Winter Senate Meeting Agenda & Motions

Your SWE Senators will be braving the cold temperatures in Minneapolis, MN on February 10, 2018 for the SWE Winter Senate Meeting. The agenda for the meeting is attached below.

One motion, S-1808, is on the table for the Winter Senate Meeting. Please see the below Motion Submission Form for more information. The Finance Committee supports this motion with the following: “The Finance Committee is in full support of the motion to adopt the revised reserve fund document. Extensive review and development went into the proposed changes with participation from Finance Committee leadership and the entire committee has been briefed on the updates.”

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Fran, Lucy, or Nadia.

WE17 Bylaws Motions Published

The Bylaws Committee has reviewed proposed changes to the Society’s bylaws and are presenting them to the membership. The Senate will vote on these proposed changes during WE17 on Saturday, October 28th, in Austin, TX. The motions have been published to the All Together Blog for all members to view here: http://alltogether.swe.org/2017/09/summary-supporting-rationale-governance-bylaws-proposals/.

These motions are a result of the ongoing work to improve the functionality and efficiency of SWE’s governance structure. For more information on the several years of work, deliverables, and milestones related to the proposed governance changes, please see governance.swe.org and this overall rationale summary for these bylaws amendment proposals.

The proposals include the following motions:
Motion S-1803: Senate and Regions
Motion S-1804: Collegiate Member Voting Rights
Motion S-1805: Competency Model for Nominations and Elections
Motion S-1806: Standing Committees
Motion S-1807: Members at Large President

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Fran, Lucy, or me.

Detailed Governance Implementation Plan, Draft Released

The Governance Task Force has released their draft of the Detailed Implementation Plan, including their Proposed Bylaws Amendments to the Governance Website (look for it under “Draft Implementation Plan”). The Region B Senators encourage you to go to the site and review the document. The Senators will be on calls with the Governance Task Force on June 17^th and June 19^th and all feedback on this drafted plan is due to the Task Force at governance@swe.org by July 15^th.

Don’t forget to sign up for Governance Text Alerts by texting “SWE Governance” to 56512.

 

#REgionBSenate   #SonoraSenate   #RegionBee

Region B Council Meeting #4, May

Earlier today, the Region B Senators presented to the Region Council during our fourth and final Region Council Meeting for Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17). The meeting agenda included updates from our Governor and Region Leaders on key items going on in the Society, our region, and a status of our FY17 goals. In addition, we received an update on the Governance Task Force from Penny Wirsing. They have been hard at work listening to member feedback and putting together an Implementation Plan that will allow our Society to maintain its strength as a driving force for promoting a diverse workforce and inclusion of all. The Region Collegiate Leadership Team provided updates on the work they have been doing to maintain engagement with the collegiate sections and we are working to close out the most recent region conference. While status updates aren’t always the most exciting thing to do on a Sunday morning – I greatly enjoyed these hours. I have often found that simply a lack of awareness of what other teams are doing and why they are doing it can be a root cause of many communication issues.

OK, enough porch talk from Natalie …

The Senators updated the Region Council on status of the motion S-1718 that is in front of us. If you aren’t familiar with this motion, you can read all about it on our blog. S-1718 is one of the actionable results of the governance work to date and is a road-map for bring all the strategic activities of the Society under the Senate’s accountabilities. Finally, we provided an update on the remaining actions for FY17 and officially welcomed our incoming Senators – Nadia Bess and Lucero (Lucy) Lopez! You can see the slides here for all the juicy details … because that is right, us Senators, we are bringing the juicy back to status updates!

 

#RegionBSenate   #SonoraSenate   #SWEBee

Call for Feedback on S-1718: Senate Procedure Update Motion

The Senate has a motion, S1718 – FY17 Senate Procedure Update SPC-SIC.docx, in front of us that will update our procedure document to:

1. Incorporate the roles and responsibilities of the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) and the Strategic Initiative Committee (SIC),
2. Reflect the Senate’s role in providing strategic planning support for the SWE committees, and
3. Reflect the Senate’s accountability to develop SWE’s 5-year strategic plan.

Updates are shown as “Track Changes” in the red-lined file located here: S1718a-SWE Senate Procedure Effective 1-28-17 SPC_SIC edits to senators (1).docx.

If you have any feedback in regards to the changes proposed in this motion; please provide this to one of your Senators as soon as possible. This motion will be voted on electronically before the end of FY17.

 

#SonoraSenate    #SWEBee   #RegionBSenate

Last Call for FY18 Committee Members

May 1st is not only the deadline to cast your vote in the Society and Region elections for FY18 … it is also the deadline for volunteering for a Society level committee. Your Senators and Region Leadership Team are good resources if you would like help finding a committee that matches your interests – feel free to reach out to any of us.

