A Letter from SWE-PPS President

Dear SWE-PPS:

Welcome to a new year! Many thanks to the FY04 PPS officers for all their hard work last year! Pikes Peak FY05 section officers have taken office and I am very excited about the upcoming year. The section officers this year represent an exciting mix of PPS experience and new blood. As always, SWE is valuable training ground for new and experienced leaders. I’m sure you will enjoy the programming we’ve planned for the year.

The first event we have coming up this year is a SWE Vitality Summit in Fort Collins. The Rocky Mountain Section was generous enough to invite us as their guests. There are modules being presented that can be valuable to your career, so I hope you will give yourself permission to take the day for your own personal and professional development. (For more details, see the Vitality Summit Flyer.) At $10—including lunch—it is a steal! Please invite your colleagues to take part as well. Carpooling will be coordinated for those interested in attending.

You should be particularly proud to take part in our second event of the year—the Pikes Peak Region Engineering Social. Theresa Henderson, the new PPS vice president, is spearheading the effort to partner with our engineering colleagues from SAME, ASME, IEEE and ASCE to organize a night out. This event will offer the opportunity to network with engineers from various professions and societies, as well as some of our preferred outreach partners such as Cool Science, Math Counts and Pikes Peak Regional Science Fair. An added bonus includes small group tours of The Warehouse microbrewery facility led by the brew master. Please save the date—October 21st –and spread the word!

I wish every SWE-PPS member could attend every one of our meetings, but I know that we all have to choose our priorities. If you are currently making your meeting priorities, please plan to attend at least the engineering social on Thursday, October 21st and the Engineers’ Week Dinner on Wednesday, February 23rd.

Congratulations to FY04 PPS president Kathleen Watson—her son, Thomas James Andrews, was born in early August. I look forward to seeing you at our exciting programs this year!

Angela Howard
Pikes Peak Section FY05 President

SWE Vitality Summit

Saturday, September 11 at CSU in Ft. Collins, 9:00 am -- 5:00 pm

Great professional development opportunity! Module topics include:

Learn more about SWE and meet students and professionals from Colorado and Wyoming! Network! Lunch included! Only $10.00 registration fee!

Presenters:

RSVP by Wednesday, September 8 to Angela Howard: angela_howard at alum.wustl.edu or 719-260-7754. Please express interest in carpooling (driving or riding) with RSVP.

For more information, directions, and a printable flyer, please see the Vitality Summit Flyer.

Save The Date!

On October 21, 2004 from 5:30 - 7pm, SWE-PPS is co-hosting a joint engineering society networking event at The Warehouse in Colorado Springs. Please feel free to spread the word to others at your organization or workplace. It's a great opportunity to network with like-minded professionals.

Volunteers: Website or Newsletter, Meeting Hostesses

Are you looking to get more involved in SWE? Would you like to add a new line to your resume? SWE-PPS is looking for a few good volunteers.

Many thanks to Diane Howe for her great work on our website and newsletter. She is looking for someone to team up with or take over one of these responsibilities. A great opportunity if you want to develop your website development skills. Contact Diane at 719-650-6552 or email Diane at her account: diane at jeeptech.com for more information.

If you are looking for a one-time volunteer opportunity, consider hosting a SWE meeting. You'll work from an existing template with a PPS officer, strengthen your contacts within SWE and with any community member or group that is also participating in that meeting. Contact Theresa Henderson at 719-531-7464 for available meetings or more details.

After recently attending a planning meeting for our SWE section, I am inspired for the '04-'05 year. Activities include workshops geared toward section and professional development, the February Engineering Week dinner and the October Engineering Societies gathering where we can network with other like-minded people, opportunities to mentor and interact with the student sections as well as K-12 students in the region.

I was especially impressed at the meeting with the approach that the officers are taking this year at managing this year's calendar. Theresa Henderson has developed a worksheet that steps one through the meeting planning cycle and monthly meetings accountabilities are spread across SWE-PPS members. There is room for section members to volunteer for one-time opportunities and plug into the team network as schedules dictate. For example, some of these opportunities include judging at the Science Fair in March, the MathCounts event in February, or one of the monthly meetings as a Meeting Hostess.

We are also intending to schedule meetings and notify members well in advance. Please visit the calendar for updated information.

Looking forward to another fine year for SWE-PPS.

Diane Howe

MBA Student Requests Help
SWE Member Sharon Irish is currently working on her MBA research regarding dual career families and is need of feedback from SWE members. Sharon has developed a questionnaire in which she is asking SWE members to fill out and submit to her to help her with her graduate study. To learn more about Sharon and her project, click http://www.swe.org/e-newsletter/e-newsletter.htm and scroll down to the bottom for her news item.

SWE-News
Vi Brown, National SWE President (FY05) is using the SWE-News to share information with the membership. Keep up with the latest news at the national level by visiting http://www.swe.org/e-newsletter/ .

SWE National Conference
The National Conference is October 14-16, 2004 and will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The SWE National Conference is the largest professional development and career conference for women engineers, attracting more than 3,000 engineering professionals, students and corporate representatives. This year's conference, Engineers Leading Change , highlights the life-changing contributions engineers make to society and the industry-changing impact women engineers have on the profession. Visit http://www.swe.org/2004/ for more information and to register.