March 4th, 2019 Meeting Minutes

April 1, 2019

  1. Call to Order
  2. Approval of Agenda
    • Two items added, agenda is approved
  3. Approval of Minutes
    • Due to snow, last meeting was held virtually and no minutes were recorded
  4. Around the Room
    • Covered upcoming events
    • How do we all handle email distribution?
      • Mailchimp is a good tool to utilize
  5. Treasurer Report
    • Fair was cancelled – refunds
    • Missing money from Eventbrite, this is being looked in to
      • Do we get fees back from Eventbrite when we cancel?
    • All the money from the tables is taken care of
    • Everyone who had a booth was reimbursed
    • Were there any costs associated with cancelling the fair? Unclear.
    • Do we need an action for someone to report out at the next meeting what the consequences of cancelling the engineering fair was (refunds, details, etc.)
    • Dues: most organizations have paid
  6. Calendar
    1. PSEC Meetings – first Monday of every month
    2. Mentor Nights
      1. March 13th Shoreline
      2. April 10th Bothell
      3. Potentially more to come
    3. No date solidified for ISOW
      1. Looking at dates in June
  7. Website Updates
    1. Added engineers of the year award pages, contains photos and bios
    2. Announcement for the fair cancellation
    3. WordPress software is due for a major update, have been waiting until after the fair and banquet to initiate
      1. Shouldn’t notice any differences
    4. Stan has taken a new position similar to this one in a different organization and its taken a lot of his time so it is his intention to not come back as webmaster for PSEC in the future
      1. Louie: do you know any contacts that might be interested? Stan: No
      2. This should come up as a future agenda item
      3. Stan is happy to facilitate the transition
  8. Engineering Fair Report
    1. Beth is not here and the fair was cancelled
  9. Banquet Report
    1. 61st annual PSEC awards banquet was held in February. All 7 awards handed out that night. 58 people served. Speaker did a good job and stayed within the time limit. Event ended at 9:15, comfortably paced event. Photos are on the dropbox.
  10. Mentor Nights
    1. Upcoming events
      1. See Calendar
    2. Mentor Coordinator
      1. Issues with eventbrites for mentor nights and being able to capture the majors/specialties of mentors. Need to have a new template that we can put nicer pictures on the announcements.
      2. Also looking in to Seattle U and Highline – roughly may timeframe
      3. Justin is interested in taking on the Mentor Coordinator role
      4. 7-10 mentor nights a year, occurring September – June
        1. Different schools have different preferences for dates
        2. Some schools have not held a mentor night for several year, but we would like to restart (Seattle U, UW Bothell
      5. Everett Community College has a mentor night run by their collegiate SWE section
      6. Is there a history/file that documents the past mentor nights we’ve had?
        1. There is currently no file. We are hoping the mentor night coordinator can start taking charge of documentation
      7. The description that was provided sounded like it was more related to communicating with colleges, but what Louie is describing sounds more like managing eventbrites.
        1. The scope is too big for one person to manage, which is why other people become POCs for different schools. The coordinator would manage the volunteers.
      8. Historically, it’s been managed 1 person 1 event. Always end up with return mentors. Different contact lists for each school. Each school is looking for different things.
      9. Justin – make sure  you get access to dropbox and wordpress from Stan
      10. How much can we reimburse for food? $3/head up to $300 max
        1. Dave Butcher is the treasurer
        2. Contacts are not identified on the PSEC site
  11. Membership discussion
    1. How to get nontraditional groups to be members of PSEC? How do we represent them?
    2. The organization of other groups is not clear
    3. What about PMI?
    4. American Society of Plumbing Engineers?
    5. Do we have a statement of membership benefits? What are we communicating to people when we invite them?
    6. Main benefits:
      1. Engineering Awards
      2. Engineering Fair
      3. Mentor Nights
      4. Inter-society trading of knowledge
  12. Regional Science Fair call for judges
    1. Kathi emailed out flyers
    2. Saturday March 16th in Bellevue
    3. Details in the flyer for how to sign up
  13. Action Item Review
  14. Adjourn

