Meeting Minutes

Date: Monday, September 12
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Location: Razzis Pizzeria 8523 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle WA 98103

Attendance

Meeting Agenda

1. Introductions & Updates on Member Societies’ Events: All
   • Meeting started promptly at 6 pm. Brief Introductions of all PSEC reps. in attendance & guests (see above). Several Societies are having events in September.
2. Approval of Agenda: All
   • Dave Butcher (IEEE), as new PSEC President, was also filling in as Secretary. The Meeting Agenda (on the PSEC website) was shown on the wall screen, and was approved.
3. Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes: All
   • The June Council Meeting Minutes were approved
4. 2016-2017 PSEC Goals: Dave Butcher (IEEE)
   • Dave Butcher (IEEE), briefly reviewed some PSEC Goals for this program year, including trying to work on attendance of Inactive Societies. Steve Snelling (IISE), offered to help Dave with this activity, since he had worked on it some in past years.
   • Also wanted to do something this Program Year with the donation money not used for FIRST Robotics & STEM activities (around $2,000); after some discussion, decided to develop a simple grant/competition process to offer the money to any of the K-12 programs sponsored by the PSEC member Societies (like WSPE’s Math Counts, or IEEE’s Future Cities Competition, or ASCE’s Popsicle Stick Bridge Building, etc.); several PSEC reps. offered to send Dave some sample forms their Society has used for similar grants/competitions.
5. Portland Student Banquet: Mark Powers (IISE)
   • Mark Powers (IISE), gave a brief introduction of the One Day of Activities that several Engineering Societies do as a group, in the Portland area for high school Sophomores that are active in STEM programs in their individual schools. Earlier Mark had sent the PSEC reps. the main website for the Portland events: http://www.oregonengineersweek.org/ (under the top heading “The Day” is a description of the Feb. 25, 2016 schedule and each of the 5 events; under the top heading “Photos” are pictures of the events, including the Banquet & several of the Field Trips).
   • Then Tova Peltz (from Portland, OR) called in to describe (over the speaker phone), the details of their annual program, using a few PowerPoint slides that Mark had prepared. This was their 53rd year of offering this high school oriented program, but it had basically been re- started about 10 years ago, after the program had declined considerably. The “Day” consists of five separate events: a small group of students in the special Morning Program, up to 15 Field Trips to active engineering sites, several Mini-Seminars & Workshops, an Exhibit Hall of engineering displays & company sponsor displays, and the main Banquet Dinner where all the students hear from a few speakers during a sit-down dinner. Over 600 people (2/3 students & 1/3 engineers) attend the Banquet. Usually the engineers & sponsors will pay for all the students’ dinners. A budget of $30,000 is used to cover all the events (of which the Banquet is the most expensive, by far). A 15 person Planning Committee works on separate action items: getting sponsors, contacting local high school STEM programs, contacting local engineers, setting up Field Trips, organizing the Exhibit Hall, and organizing the Banquet Dinner. Her advice to PSEC, if planning a similar event, is to start small (maybe only a few high schools & form a strong Planning Committee to take on the separate tasks). Tova will send Mark some electronic files that they use in Portland, when planning the separate events.
   • Following the call, the PSEC reps. discussed the next steps: Mark will forward some of the info he receives from Portland; best not to try to do this event in Feb. (due to other current activities) so would pick another month; too late to do it this program year but may consider it for next program year; there will be further discussion at the Oct. PSEC meeting. Will need to see if the PSEC member Societies want to do this, including provide new volunteers for a Planning Committee (since this is too much work to absorb by the current active PSEC reps.). If approved, would probably start small, as Portland suggested.
6. Treasurer’s Report: Julie Bennett (SWE)
   • No formal Treasurer’s Report. Past Treasurer, Chris Roberdeau (AIAA), has just recently turned the Bank information & Treasurer files over to the new Treasurer, Julie Bennett (SWE). All current bills have been paid, and there is approximately $20,000 in the Treasury. Chris will help Julie send out annual dues requests soon, to the member Societies.
7. Website Updates: Stan Dyck (IEEE)
   • Stan Dyck (IEEE) was not at the meeting, so no website update, but Stan has posted a brief note for Sept. on the PSEC website.
8. Banquet: Sam Gheesling (ASME)
   • Sam Gheesling (ASME) has arranged for the Awards Banquet to be held at the Museum of Flight again this year, on Sat. Feb. 11th. He is taking any suggestions for the keynote speaker, and several were mentioned as possibilities. Chris Roberdeau (AIAA), said the K-12 Engineering Fair will be held at the Museum of Flight, again this year, on Sat. Feb. 4th (same location in the Museum). Hoping to get a few more exhibitors this year.
9. Awards: John Schaufelberger (WSPE)
   • John Schaufelberger (WSPE) will post the Nomination forms for the seven annual PSEC Awards on the PSEC website soon. He went over a handout on the Awards criteria for several of the Awards. The deadline will be Friday, Dec. 16, 2016.
   • He encouraged each Society to start thinking about some deserving engineers now, for each of the Awards. He will be forming an Awards Committee soon. He briefly covered some of the suggestions that came out of the Inter-Society Officers Workshop (ISOW), on the topic of submitting Nominations for Awards, that was led by Paul Grant (ASCE). John encouraged more Societies to actively nominate their engineers for any of the Awards. Use the criteria on the forms to present why their nominee deserves the Award (don’t just send in their nominee’s resume), and observe the 8 page max. length for submittals. Only one nominee can be submitted for each Award, from each Society. Two Awards did not receive any nominations, last year. The PSEC website has information on last year’s Award winners, and the names of past year’s winners (for each Award).
10. Mentor Nights: Jason Salazar (ASME)
    • Jason Salazar (ASME) gave a brief overview of the Mentor Night program and showed that section of the PSEC website. As the new dates for this year’s Mentor Nights are confirmed, they will be updated on the website.
    • It was suggested that last year’s dates be removed and replaced with a “TBD” until the new date is known.
    • The Seattle Pacific U. Mentor Night is being Coordinated by Paul Grant and it is scheduled for Oct. 24th at 6 pm. An Eventbrite sign-up will be available soon.
    • Jason said there is a need for more volunteer Coordinators; two PSEC reps. volunteered to be new Mentor Night Coordinators at the meeting and will work with Jason offline to get some information about the events needing Coordinators.
11. ISOW: Dave Butcher (IEEE)
    
    • Dave Butcher (IEEE) will work with John Schaufelberger (WSPE) to set a date for the ISOW (Inter-Society Officers Workshop) event (probably in May again), at the same U.W. location in Magnuson Park. Three break-out topic discussions will be done again this year.
12. UW College of Engineering – Career Center: Gail Cornelius (UW)
    • Steve Snelling (IISE) gave a brief introduction for Gail Cornelius who is the Director of the U.W. College of Engineering’s Career Center. Gail brought copies of a 2-page handout that she presented during the meeting. The handout was sent out to all PSEC reps., electronically, following the meeting, along with Gail’s contact information. The Career Center works with 10 Engineering Depts. at the U.W. and helps individual engineering students with their career plans & internships. There are several “Opportunities for Collaboration” with PSEC, that were listed on the handout (the white- text list of 5 items, on the gold-background section). Additional follow-up will be forthcoming on some of these “opportunities”. PSEC reps. are asked to forward the handout and Gail’s contact information on to their local Society.
    • Handouts are here: Recruiting Cycle Handout PSEC Handout
13. Open Discussion: All
    • There was no Open Discussion topic suggested.
14. Action Items from Previous and this Meeting Review: All
    • No known Action Items from previous meetings.