaw Amendments Voting Result
• Region J Senators' Blog
• SWE Governance Update
• Post questions and suggestions to governance@swe.org
• Visit governance.swe.org for history, reference materials, webinars
• Receive text updates by texting SWE Governance to 56512 on your mobile phone

Ongoing SWE PNW Bylaws Review
The SWE PNW EC is continuing the process of reviewing our complete bylaws to ensure that they are updated to support this change as well as any other necessary changes to align with the society level bylaws changes. This also includes looking at the roles and responsibilities for our elected officers.

If you are interested in learning more about our review process or helping, please contact our section president at swepnw.president@gmail.com.


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Article By: Theresa Krack, FY17 Section Representative

SWE PNW Spring Book Club Selections FY17

Book selection for a Book Club can be tricky business, but I've put a lot of thought into curating our reading list for the next few months.  Here is some of the reasoning behind it. 

On March 19 we'll be discussing Margot Lee Shetterly's book (now a movie) Hidden Figures.  This one is not just of-the moment because the movie's out, it's also got us reading about segregation and the experiences of barrier-breaking African American women in Virginia during Black History month.  We'll be discussing it in March, which is Women's History Month.  We're sort of getting triple-value on this one.  

On April 30 we'll be discussing Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik.  Most of us will be reading it in March (Women's History), and it feels like a good time to learn more about a woman who's out there fighting for equality and justice, protecting them in the highest court.  

On May 21 we'll discuss Mary Roach's Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Mary is a noted scientific journalist, and she'll be telling us all about the experiments humans have done on the earth to simulate problems they expect to have in space, and solutions to make space life more tenable. This ties in pretty directly with our June Selection.  

On June 25 we'll be reading a futurist science fiction book, Expanse 1 - Leviathan Wakes by James Corey.  A mystery adventure book that takes place in a solar system that has been colonized by humanity.  Will the things we learned from Packing For Mars show up in Corey's fiction?  This is a good warm-up to summer fun reading. 

Look for the Summer Book Club selections in an upcoming blog post / newsletter. 

As ever, everyone is welcome to SWE PNW Book Club meetings.  Haven't finished the book?  No problem.  Haven't read the book?  No problem.  Come join a bunch of literate ladies to talk books over beers at Growler USA in Redmond.  We meet one Sunday a month from about 3-5.  It's a great networking opportunity, and a lot of fun.  

The dates above link to the Eventbrite invitations, which include Amazon and King County Library Service links for each book.  Most books are available in paper, audio, and ebook versions.  All of the SWE PNW Book Club Events are find-able at Eventbrite, RSVP is free: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/swe-pnw-book-club-11856813751

Looking forward to meeting you!  

Jessica Makäe - Book Club Chair. 

swe.pnw.book.club@gmail.com

Collegiate Section Spotlight: Seattle University

Guest Contributor: Linda Karout (BS Electrical Engineering, Seattle University, SU Society of Women Engineers Vice President)

Seattle University’s SWE section provides myriad of opportunities for its members. At a school with roughly 4.7k undergrad students, SU SWE is able to connect to each of its members intimately and provide resources for life as a professional or grad student when the time comes. So, currently with 31 members, the SU SWE section is able to establish a connection between all of the engineering disciplines (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, and Computer Science) and provide numerous networking and professional events throughout the year.

The SU SWE section’s most successful event is Resume Night where professionals from various engineering careers volunteer their time for a night to review the resumes of any student who is seeking help. This event is not only held for the members of SWE, but for the entire engineering department which helps SWE to pursue the SU mission of “educating the whole person, to professional formation, and to empowering leaders for a just and humane world.”

SU’s SWE also provides the opportunity for many of its members to attend the national SWE conference every year. This past year in Philadelphia, SU SWE was able to send 10 of its members to experience the enriching opportunities from various panels, networking, and one of the largest career fairs any of us have had the pleasure to attend!

