HOT TOPIC – “Making a Personal Connection to Members”

The quickest and most efficient way to build and retain membership is to make a personal connection with your members. My favorite part about SWE is not the professional development or service activities that it sponsors, but the time I get to spend with my SWEsters!! Most people can’t make a personal connection with others based on meetings once or twice a month- the REAL connection happens through social events where one on one interaction takes place. Next month, try integrating some get-to-know-you events into your calendar. How about a dinner where all there is to do is chit-chat (you may even come up with some discussion sparking questions)? What about a hands-on service activity where women have to work together to accomplish the project? Both of these are ways to get women talking and start those lifetime friendships!! Take some time from now on to focus on feeding the personal needs of your members as well as  the professional needs.

-Lauren Bialoskurski                                                                                                                                                                                                   RCCE

HOT TOPIC: Attracting and Retaining Membership

Hello fellow SWE Divas. My name is Allison Tuff and I am this year’s Region D Membership Chair. As active members in SWE we are always looking for ways to recruit more members into our local sections to share in both the benefits of SWE and to extend the reach of our local network and resources.

A section’s membership is what keeps it alive and thriving. The members are ultimately who provide the much needed support for successful events. So thank you SWE members, whether you are helping by offering your leadership skills, planning events, donating supplies, or simply going to meetings and bringing a friend =)

To me, the best method to attract and retain members is though involvement. Sections should entice new comers with the great opportunities they have for members to get involved. I believe that increasing membership involvement will have both a direct and positive influence on recruitment and retention numbers as members begin to take ownership of their local section and feel like they belong.

The University of Central Florida section implemented a great program called SWE Buddies to help recruit and retain new members. SWE Buddies is a mentoring program the section created to provide a support network to help students negotiate the difficulties of their first years in the engineering curriculum by getting to know SWE members that have gone though the same thing. This is a great opportunity for Seniors and Juniors to relay the volumes of information they’ve gathered over the years and make an underclassman fell welcome within the organization. It is a simple and rewarding program that helps get new comers involved!

As Region Membership Chair, one of my primary goals is to see a healthy increase in membership recruitment and retention numbers among all of the region’s local sections and MALs. Monthly membership reports will be posted on the Region D Community, so make sure you check them out. Should you have any questions regarding Membership, please feel free to email me at Allison.M.Tuff@usa-spaceops.com.

Tips for a Successful Activity

I’m no expert in Student Organizations, but I pride myself in having actively participated in SWE and Tau Beta Pi for the past four years. Over these years, I’ve taken a number of roles, among them, Vice President, Treasurer, Newsletter Editor and Webmaster. I’ve also been a mere active member in both societies, as well as other societies, so I’ve seen student activities from both sides, as an attendee and as organizer, on many levels. I was recently asked to go over what makes an activity or project a successful one, and I thought I’d share my answer with you.

It’s a tough question; what works for one society may not work for another. Besides, depending on the scope of the activity and the participation of the attendees, your goals and your expectations and how far it is from reality… there are a lot of factors that can affect the success of your activity. However, I’ve noticed three things most of the activities I’ve organized or attended had in common: promotion, incentives, and following-up. Neglecting any one of these key components in an activity will not necessarily result in a disastrous activity, but none of those activities I’ve attended that were deemed a success left them out.

As you plan your activities and projects for this semester, consider the following three tips. Also, if you’ve got tips you’d like to share, don’t forget to comment! Or, send them in to rcne-d@swe.org.

UNF: Outreach

Yet another article from the folks over at the University of North Florida; this time, it’s Outreach. Keep up the good work guys!

Girls Incorporated Operation S.M.A.R.T Program a Huge Success!
Sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers at the University of North Florida

November 20^th 2008 marked a huge accomplishment for SWE-UNF’s outreach efforts. SWE-UNF had the opportunity to get involved with Girls Incorporated of Jacksonville, which is a girls serving organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold. SWE members volunteered in their program Operation S.M.A.R.T (Science Math And Relative Technology) by participating in an engineering related activity after a very informative presentation by Jean Fryman (UNF’s Engineering Outreach/Recruitment Director). A special thanks to the volunteers and Jean Fryman for all their help and support!

UNF: SWE Bingo Night & Membership Drive

The University of North Florida Section sent in this article about a Bingo Night they held.I think the activity qualifies as a Best Practice, and I hope this inspires a bit of creativity for your section. My apologies for not getting it up any sooner! (By the way: make sure you visit their website!)

Old School Corny Fun Finds Success with a New Generation

As part of our efforts to increase our membership, SWE-UNF held it’s first ever Bingo Night in November. The event was totally free to UNF students and their guests and included food, fun, prizes, and of course, Bingo! We took complete advantage of the full technology suite in the classroom by projecting a Bingo call board and putting music on over the loud speakers. Students and guests had a great time figuring out how to work their bingo daubers and learning how to keep track of five cards at once. Prizes included engineering paper, LEGO sets, Chic-Fil-A meal combo coupons, SWE T-shirts, candy, and UNF Memorabilia. Despite early misgivings that Bingo is a “corny” event, everyone who attended left pleasantly surprised by how much fun they actually had.

The underlying purpose of this event was to encourage students to join SWE. The students who attended were very willing to join. We made lots of new friends and had fun with our old friends too. As a whole we felt the event was a great success and hope to make it a regular event in the future with the help of our sponsors.

Southern Polytechnic State University

Our SWE section at SPSU is relatively new. We just re-established ourselves last year, and recruitment has been a bit of a challenge for us. Aside from the fact that SPSU’s male-to-female ratio is especially disproportionate (not many women, but that is improving!), a high percentage of our students are non-traditional, and therefore tend to be particularly hard to recruit.

Over the summer, while making recruitment plans for the first week of class, our president, Cindy, noted that the Greek organizations all had large, attractive wooded letters to represent their fraternities. She came up with a lovely idea for a SWE sign with a moving gear. Cindy and her father thought up the design, built the sign, and then our executive officers got together to paint and finally assemble it.

(Watch a video clip of Cindy spinning the Gear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeAsk8XgF8k)

It was a lot of fun – an awesome way to bond as a team – and the final product looks great! In addition to the sign, we hand-painted a SWE banner made from a vinyl table cloth which we all absolutely love!