December 3rd, 2018 Meeting Minutes

February 18, 2019

  1. Call to Order
    1. Meeting led by Kathy
  2. Approval of Agendas
    1. Kathy Motions to approve
    2. Agenda approved
  3. Approval of Minutes
    1. Meetings not available to approve yet
  4. Around the Room
    1. Beth Mendy – planning the engineering fair, here to give updates, represents EWB, chapter meeting on 3rd Tuesday
    2. Marina Dannecker – SWE holiday party and board meeting coming
    3. Charles – Next meeting will be the 3rd Monday in January
    4. Louie with national society of metals, joining meeting this month with AWS to talk about gold mining
    5. Cameron – Transitioning chair of AMSE, having a brewery tour (pike place brewing) instead of traditional dinner meeting in about 2 weeks. Following meeting in January at UW Bothell
    6. Dave Butcher – IEEE had their holiday party, board meeting on Tuesday
    7. Kathy Shoemaker with ASHRAE meeting next Tuesday
    8. Stan – IEEE
    9. Sam Gheesling ASME
  5. Treasurer Report
    1. The dues notice went out, only to those who have paid dues in the past
    2. Planning to send an email out to non active members to request that they “re-engage” rather than pay dues
    3. 4 checks have come in, deposited on Sunday
    4. Dues are based on number of members
  6. Engineering Fair Report
    1. Second Saturday of February, same day as the popsicle bridge competition, at the museum of flight
    2. Registration is open
    3. 2-3 organizations are registered
    4. Not the greatest turnout in the last two years
      1. Contacting school districts to increase turnout
    5. Flyer was sent to the key contacts for each organization
    6. Registration will be also sent out to PSEC reps
    7. Don’t take tallies at the door but do headcounts at each time
    8. Run into difficulties in the past because the fair is free but the museum is not
    9. Need to do something beyond relying on the popsicle event to bring in attendees
    10. All sponsored by societies and not by companies
    11. Goal is to get the word out early so that we do not need to hustle at the last minute
    12. Eventbrite is set up
  7. Calendar
    1. No changes to the calendar
    2. Engineering fair Feb. 9
    3. Banquet Feb. 16
  8. Website Updates
    1. No changes in the last month
    2. One issue with the events calendar, scrolling section wasn’t working because the software used to make calendars was not updated so new software had to be installed on the server, but that came through today 12/3/18. Now it works.
    3. If you see any issues let Stan know.
    4. There is an email list that new people should get onto. We also have a Facebook and twitter account for sharing announcements.
    5. Kathy – I was trying to send an email to Charles with his PSEC email alias and it bounced back
      1. Stan is pretty sure that this email works, so not sure what is causing the issue
    6. For those of you that aren’t aware there is a secretary, treasurer, president, webmaster etc. email accounts
  9. Banquet Update
    1. No difference in price this year for the menu that we used last year – so Sam would like to go ahead with the same menu as last year
      1. Same quantity of appetizers
      2. Everyone is on board.
  • Steak, salmon, vegetarian pasta
  1. Sam: Motion to stick with last year’s menu
    1. Marina Seconds the motion
    2. Motion passes unanimously
  2. February 16
  3. Speaker will be from UW Bothell STEM. 20-40 minutes of speech on the topic of getting students in STEM. Speaker is confirmed.
    1. Should this be 20-30 minutes?
      1. We have always asked for 20-40 minutes
    2. Louie will make Eventbrite – follow the same model as last year
      1. Need to write a CV
    3. Louie and Sam are still pursuing Boeing sponsorship
      1. The contact who did this before retired
      2. Then we lost our nonprofit status
  • We are now a 501c3 – full nonprofit!
  1. Sam has prepared a sponsorship proposal with photos
    1. Cameron: How have we marketed this to companies in the past?
      1. Someone has always had contact with Boeing and Boeing has always sponsored it
      2. Cameron would love to offer up a marketing package
        1. Could be put together by the end of the weekend
        2. Sam will email it to Cameron
      3. Getting the package to companies is another story
    2. Photographer – no updates here. Sam needs to respond to her.
      1. We need to have a clear understanding of how much this will cost
    3. Mentor Nights
      1. Louie has confirmed Seattle Central for January 31st (Thursday)
        1. Will make Eventbrite this week
      2. UW Bothell? Louie will talk to Elaine Scott about organizing this
        1. Cameron has another contact he can share
        2. Would be best to get in touch with the career center
  • It’s been a while (4 years maybe?) since we hosted this event
  1. We would like to have this event in February/march, but probably not until after the banquet
  2. Cameron will reach out to the career center
  1. We don’t have as many people involved in mentor nights as we used to
    1. We talked about this quite a bit last month
  2. Considering shoreline and EvCC for springtime
    1. Who were the focals for these schools?
      1. Steve?
    2. Also north Seattle community college
    3. Kathy to reach out to Jason and Steve to get their contacts at the schools
    4. Kathy has the banner
  3. Action Item Review
    1. Kathy is still working on the non traditional groups list
    2. Stan is still working on inventory list
    3. Kathy is needs to coordinate with Stan to send isow email
    4. Now that we have a mentor night schedules, Stan will create a mentor night report out for the website (how many attendees, school contact, who the mentors were, any notes
      1. Something that is suitable for social media shares is useful – photos maybe?
        1. If you take photos, make sure to put disclaimers that photos will be taken and let the school know that photos of students may be taken
      2. Charles still needs to follow up with Gail Cornelius
        1. Discovery Day?
      3. Charles still needs to send email about mentor night coordinator position
      4. Stan created a standing agenda template
    5. Walk on topics?
      1. Was the brochure on the website updated? No. Sam just opened it.
        1. Do we have copies that we can give out? Dave has lots that he can bring in
      2. Should we include computer science in PSEC?
        1. Yes, this is related to Kathy’s action
        2. We looked at our bylaws last year and there is no change required to add CS societies
  • It would be nice to get more members for mentor nights, and then that would hopefully lead to more attendance overall
  1. Louie would like to see the organization grow to 400+ in 5 years
  2. Maybe we should have a membership focal to handle reaching out to societies
    1. Past President?
  3. Cameron – I am hearing a general theme of lack of engagement
    1. We could pitch to companies to get them to encourage their members to get involved
  4. Many groups pay dues but do not have reps to send to meetings
  1. Adjourn
    1. 7:16 adjourn

