SWE Boston is run by members like yourself who help us plan programs, reach out to the community, and perform the general administrative duties. Volunteering with SWE Boston is a great way to build professional skills: team leadership, meeting planning, presentation and facilitation, and negotiating are just some areas you can gain expertise.
Volunteer positions give a great deal of visibility and networking opportunities. Responsibilities range from a few hours one time to an ongoing commitment. Many of the positions do not involve attending any meetings and can be done on your own time. Volunteering is a great way to meet other SWE members and have a lot of fun! Read more about different SWE Boston committees below.
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee hosts several events throughout the course of the year including networking mixers, guided hiking tours, attending local sporting events, and meetups at the WE Local and Annual Conferences.
Outreach Committee
The K-12 Outreach Committee coordinates programs concerning career guidance that inform women, their families, guidance counselors, and the public in general, of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers and the opportunities open to them. Current programs include Mentoring, Girl Scout Badge Workshops, School Outreach, Speakers Bureau, Informational Interviewing, Job Shadow, Merit Certificates, Scholarships, and Science Fair Judging. You can help out on this committee by helping to plan an outreach event, mentoring students via email, participating in job shadow or informational interviewing, speaking to students about engineering, mailing letters to guidance counselors, judging a science fair, and in countless other ways. For more information, contact our K-12 Outreach VP at outreach@sweboston.org.
Professional Development Committee
SWE’s Professional Development programs include notable speakers, workshops, panel discussions, and joint events with other engineering societies. Your involvement in the committee will help you to develop leadership skills and gain visibility within SWE, your company, and the community. You can participate in the following ways:
- Be a speaker coordinator for one of our monthly meetings
- Suggest a speaker who might be a good fit to address SWE Boston
- Be a location coordinator for a meeting by making arrangements for the meal and meeting location
- Be an overall coordinator and create the meeting notice as well as oversee the speaker and location coordinator’s tasks
- Work with your employer to host or sponsor a meeting
- Help at the registration table at a meeting
Nominating Committee
A. The executive council shall elect at least three members to serve on the nominating committee. The nominating committee shall select its own chair, who must be a non-collegiate member of the Society but does not need to have been elected to the committee by the executive council.
B. Members of the nominating committee may not become candidates during their tenure of service on the nominating committee.
C. The nominating committee shall propose at least one qualified candidate for each of the officer positions. The slate shall be presented to the members of the section by mail, electronic mail, or posting on the section web site by April 15 of each year.
D. Additional candidates may be nominated by petition, provided that:
- The member is eligible for the position;
- The member has given written consent to being placed on the ballot;
- A minimum of two percent or five of the voting members of the section, whichever is greater, have signed a petition or endorsed an email to place the candidate’s name on the ballot; and
- The petition, together with the written consent, is submitted to the chair of the nominating committee by April 30 or fifteen days after the slate is announced to the members of the section, whichever is later.
E. The chair of the nominating committee shall arrange for the distribution of ballots to occur at least twenty-one days prior to the required return date for the vote. Voting may be by mail, electronic mail or web-based provided that mail ballots are sent to those without electronic access. The chair of the nominating committee shall select a tellers committee to receive and count the votes, and to report the results to the president.
F. The voting members of the section shall elect the section officers.
G. A plurality shall elect for each office. Write-in votes for eligible candidates shall be allowed. In the event of a tie, the election for that position shall be determined by lot, conducted by the chair of the nominating committee.