In addition, SU SWE holds bake sales to raise funds and holds fun events such as movie nights and study sessions for bonding between fellow members. In the picture below, a group of SWE members participated in a trip to watch the critically acclaimed movie Hidden Figures in theatres; a movie about the great contributions that African American women made to the space program.

Thank you to those who have provided support to this program and our faculty advisor Dr. Agnieszka Miguel and her undying passion for her students.


For more information about SU SWE you can contact our section’s president Ashley White at whitea10@seattleu.edu or our sections vice president Linda Karout at karoutl@seattleu.edu

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This guest article is part of SWE PNW's Collegiate Section Spotlight series, where we ask the local collegiate sections to showcase their section so we can share information up at the professional section level. These guest articles are coordinated by Elaine Reeves, Section Representative and College Relations focal for SWE PNW.

Goal Setting Models

We often find ourselves going through goal setting, whether as a part of kicking off a new calendar year or a new review cycle at work. In FY16, SWE PNW collected a few short blurbs on different goal setting models in the Notes from the Northwest newsletter (Volume 01, Issue 02). What better time to re-share this information than as a part of Engineers Week 2017?

You'll find each blurb below, along with a link back to the source article if you want to read more about a particular model. Enjoy!

The ‘Original’ SMART Goals
Adapted from “Personal Goal Setting, Planning to Live Your Life Your Way” on MindTools (https://www.mindtools.com/page6.html) 

One of the first models we are often introduced to is the SMART goals model. This useful mnemonic typically stands for:

S	Specific (or Significant)
M	Measurable (or Meaningful)
A	Attainable (or Action-Oriented)
R	Relevant (or Rewarding)
T	Time-bound (or Trackable)

Using this model can help you construct goals that are attainable and often fit more eloquently into the employee review process. It can be used for setting both life goals and those smaller, to-do list types of goals.

The Agile Take on SMART Goals
Adapted from “The Agile Approach to S.M.A.R.T. Goals” on AgiliZen (http://arianebenefit.com/blog/2013/02/28/rethinking-smart-goals-agile-goal-setting-vs-conventional-goals/)

A different take on the standard model of SMART goals is to look at it from an agile perspective. Here, SMART is redefined in a way to help energize you into action and make the goals more user friendly. Here, SMART becomes:

S	Small, simple, specific and sustainable actions
M	Meaningful, memorable, and magnetic outcomes
A	Aims for the agile zone of expectations, standard
R	Relevant to emergent outcome goals and to satisfying multiple needs simultaneously (e.g. sensory, emotional, mental, creative, practical and functional needs)
T	Tweakable targets, time-boxed checkins

While it may not be a significant change from the normal SMART definitions, it can help you look at goal setting in a different way.

Making CLEAR Goals
Adapted from “Forget SMART Goals -- Try CLEAR Goals Instead” on Inc. (http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/forget-smart-goals-try-clear-goals-instead.html)

Another take on make SMART goals more agile in today’ fast-paced business environments is to look at an alternate mnemonic, CLEAR:

C	Collaborative
L	Limited
E	Emotional
A	Appreciable
R	Refinable

This model helps to drive towards the idea of looking after yourself, after you team, and your equipment. The idea of the emotional level within this model is where a connection is made and the goal (and achievement of the goal) feeds off of your energy and passion.

It stills follows the approach of taking larger goals and breaking them down into smaller goals that can be accomplished more quickly.

Getting HARD Goals Set
Adapted from “Are SMART Goals Dumb?” on Leadership IQ (http://www.leadershipiq.com/blogs/leadershipiq/35353793-are-smart-goals-dumb)

In looking at SMART goals, that methodology can often feel like it is impeding bold action that may be needed. To switch up a goal setting model and drive towards enabling that kind of action, there is HARD:

H	Heartfelt
A	Animated
R	Required
D	Difficult

This model can also help drive engagement and visualization of success, including a drive towards learning new skills needed to achieve the goal.