Upcoming Event - NSBE, SHPE, and SWE 1st Annual Joint Holiday Potluck Party - DEADLINE EXTENDED TO NOVEMBER 20!!!

Event: NSBE, SHPE, and SWE 1st Annual Joint Holiday Potluck Party

Date: November 30, 2012

Time: 6:00 - 9:00 PM

Location: Troy Community Center, 3179 Livernois, Troy, MI 48083

Parking: Parking lot

Point of contact: Anita Satkiewicz anita.satkiewicz@swe.org
RSVP: November 20, 2012 at this link

NYTimes - A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift

This article talks about some of the drawbacks of working in part-time positions in an increasingly unstable and globalized society.  As professional employees, we consider part-time employment to be the elusive Holy Grail for work-life balance (regardless of gender), but obviously it's not all it's cracked up to be, and unfortunately there are employers out there who mislead their workers about the number of hours worked/predictable schedules/benefits, not to mention the ability to go full-time.

Washington Post - Why Pay Equality and Work-Life Balance Aren't Just Women's Issues

In SWE, we frequently talk about work-life balance, but what we have to keep in mind is that it affects men as well as women.  As this article discusses, if no one, regardless of gender, is requesting flex-time, part-time, telecommuting, etc, then it won't be accepted by the workplace at large.

Volunteer Needed - Univ of Toledo SWE Collegiate Section Counselor

The University of Toledo urgently needs a professional SWE member to fill the position of a Collegiate Section Counselor.  If you have any questions or would like to volunteer, please contact Stacy Lueneburg sthayer.swe@gmail.com.

What is a SWE Counselor?

Every Student Section must have a SWE Counselor. The SWE Counselor of a Student Section is selected by the Student Section. In addition to assignment to a Section or to Member-at-Large, the Counselor shall be considered a non-voting member of the Student Section.  The Counselor is responsible to the Board of Directors, through the Student Activities Committee Chair, for the Student Section's compliance with these Bylaws and with the policies of the Society.  In other words, the primary responsibility is to ensure that the Collegiate Section remains in good standing with SWE Headquarters. 

Communication:

The strength of a Student Section is dependent on the communication within it.  The Faculty Advisor and Counselor are to help the Student Section, not to run it for the students. For this reason it is strongly encouraged that the Student Section establish a clear line of communication with the Faculty Advisor and Counselor and keep the lines of communication open and flowing.  If a problem develops for the Student Section, the Counselor and Faculty Advisor work together with the Student Section officers to help solve the problem.

Functions:

+ To serve as a source of information about SWE and its goals

+ To serve as a liaison between industry, local SWE Sections and the Student Section

+ To arrange plant tours and locate speakers from industry

+ To act as a trouble shooter as questions and problems arise, utilizing the Student Activities Committee and Headquarters as needed

+ To act as a role model and source of moral support

+ To attend Student Section meetings and special events whenever possible

+ To provide advice and suggestions on Student Section activities

+ To review and sign the Annual and Financial Report for the Student Section

+ To attend Regional and National Counselor and Faculty Advisor meetings

Qualifications:

The SWE Counselor must be a member in good standing of the Society. The Counselor should be a voting member, but the Board of Directors may be petitioned to approve a qualified Associate in the event that a voting member is not available.

Traits of a good SWE counselor:

+ A SWE member

+ Willing to do the job

+ Enthusiastic about SWE and the school

+ Good communication skills

+ Previous Student Section member

+ Ties to local Section and industry

NYTimes - They Work Long Hours, but What About Results?

This is a great article that discusses how to be more productive with your time in the workplace.

SWE-D President's Message

Welcome Back SWE,

As the FY13 SWE President I will be sending a short message once a month to update members on what SWE-Detroit is doing :)

This year SWE-Detroit is off to a great start!  As of today we have 218 members!  

SWE-Detroit hosted the HART conference this past weekend and met several of the other Region H leaders
Our New Blog is well underway and the place to go to find out all our latest event information and replacing the monthly newsletters
Subscribe on the blog to get the latest updates emailed to you! http://swedetroit.blogspot.com/

My goals this year as section president are to focus on:

Membership Recruitment and Retention
Growing Relationships with Collegiate Sections/Members
Outreach using SWEeter Futures (Tracking the Impact)

We hope those of you who went to the Wayne State impact biomechanics lab on Oct 23rd had a great time!
 
Interested in getting more involved with SWE-Detroit?

Volunteer to be our Special Event Chair and plan the year end awards banquet
Volunteer to be on the committee for our Professional Development Conference (PDC)
Volunteer to be on the committee for our Girls Engineering Exploration (GEE) event
Send an email to swe_detroit@swe.org  if you are interested in volunteering

Are you attending National Conference?  Let us know if you are attending National Conference at swe_detroit@swe.org 

Kind Regards,
Stacy Lueneburg
SWE-Detroit President FY13

Volunteers Needed - Girls' Engineering Exploration with SWE-D

GEE 2013 is starting up!!!

