Letter to the Editor: The Outsiders Must Also Make an Effort to Get Involved

Re: An Outsider’s Look into the Engineering Society

I can still remember my first Engineering Society meeting back in 2A; drunk, heckling 4^th years at the back of the room, attendees blurting out inside jokes while others are speaking, and being given the finger the first time I ever spoke at the meeting. Doesn’t sound very inviting now does it? No, it definitely wasn’t for an easily intimidated 2^nd year and because of it, I felt like an outsider.

In fact, my experiences at my first meeting somewhat mirror an article in The Iron Warrior (Volume 27 Issue 10 – July 20, 2006) written by Peter Szabo entitled, “The Story of an Engineering Society Rep: Why I Love EngSoc.” For those of you who don’t know this particular backstory, this article, and another published in the same issue got the newspaper pulled from the stands. A follow-up issue was published the following week giving those who pulled the newspaper a chance to respond.

My first experiences with the society weren’t the most pleasant, but I continued to attend meetings in my academic terms and still do to this day.  Although I was intimidated and felt like an outsider at first, as the academic terms went by, I became more involved and my feeling of being an outsider began to change. I was the Editor-in-Chief of The Iron Warrior in my 3A term last spring, and held my first directorship this term under the Engineering Society as the Competitions Director. Contrary to belief of my classmates and some people who know me fairly well – I haven’t been heavily involved with the Society.

As even more time went by, I began to understand more of what the Society does and how the executive represents their members. In last issue’s letter from the editor, the Editor author admitted she, and those around her do not really know exactly what the executive really do but if more people knew, they may find there is more to the Engineering Society than what meets the common eye.

As somewhat of an outsider to the Engineering Society at a point in time, how did I begin to understand about how the executive and society impacts me? I was surprised to find out the information had been right with me since my first interaction with my frosh leaders. Remember “The Book” you received in your frosh kits? Well, go find it, open it up – all the information about the society is in there. Don’t have that book anymore? http://engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/.  All the information one seeks about the society is there as well – I dare  you to read it; get informed.

The Executive and the Society do make sincere attempts to disseminate this information to its members. Remember that old simple adage – You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink? The same applies to this situation as well. People themselves need to make the effort to get involved, and read this information on their own as the Society can only do so much on their part to get the word out and it would be impossible to reach out to all members, but alas as mentioned, they do make a sincere attempt.

Some advice. To the “outsiders”: The “insiders” that “outsiders” see within the society are just as intimidated by an “outsiders” presence at a society gathering. Be proactive and initiate a conversation yourself. To the “insiders”: see someone new at a meeting or an event? Go talk to them, be nice, and limit the inside joke’s around the person, or else it creates an unwelcoming environment.

Also, remember my first paragraph where I practically stated that Society meetings are essentially 4^th year drunken, inside joke blurting, finger giving messes? Well, things have changed, thankfully. There is no drinking anymore, council follows Robert’s Rules of Order, and people are much more respectful and productive. The finger thing still exists, and it means you are too quiet and need to speak up. To outsiders at their first meeting, they of course don’t know what it means, and it’s quite often I see “outsiders” horrified looks when people give them the finger.

In all, the society requires people to put the work in themselves to get informed and get involved. Here are some good links to get you started – http://engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/representation, http://engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/about, http://engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/services.

Thanks,

Angelo Alaimo

4A Electrical Engineering