June is here which means we are quickly reaching the end of FY19. And with the end of annual cycle, we look back at this past year and reflect on what we, as a Section, were able to accomplish.

In September, the Networking Committee held their first event of the year with the Headshot Happy Hour, attended by 12 members for networking and opportunity to get a headshot to update their social media profiles.

In October, SWE Tucson was represented by 8 members at the WE18 Annual Conference in Minneapolis. At this event our own Mary Roybal received her Fellow award as a well-deserved recognition for her many years of dedicated service to SWE’s Mission. Congratulations again Mary!

In December, the Scholarship Committee announced the recipient of the SWE Tucson Collegiate Scholarship, Reganne Fornstrom from UA. It was a pleasure to meet Reganne In February when the EC presented her with a certificate recognizing this achievement at the SWE UA Membership meeting.

In January, the SWE Tucson Exec Council hosted the membership brunch at my home in North West Tucson. It was a pleasure to have the 12 members get together to network and discuss SWE Tucson opportunities. In addition, the Outreach committee supported their first Outreach event at Legacy Middle School Science Fair, with 4 members assisting the students in the Build a Boat Design/Build/Test activity.

In February, the Networking Committee hosted a Paint and Sip event at Creative Juices. This was a well-attended event open to friends and family of members. The range of artistic talent on display was amazing, and all went home with a lovely painting of the desert mountain landscape. And the Outreach committee participated in the Tucson Children’s Museum SCIFest providing the participants with an opportunity to design/build/test their Marshmallow Catapult Launcher.

In March, The Outreach Committee was at the SARSEF Innovator’s Night with the Marshmallow Catapult Launcher activity. The activity was a hit with all ages from 4 – 12 who participated. We ran out of materials and had to recycle some of the completed designs to accommodate the future engineers.

The 2019 WE Local conferences were held in March and April with members attending St Louis, Denver and Belleview. Attendees enjoyed the keynote speakers, professional development sessions and the ability to network with SWE members from across the country in a smaller venue.

In April, the Exec Council recognized Joyann Hernandez as the FY19 SWE Tucson Distinguished Member for her dedicated efforts to K-12 Outreach in previous years. Joyann is the first recipient of this recognition.

At the end of April, the Professional Development Committee hosted the Women In Executive Leadership Panel Discussion. It was a very proud moment for me personally to see the months of planning and team work come together in an execution of an excellent event. You can read more about this in the Past Event’s Section on the SWE Tucson website.

In June, we have one more opportunity to get together for a networking event of wine tasting and socializing at the Sand-Reckoner on 19 June. This is a membership event and we encourage our members to bring a friend to learn more about SWE Tucson and the benefits of membership.

As FY19 President, I am very thankful for my Exec Council Members, Mary-Helen Douglas, Vice President & Section Representative ; Nicole Lund – Treasurer; and Kati Peterson Barnes, Secretary. In addition, our Committee Chairs were instrumental in organizing our activities and a special thanks to Jennifer Davis Networking Chair; Prathima Gollapudi Professional Development Chair; Lourie Goodall Outreach Chair; Mary-Helen Douglas Scholarship Committee Chair; and Michelle Pyle IT Webmaster (who lead our Website makeover and created our communications strategies).

Congratulations to the incoming FY20 Officers who are as follows:

• President: Carol Weber
• President-Elect: Mary-Helen Douglas
• Vice President: Jennifer Davis
• Treasurer: Nicole Lund
• Secretary: Annette Gaynes

I look forward to continuing to serve as President for FY20, and working with the returning and incoming EC members in service to SWE Tucson. The FY20 Exec Council and Committee chairs will be meeting in July for a strategic planning session for the next year’s activities. If you are interested in participating or have ideas to suggest, please send me your suggestions.

Cheers,

Carol

As spring arrives and we are enjoying our beautiful weather, it is also time to begin making plans for the SWE new fiscal year, FY20, which will begin on 1 July.

As a volunteer organization, we rely on our members to nominate and elect leaders at the Society and Section levels. The ballot for Society candidates is open for members to cast their votes for the President Elect, Board of Directors and Senators. E-mails with voting instructions were sent to SWE members in early April. Please take the time to review the candidates’ bios and cast your vote in the Society Officer Election.

At the Section level, the Nominating Committee sent a call for FY20 officer nomination email to SWE Tucson members, with response requested by 21 April. The Nominating committee is tasked with creating the slate of officers for membership voting. With the approved Bylaws changes, the FY20 ballot will have openings for 5 officer positions: President for FY20, President-Elect FY20 (ascends to President for FY21), Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer (FY20-FY21). Serving in a leadership position for a volunteer organization is a great way to learn team building, budgeting, organization and planning, and public speaking skills.

In FY19 the Section membership has grown to 68 paid members, from 36 in FY18. This growth was fueled by Caterpillar, Raytheon and IBM – companies who are members of the SWE Corporate Partnership Council (CPC) and recognize the value that SWE provides to the membership. The EC and our committees work to plan programming that will be of interest to our members in the areas of Professional Development, Networking and Outreach. It would be great to see some of our new members at upcoming events.

Our next big event, &#8220Women in Executive Leadership&#8221 on 30 April will be an engaging evening to learn from women leaders from Tucson area companies and their leadership journey. See the Upcoming Events on the website for more information and to register. Plans are in the works for a membership networking event in June, so watch for more details on this networking event.

The UA Summer Engineering Academy, Women in Engineering Camp on 26 June will be our last outreach activity for the year. If you are interested in participating in this workshop, check out the Upcoming Events tab for more information. That will wrap-up our activities for FY19.

I encourage you to consider how you would like to be involved with SWE Tucson and assist our local section in being a valued resource for our membership. Contact any or the EC members if you have ideas to share or time to volunteer.

Cheers,
Carol