GEE is a day-long event held at Wayne State University with approximately 100 girls from Detroit Public Schools in attendance.  Our goal is simple: to change girls’ negative opinions of engineering and technology, and to encourage them to consider careers in the very important fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (also known as STEM). 

Are you interested in helping plan this year's Girls' Engineering Exploration?  Planning begins in November and goes through March, when the event takes place.  Many volunteer opportunities are available with varying time commitments. 

We are planning on having our first meeting the week of November 12th.  Please sign up to volunteer through our survey linked here.

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Engwis ( jlengwis AT gmail.com ) or Vivette El Fawal  (v.elfawal@gmail.com).

SWE-D Past Presidents Endowed Scholarship

The Past Presidents Scholarship program is now in its third year.  We ended the second year with over $11,800 raised, including donations from the SWE 60^th Celebration and from 13 of our 27 Past Presidents.  However, we still need over $13,000 to reach our goal.  

SWE Detroit introduced the Past Presidents Scholarship Program in FY11.  Our goal is to raise $2,500 each year for five years and SWE Detroit will match up to $2,500 for each of these years for the endowed scholarship.  The target is to award the first scholarship at the 65th Anniversary of SWE Detroit, in honor of the late Past Presidents. 

We would love your support in helping us locate 11 Past Presidents, or their families, whom we have lost contact with and to encourage them to participate in this program.  You can also choose to donate yourself in honor of one of our Past Presidents.

The program will be tracked separately from the Member Solicitation Program and have its own levels: Diamond - $1000+, Sapphire - $500 to $999, Emerald - $250 to $499, and Quartz - $50 to $249.  Contributions will be tracked yearly and the level will be determined based on accumulated contributions received by SWE Detroit.

If you have contact information for any of the “missing” Past Presidents listed below, are interested in supporting the SWE Detroit Past President Scholarship Program, or creating your own endowed scholarship to build a legacy to benefit the SWE Detroit Scholarship Program, please contact Lisa Purvis, Shannon Atchison, or Jennifer Morikawa at swe_detroit@swe.org.

                       

Thank you Past Presidents, Members, and friends of SWE Detroit who have donated so far (as of 5/16/12):

Diamond

Laurie Ramsay

Sapphire Level

Sarah Kirkish

Jessica Mattis

Jennifer Morikawa

Brooke Voto

Emerald Level

Janice T. Ford

Judy Jbara

Lisa Purvis

Marie (Demos) Kardasis

Quartz Level

Alison Holmes

Anna Bradford

Birgit Sorgenfrei

Cathi Kohn

Cindy Hodges

Dawn Tilbury

Diana Cernis

Irene Sharpe

Jennifer (Darnell) Briggs

Lydia Lazurenko

Silvia Karlsson

Tina Lonski (In Honor of Jennifer Darnell)

T. Rowe Price (Company Match in honor of Janice Ford)

Kristin Ramey

Special thanks to the following for pledging to contribute for each year of the program:

Silvia Karlsson

Catherine Kohn

Jennifer Morikawa

Laurie Ramsay

Irene Sharpe

“Missing” Past Presidents:

Years of Service	Name
1952 - 1954	M. Ann Lawrence
1954 - 1956	Elise H. McGough (Passed Away 2005)
1956 - 1957	Geneva Van Horn
1958 - 1960, 1961 - 1962, 1964 - 1965	Marjorie Easterbrook
1962 - 1964	Mary G. Sohler
1965 - 1968, 1976 - 1977, 1977 - 1978	Ann O. Fletcher (Passed Away 2010)
1968 - 1969, 1969 - 1970	Stella Berbynuk (Passed Away 1997)
1970 - 1971, 1971 - 1972	Helma Fuhrmann
1972 - 1973	Eva Michalski Quinn
1973 - 1974	Beverly Bush
1974 - 1976	Janet Hall

Harvard Business Review - Too Many People of Color Feel Uncomfortable at Work

Whether you are a minority by race, gender, religion, orientation, or some other descriptor, it is demoralizing to feel like you have to act/dress/communicate a certain way that is foreign to you in order to "fit in", as described in this blog post.  As a female engineer, have you ever felt the need to act like "one of the guys" in order to fit in with your male engineering coworkers?

Harvard Business Review - 10 Reasons to Stay in a Job for 10 Years

The dot.com industry perpetuated the employer-hopping culture of the 90's, and the Gen-X/Gen-Y/Millenial generations now accept it as normal to regularly (too frequently?) switch employers.  This blog post talks about the benefits of staying at a given employer.

NBC News - High-School Girls Invent a Life-Preserver T-Shirt for Toddlers

Here is an inspiring story about a group of high school girls using their problem-solving skills to address an issue in their community.