November 5th, 2018 Meeting Minutes

November 5, 2018 PSEC Meeting

  1. Call to Order
    Meeting called to order at 6:08pm
  2. Approval of Agenda
    Motion to approve agenda, seconded, approved
  3. Approval of Minutes
    Marina just got access to the wordpress account and will post meeting minutes from this meeting and last.
  4. Around the Room
    Went around the room, received updates from different organizations in attendance. Many of which are viewable on the calendar.
  5. Treasurer Report
    New update since last report: banquet deposit made. Going to send the dues reminder email to current and past society members – some inactive groups may have interest again so hope to reach them this way. Send the dues request to treasurer, president, and dues rep. If unclear who to get a hold of will email anyone they know in the section
  6. Calendar
    -Added the PSEC Awards deadline to the calendar. Engineering fair and banquet are also on the calendar. These are the only dates set so far for PSEC.
    -Banquet is set as 6-10pm.
    -1st Thursday in December is AIAA fly off (free 1st Thursday evening). This is a competition for middle/high schoolers where they build an electric plane.
    -Reminder that you can sync your google calendar with the PSEC website to have your events auto-included in the PSEC Calendar
  7. Website Updates
    Not a lot of updates since last month other than adding the nominations form for awards. Deadline is the 14th. Added Marina’s email as secretary for the secretary alias so that emails will be sent to her for secretary.
  8. Banquet Update
    1. Still hunting for a speaker
      1. Elaine has a conflict and will not be able to speak
      2. We would like to have someone from the UW Bothell to talk about their experiences in stem… students attracting students to get in to STEM fields
  • Alternate topic is that we are close to the 50th anniversary of the 747’s flight
    1. Official Boeing historian to talk about the history of the 747
  1. Last year’s photographer sent an email about this year’s event
    1. Last year she upped her rate at the last minute (after the event)
    2. Could get her to commit to a price upfront this year
  • Or we could go to an alternative photographer
  1. Path forward is to ask her what her price is, if it works with our budget we will go with her and if it does not then we will find someone else
  1. Brochure describing different sponsorship logos
    1. Suggestion to add info on what the banquet, why is it happening, who comes
      1. Who’s going to be there, who will see your logo, etc
    2. Add PSEC logo on the top
  • Add pictures from last year too, maybe pictures of winners
  1. Clarify that companies are comfortable with having their logo shared (and confirm its not outdated)
  2. Add contact information
  1. When will we set up registration? Probably during November break
  1. Mentor Nights
    1. No updates on mentor nights – nothing added to the calendar
    2. Louie has an action item to look at Seattle Central and UW Bothell night
    3. Lacking a mentor night coordinator, it is not likely we will have any mentor nights
      1. Don’t we have some people signed up for this?
      2. Action item to look for a mentor night coordinator – go to their societies and ask for the volunteers
        1. President to put together an email call for mentor night coordinator & chair
  • We should identify who was coordinating individual locations in past years
  1. Coordinator and chair are two separate activities that require different people
    1. Jason may have descriptions from the past he can share
  2. Side topic – we don’t send out notices that meetings are occurring which likely contributes to low attendance. We haven’t sent out a notice in advance that these meetings are occurring and we want more people to be here.
    1. We used to send one on the Monday before to remind people and then reminders later in the week
    2. The president has to come out with an agenda with enough notice, or we can call it a draft agenda
  • Agenda stays pretty much the same, but some topics drop off the agenda after they occur
  1. Action Item Review
    1. Kathi was going to suggest non-traditional groups as candidates PSEC memberships
    2. Stan is still working on inventory list
      1. Kathi likely has the banner
      2. If you have stuff or know someone who has stuff email Stan!
    3. Stan is still working on template for mentor night report for website
    4. Share your google calendar with Stan!
    5. Dave added K-12 Outreach Career Day Speaker Coordinator Duties to drop box
      1. This was Steve’s role
      2. Highest priority for recruiting is mentor coordinators/chair but we should also keep this in mind for recruiting future responsibilities.
    6. Report on Speaker search is done
    7. Report on banquet sponsorship is done
    8. Still need to figure out what gail Cornelius wants for UW engineers week event
    9. Still need to check on possibility of seattle central and uq bothell mentor night
  2. Adjourn

