Two years and eight months of my life have been spent as an executive officer of the Waterloo Engineering Society. It’s hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t respond to EngSoc emails in class, or to imagine where I’m supposed to study if not the exec desks in the EngSoc office, and it is strange for me to picture what my next academic term will be like when I’m not planning the next council meeting, organizing logistics for an event, or preparing to meet with the faculty on behalf of 7000 students. My classmates can attest to how I’ve been in perpetual motion since I took the mantle of VP Operations and Finance in 2016, and as my 16 month Presidential term comes to an end, I look forward to taking the rest of 2019 at a slower pace.
As platform goals survive, http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/2017/09/23/43041/presidential-bio-katie-arnold/, I can tell you that we have since moved into E7. With much of the credit belonging to Mary Bland and our VPs Finance, our new C&D and Ridgidware have opened smoothly. A partnership has been established to bring Print and Retail Services together with the Sedra Student Design Center and the Engineering Society to give students more access to components but also to roll out our Tool Loan program.
The revitalization of POETS furniture, as established in the POETS Furniture Plan, is a project spanning several years, but is well underway. At this point all of the couches have been replaced (even if the old ones are still around) and we’ve moved on to securing funding for our chairs.
The UWaterloo EngiQueers is now a fully-fledged affiliate of the Engineering Society, and the groundwork for new partnerships within the University of Waterloo community and further support of our students has been well laid by Nonso, our new VP Communications, who worked with me for the past term in this area and will continue it in the future. I’m excited by developments in multi-faith prayer space in the engineering buildings that I have been pushing towards, and I’m also proud of the work VPSL Ashley and VPComm Grant have been doing for our event accessibility.
Other aspects of my student life plan included events with faculties and Upper Year Appreciation. While I do think that scheduling difficulties have led UYA to an untimely end, I believe our partnerships with the other faculty societies are stronger than ever, as I co-led an All-Societies-Assembly in January 2019, where we discussed issues faced by the campus at large, gave direction to Feds VP Education Matt in his advocacy efforts, and shared best practices. Our mental health directors are running an event with MathSoc (that I cannot take credit for) and our semi-formal is being jointly run with AHSUM.
Since September 2016, my executive team raised over $2700 for the Trevor Project. I have given 21 council updates, participated in 41 EngSoc council meetings, and spoken at 18 Board of Directors Meetings. I was given the honour of overseeing 4(.5) termly budgets, attending 12 conferences, and have been directly involved in delivering 19 awards to engineering students. I have sat on 11 faculty and student committees, and represented Waterloo Engineering on 5 tiers of academic or advocacy councils. I will have presented at 3 joint general meetings, two of which I orchestrated with the support of my executive and officer team. Within B-Society, I have had the honour of working with the endlessly supportive, focused, and accomplished Mary Bland, two amazing C&D Supervisors, Lily and Ashley, 34 dedicated commissioners and officers, 11 passionate executive, and more hardworking and caring directors and staff than I have the ability to count.
With 317 days until I receive my Iron Ring, I am excited for the next challenge.
For the last time, I am your On-Term Engineering Society President Katie Arnold, and you can reach me with any questions or concerns at president.b@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca. If you reach out after April 2019, you’ll find yourself in good hands with my successor, Ellen McGee.
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