See below for the detailed email from Jonna Gerken, FY17 President Elect, on how to sign up today for one of these rewarding volunteer roles.

---

Reminder: FY18 Call for Committee Members- Due by May 1st

SWE Members,

The call for FY18 committee members ends May 1, 2017. The power of our committees and our volunteers is what moves SWE forward. Society committees are also a major aspect of our talent development pipeline process. I encourage both collegiates and professionals to join the SWE volunteer team for FY18.

Find a committee that matches your interests and availability in FY18. There are a wide range of opportunities and levels of commitment.

Changes for FY18:

• Both the Strategic Planning Committee & the Strategic Initiatives Committee have been sunset. The work is moving to the Senate.
• A Leadership Summit Task Force has been created to develop recommendations on how to conduct future Leadership Summits without regions.

If you would like to continue serving on a committee, please confirm with your current leader. For any new roles, please complete the simple online volunteer interest form by May 1, 2017. Questions about a committee? Find contact information for current chairs on the committees page.

SWE values diversity and thus I encourage all of you to think about the opportunity of serving on a committee. Thanks to all who are currently serving. I am looking forward to another great year of progress.

Jonna Gerken
FY17 President Elect

“Getting Strategic” by Kate Van Dellen

I couldn’t have said it any better … Kate Van Dellen, Region C Professional Senator, authored an excellent recap of the FY17 Strategic Planning Committee’s activities in her blog post on the Society Senate Website.

Take a look for yourself at http://senate.swe.org/blog/getting-strategic

 

#RegionBSenate   #SWEBee    #SonoraSenate

 

Cast Your Vote Today!

Don’t forget to vote for FY18 Society and Region Leadership by May 1st.

Cast your ballot to select candidates for these roles:

• President-Elect
• Secretary
• Two Directors
• Deputy Director of Regions
• Three Trustees
• Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Secretary of the Senate (elected by Members of the Senate)
• Governors for Regions A, C, E, G and I (elected by region A, C, E, G and I members)
• One Professional Senate position from each region
• One International Professional Senate position (elected by international members)

For information on the candidates or to cast your vote go to SWE.SocietyElection.com and enter your unique control code to access the site. Your unique control code was emailed to you on April 1st from hq@swe.org.

FY18 Region Slate Announced

I want to congratulate the Sonora Region Members that have been slated for upcoming FY18 leadership roles! If you haven’t seen the slate yet, I encourage you to take a look and review the candidate statements (see the links below). Several of the positions, collegiate and professional, are contested this year and our elections are right around the corner.

The slate list also includes the procedure to be a petition candidate which is due to Renee DeFeo at nominations@sweregionb.org by March 20.

Professional Candidates: http://sweregionb.org/wp_files/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/FY18-Professional-Slate.pdf

Collegiate Candidates: http://sweregionb.org/wp_files/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RCT-Candidates.pdf

 

#SonoraSenate   #RegionBSenate   #SWEBee   @SWEBee  #SWERegionB   #SWERegionBee

Winter Senate Meeting Recap

Below is a high level recap of the Winter Senate Meeting held in Austin, Texas. All three Senators from Region B were in attendance. Fran and Britany will share additional details during the Region Business Meeting at conference this weekend. 

The following motions passed and the background and details of these are on the Senate website (Senate.swe.org):

• S-1713: Other Groups
• S-1714: Collegiate Director Eligibility 
• S-1715: Senate Procedures Updates
• S-1716: Procedure Review for SWE Membership Conduct 

The following are highlights on the discussion on strategic planning:

• We will be incorporating the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) and Strategic Initiatives Committee (SIC) into the Senate for next year. The Senate will be the strategic body of SWE, per the current bylaws. Aligning these groups will the Senate will facilitate this effort.
• Region Impact: All Regions need to ensure we nominate big-picture people to be on the SWE Senate for next year. It would be ideal for the senate nominees to be active learners and have backgrounds with strategic planning. In future years, Senators will be vetted by the Society Nomination Committee.
• A motion was added to the agenda, from the floor. This motion passed to help with upcoming governance changes and continuing to commit SWE’s resources to this effort. The Society bylaws have not been changed yet, but the Senate was asked to approve the general direction of the governance changes that include:

1. Collegiates will be granted full voting rights in SWE
2. Terms for senate members will be 3 years
3. All Senate nominations and elections will be competency-based without regard for geographic location
4. Regions shall be dissolved by end of FY18
5. Selection of the Society nominating committee will be on the basis of competency, not based on geographic location 

 Check out governance.swe.org for upcoming updates.

#RegionBSenate  #SWEBee  #SonoraSenate