Kaitlyn Bunker, SWE RMS Section Representative

You may have heard about the brand new events that are coming up soon, the WE Local conferences! As a member of the WE Local Advisory Board, I wanted to provide a bit more information about the inaugural WE Local events, and the history of how they came to be.

In 2015, I joined a task force focused on exploring options for regional SWE conferences. The discussions around regional conferences had been happening for several years prior to that, and were happening separately from the current discussions around potential governance changes in SWE. I had previously helped to plan a Region H conference, and at the time was co-chair for the Region i conference that our section co-hosted in 2016. The other task force members also had experience planning region conferences, or as Region Governors. We started from a blank slate, and tried to imagine what the ideal regional SWE conference would look like. We brainstormed on what the key purposes of regional conferences are, and who might be in the best position to implement the many pieces involved with planning a SWE conference.

From that task force, WE Local was born! The task force transitioned into the WE Local Advisory Board (LAB), which I am a part of now. There are about 12 of us on the LAB, and we serve as ambassadors and stewards for the WE Local program; we provide ideas on how to address WE Local initiatives as well as recommendations for programming. In addition, there is a Local Host Committee (LHC) of volunteers for each WE Local. The LHCs provide important input on what is unique and important to the local area for their conference, including suggestions for venue, theme, entertainment, tours, sponsorships, and recruitment of speakers. The third component of the overall WE Local team is SWE Headquarters (HQ), who focus on many of the logistics for each conference such as hotel contracts, marketing, registration, and a consistent experience for organizations who want to sponsor multiple WE Local conferences. For me it feels like we’ve struck a great balance with HQ handling many of the behind-the-scenes details and risks inherent in conference preparation, and SWE member volunteers contributing to the planning and implementation of each individual conference. Part of my role on the LAB is to help ensure a consistent experience across WE Local conferences in terms of event quality and programming. 

The WE Local conferences will be similar in quality to the SWE annual conference (most recently WE16 in Philadelphia), but at a much smaller scale and with a local flavor based on their location. The conferences are designed to provide value to attendees at all stages of their career and life, with relevant sessions, speakers, and tours. They are open to all SWE members regardless of your geographic region – for example if there is a WE Local in a city near where you travel for work or to visit family, you might choose to attend that conference instead of one near where you live. The first WE Local conferences will be held in 2017, while some SWE regions continue with their region conference (like iCON17 in St. Louis, MO which I will be attending to represent our section and present one of the sessions). In 2018, there will no longer be any SWE region conferences, and the number of WE Local conferences will increase. 

Four great WE Local events are happening around the world in 2017. I am planning to attend WE Local Pittsburgh, and would love to see you there! The dates and locations for the four conferences are:
• WE Local Pittsburgh, February 16-19
• WE Local San Jose, February 23-26
• WE Local Pune, March 22-27
• WE Local Amsterdam, May 17-19

The U.S. locations for 2018 have also been selected, and dates and other specific details will be confirmed in the next couple of months. For 2018, start getting excited about WE Local conferences in Portland, OR; Phoenix, AZ; Tulsa, OK; Madison, WI; Providence, RI; Europe; and India. SWE sections and members can submit ideas for locations to hold WE Local conferences in the future, so if we’re interested in hosting, we could see WE Local Denver in the future!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions about the upcoming WE Local conferences, or the process that we’ve taken to create and plan for these new SWE events.  

By Beth Myers, PhD

Beth is the Director of Assessment and Accreditation at the University of Colorado Boulder and an active SWE-RMS member.

I was fortunate to be chosen to participate in the unique experience of the Academic Leadership for Women in Engineering (ALWE) workshop at WE16 in October. Here are a few details from their website:

“ALWE was developed to address the need for more women in positions of academic leadership in engineering and to foster the professional growth of women within the academy, SWE developed ALWE in 2011. In the fall of 2015, SWE was awarded a four year grant from the National Science Foundation called ASSIST (Grant No. 1548200). The program is also partially funded through the generosity of the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. ALWE participants learn best practices that promote the success and persistence of academic career pathways and facilitate interaction between academic and engineering. The overarching purpose of ALWE is to give female academics in engineering departments an introduction to the tangible skills and knowledge needed to pursue and gainfully acquire institutional leadership positions at a university.”

Multiple times while attending WE16 I found myself saying “These are the leaders of our future!” And, I was excited about the possibilities of that future; women engineers have a unique opportunity to lead our world because of their technical knowledge and leadership skills. I had an incredible time meeting other amazingly talented women engineers who all have the goal of leadership in academia. At ALWE we spent time networking and acquiring skills in exploring, negotiating, mentoring, building support networks, turning bias into opportunity and moving from perfection to action.

One topic that really impacted me was around mentoring. While I work in a field (higher education) that values mentoring for our students to increase retention and satisfaction, I realized that I personally have not had a “real”, structured mentoring situation. I have interacted with many people who have guided me through my career and even given me advice (sometimes unsolicited) but I have never sought out a mentor. From this workshop, I realized that I need to seek out a mentor but before I do, I should evaluate what I want to do, learn, be, as a result of working with a mentor. Then I need to find someone who can offer what I want to learn but will also challenge and push me out of my comfort zone.  I am committed to making that happen.

A second and particularly timely topic we discussed was negotiating and how negotiating is more challenging for women because of the biases and norms in our society. Women are treated differently when they negotiate than men are.  I say this was timely for me because I was offered a new role at work as the Director of Assessment and Accreditation for our college. The offer came on Thursday evening while attending WE16 (YAY, very exciting) so I was literally in the process of negotiating salary and other work related terms while attending this workshop. I felt more prepared to ask for what I wanted and negotiate when I didn’t receive my initial request because of the knowledge and skills I gained at WE16 and ALWE.
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Lastly, I stopped into a session I wasn’t planning on attending at WE16 (sometimes those are the best sessions) that was being led by Dr. Jenna Carpenter about Advancing Your Career using Social Media. For many years I have worked for someone who has not taken advantage of promoting what we are doing even though we do amazing work. After this presentation from Jenna, I am convinced that women need to start doing more self-promotion. This blog post is my first attempt at promoting what I am doing. Expect to see another post from me soon that describes an invited presentation I am giving at the University of Queensland in Australia to representatives from 18 engineering colleges that promotes recruiting more women in engineering. I encourage you all to do the same and promote the great work you are doing too!