October 20, 2010
Engineers Without Borders had a lot on their plate for this weekly meeting. Local volunteering, trips out of state, plans for future international projects were all hot topics.
Their effort at Make a Difference Day on Saturday resulted in the successful creation of a rain barrel.
Members seem to be looking forward to the group’s next event, a campus bake sale set up at the Union on Friday. Wednesday evening was filled with poster distribution and trips to the grocery store, then today the members are meeting up for a communal bake-and-study-engineering session. The bake sale begins at 8 a.m. on Friday morning. (Skip breakfast and don’t forget your cash!)
The trip to Dallas for the Regional EWB Conference is only three weeks away. Members planning to attend *must* drop by the bake sale or contact Treasurer Gavin Smith today or tomorrow, to pay the registration fee of $35.20 and leave the information listed below so that the group will be officially registered.
Put the registration fee in an envelope and the following information ON the envelope: your First Name, Last Name, name as it would appear on the badge, Company/Organization, Address, City, US State/Canadian Province, Zip (Postal Code), Work Phone, Cell Phone, tee-shirt size and dietary restrictions.
All envelopes should go into a manila envelope at the Bake Sale or into the hands of Gavin Smith.
The $35.20 is higher than the original estimates because “There was only $437.80 in the (EWB) student account,” Smith said.
EWB actively plans more events for the school year, in an attempt to put the RSO funding to good use bringing in valuable speakers, watching educational videos or having a chance for further engineering education outside of the classroom.
ASG makes it possible for each RSO to have three events or trips per year.
The first event is the regional conference, so the discussion of possibilities for the second is hosting an engineer to speak at the university.
“I’ve been in touch with Jaime from UNC about him speaking,” President Nikki Lorenz said. “We haven’t nailed down a specific date, but it looks like…we might have him here after spring break.”
Members discussed another possibility, such as a screening of a particular engineering or science-related movie: something from Modern Marvels or Extreme Engineering.
EWB Advisor, Dr. Soerens suggested probing University Housing for funding as a bright prospect.
Another event possibility is the EWB International Conference on March 24-27 in Louisville, Ky.
“We could have an Engineering Days event- three days full of events, sort of like the Hydrology Days,” Professor Soerens said.
Other members have been to the Hydrology Days and seemed to enjoy it, so the idea was tabbed for later.
The local project with the elementary science club received materials with project ideas, one of which was an Alternative Fuel Project that the group is considering for their lesson.
After a fair amount of confusion about the official status of the UA Chapter—whether it was officially part of the national EWB or not—the group found their name listed as an official chapter.
The dues for official membership are high for a student non-profit, about $500, so the group discussed the advantages of using the official EWB name, which were basically having more accountability (going through processes checking activity or papers) and a resume builder because the official name carries a lot of weight.
EWB members also began contemplating teaming up with other engineering organizations.
Professor Soerens had a Baylor engineering student contact him about collaboration with Engineers with a Mission. “Typically EWB stays away from religious organizations, but they end up working with them anyway because they are all the same people (working on these projects),” he said.
The thoughts on joining up with that particular organization are very tentative, but EWB hopes to find some sort of sister organization.
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