Volunteers Needed - ESD Future City Competition Mentors

ESD is looking for more mentors for its Future City Competition.  You may sign up as an individual mentor or as a team.  The SWE Detroit POC is Jess Engwis jlengwis@gmail.com if you want to help out.  You can also register on this website.  Closer to the competition, ESD will also be looking for people to volunteer as judges.

So, what is Future City Competition?

The Michigan Regional Future City Competition is sponsored by the Engineering Society of Detroit.  Michigan is one of the nation's largest regional competitions within a national program sponsored by the National Engineers Week Committee.

The Future City Competition is a national, project-based learning experience where students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade imagine, design, and build cities of the future.  The program employs a team approach; students work on projects with guidance from an educator and a mentor(s).  Students design virtual cities using SimCity software; research and write essays addressing this year's theme - Rethink Runoff: Design Clean Soluations to Manage Stormwater Pollution; build table top scale models of their city using recycled materials; and present their cities before judges at the Regional Competition in January. 

The Michigan Regional Competition is scheduled for January 28, 2013, at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.  Regional winners represent their region at the National Finals in Washington, DC, in February.  More details on the Future City Competition can be found here.

Since the Future City Competition can be integrated into the curriculum or be run as an after-school activity, team size varies greatly.  There must be at least three students on the team but the whole class can participate. 

What is the role of the mentor? 

The mentor is there to support the team as they explore engineering - asking questions, facilitating discussions, helping students refind their ideas, finding and accessing other resources, and providing feedback as the team works on their city.  Mentoring is about advising, advocating, teaching, coaching, and providing a guidance system.  By tying in real-life engineering experiences, the mentor can help the students connect the academic to the real world of engineering.  Keep in mind that the students must do the actual work - the mentor is simply an advisor.

Who can be a mentor?

Mentors can be engineers, technical professionals, architects, city or urban planners, or others who work in the engineering and technical community.  All one needs is enough technical background to understand the project and to be able to coach the team.  Mentoring can also be done by a team of two or more, making it possible for the mentor to be available more often to assist the students and reducing the amount of time each mentor devotes to the project.

What is the time commitment for a mentor?

The time of day that teams work on their project varies.  It can be during the school day or after school.  As a mentor, you would work with the teacher to find a time that works for both of you.  You should also be available via phone and/or email to answer questions.  Mentors typically spend an hour or two a week between September and January advising their team, as well as attending the Regional Competition. 

Upcoming Event - Detroit Parade Company Studio Tour

Event: Detroit Parade Company Studio Tour

Date: November 17, 2012

Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (optional lunch following the tour)

Location for the tour: Parade Studio, 9500 Mt. Elliott, Studio A, Detroit, MI 48211 Location for the lunch: Buddy's Pizza, 8100 Old 13 Mile Road, Warren, MI 48093

Cost for the tour: $12/adults, $8/children under 18, free for children under 2 (Please bring exact payment in cash the day of the tour)

Cost for the lunch: Everyone pays for themselves 

Parking: Driving directions and map will be sent out when you RSVP

Point of contact: Faith Kurily faith.kurily@swe.org

Other info:

Please RSVP by November 1.

 

Learn about the Parade's interesting history and traditions, explore the 110,000 square foot facility of storyland floats, and see their award-winning artisans create the magic!  Journey through the unique creative kingdom and view the world's largest collection of papier-mache heads and the costume shop!

Upcoming Event - Region H Networking Event @ HART

Event: Region H Networking Event @ Heartland Annual Round Table (HART)
Date: October 12, 2012
Time: 6:30 PM - ???
Location: The 1st floor lounge @ Four Points by Sheraton near Detroit Metro Airport, 8800 Wickham Road, Romulus, MI 48174
Parking: Parking lot
Cost: Everyone pays for themselves
Point of contact: Stacy Lueneburg sthayer.swe@gmail.com

Other info:

Please RSVP by October 9.

Enjoy socializing with fellow SWE members, from our Detroit section and visitors coming into town from all over the Midwest.  All are welcome, and feel free to bring friends!

Upcoming Event - Ann Arbor Book Club

Event: Ann Arbor Book Club
Date: November 18, 2012
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Location: Nicola's Books in the Westgate Shopping Center, 2513 Jackson Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48103
Cost: Free
Parking: Parking lot
Point of contact: Janet Goldwasser JanetGoldwasser@peoplepc.com

Other info:

Discussing Tom Avery's "To the End of the Earth: Our Epic Journey to the North Pole and the Legend of Peary and Henson".

Upcoming Event - Royal Oak Book Club

Event: Royal Oak Book Club
Date: November 18, 2012
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 PM
Location: Vinotecca, 417 S. Main Street, Royal Oak, MI 48067
Cost: Everyone pays for themselves
Parking: Free on Sundays!
Point of contact: Jessica Makae jessica@themakaes.com

Other info:

Discussing Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time".