October 1st Meeting Minutes

PSEC Meeting 10/01/2018

Agenda approved, minutes approved

Around the room

  • Some organizations are required to go through their HQ before communicating with their members to laws from Europe)
  • Multiple clubs now have their events on the PSEC Calendar

Treasurer Report

  • Request to update roster
  • Request for dues will be coming soon
  • Nonprofit status is reinstated – this means PSEC is eligible for Boeing (and other corporate) funding
  • Need to refile every year to avoid losing it again

Calendar Updates

  • Engineering fair is confirmed for Museum of Flight for Feb 9
  • Banquet is no longer tentative (will again be held at the Museum of Flight)
  • Currently no mentor nights scheduled

Website Updates

  • Open action to create an inventory for physical things PSEC owns (banners, etc). Considering wordpress for this use
    • Expect an email asking “who has what?”
    • If you have an item that belongs to PSEC, let Stan know
    • What about previous discussion on need for a storage unit?
  • Mentor night reporting – this action hasn’t been worked yet because no mentor nights are scheduled. Idea is to have a standard template that people can complete after mentor nights to capture details/feedback.

Banquet Update

  • Museum of Flight, Skyline room, 6-10pm
  • 5pm we are allowed in for set up
  • 6-7 social
  • 7 dinner
  • Speaker – asked the UW Bothell Dean of the College of STEM to be speaker, Dr. Elaine Scott
    • One Academic award 3 years ago
    • Topic has not been decided, but have proposed something about trends in education
    • Not confirmed but “she will probably say yes”
    • Sam is open to having other speakers if people have suggestions
    • Agreement to give her a deadline of the end of the month to confirm, otherwise 11/01 we will need to reach out to secure other speakers
  • This will be the 61st annual banquet. Unfortunately we do not have any archives going back to ’58.
  • Food is not arranged
  • Working to secure a $2,000 donation from Boeing for this event
  • Sam has created a spreadsheet to break down the past award winners and their employers.
    • 39 of the past winners were Boeing employees, 27 were UW, all other companies are single digits
    • Fundraise? Before we solicit sponsorship, we need to figure out what we have to offer in exchange for sponsorship (ex, company name in the program)
    • There are lots of Aerospace companies in the area
    • Civil engineers are typically the ones who submit nominations
    • If anyone has examples of tiered sponsorship, please share with the group.
    • Boeing pays $2,000 to get 4 dinners, their name on the event and screen
    • Proposed that (silver) $500 – 1 dinner, (gold) $1000 – 2 dinner, (platinum) $2000 – 4 dinners
    • Will also put logos on program and screen, but only “platinum” ($2,000+) will be on the screen. Logos will vary in size based on sponsorship level.
    • All of this sponsorship is to sponsor the Awards Banquet, not PSEC in general
  • We will definitely want to have the Speaker finalized before creating the program
  • We do not need to have the speaker lined up before we look for sponsorship
  • We need to list that we are a not for profit on the brochure
  • Remember to include “what is the banquet” “what is it for” “what are we asking for” “what do they get for sponsorship”
  • There will be a draft document that can be voted on/edited at next months meeting
    • It should be circulated electronically prior to the next meeting so that everyone can provide feedback.
  • November is our target month to approach people for sponsorship
  • Awards will appear on the PSEC website in the middle of October and an email will be sent out to PSEC reps
    • Stan will add the deadline to the calendar
  • We could also have a table in the banquet room for companies to leave a brochure on their firm

 

Mentor Nights

  • Email from Jason Salazar and a gentleman from Seattle U – they are willing to put on a mentor night. They need someone to chair this event
  • UW is doing an engineers week event and they would like some help for that – Gail Cornealius is coordinating student chapters on campus
    • All of our member societies have student chapters at UW
    • It is unclear what the ask from PSEC is
      • Is she looking for us to send this info out to members or to attend the event and participate as PSEC?
      • Unclear if this event is in April or February
    • Seattle Pacific is coordinating an event without PSEC – no mentor night stuff
    • Need to follow up with Seattle Central for mentor night 3rd week in January
    • We typically don’t have any in the Fall?
      • Usually Seattle Pacific, Seattle U, UW Bothell maybe would be interested?
      • Need to follow up with UW Bothell to see if they are interested
    • Need to find out what the proposed date it is for Seattle U
    • Need to recruit more people to be coordinators

Action Item Review

  • Dave talked to Kathi about non-traditional potential PSEC members

Adjourn