Hi UW Engineers! Glad to see you all made it out of hell week in one piece! The hard work is behind us for now, but we have lots going on to carry us to the end of the term. But first, in case you missed our Joint Council meeting this past Sunday, here is a summary of everything you need to know about what happened.
One major thing that was established is a board of directors for the society. Eight at-large students are to be elected to represent both A and B Society on this board along with both presidents and our society business manager, Mary, who will have a seat and make recommendations to the board but not vote on the student decisions. The B-Soc at-large director elections were tabled and are to be held on Wednesday July 9 at the EngSoc meeting. If you are interested in running for one of the four seats, please plan to attend the meeting or be able to be contacted at that time to accept your nomination. A Society will hold their elections for Board of Directors members at their first Fall meeting. Moving forward, the board will meet approximately three times per term beginning in September, and serve until the beginning of the next Fall term. After this, elections for board members will continue to be held in June.
Another major thing that was established are general meetings, which are set to begin in September as well. Each on-term society will be required to hold a general meeting once per term, as well as a joint general meeting annually in the Spring term. General meetings allow all student members (not just class reps!) to vote at council meetings once per term. This is to increase accountability and bring bigger items to the attention of all students in a meaningful way.
The EngSoc fee has also increased by 23 cents due to the rate of inflation. This is standard procedure and happens every year in order for us to retain the same buying power for the society. This was also approved at Joint Council.
The Engineering Society also adopted a new policy regarding a Teaching Excellence Award, which would recognize outstanding teaching in the Faculty of Engineering, whether that be by a professor, lecturer or lab instructor. In September, the first Teaching Excellence Award Committee will form, and will form again each term. The elections for the at-large student members to these committees will take place at the first EngSoc council meeting of each term. We also formed an Executive Review Committee that will objectively examine the portfolios of the current society exec and propose changes to the positions that will improve the way the society is run. The committee members will meet regularly until next June. The elections for the Executive Review Committee seats were also tabled and will be held with the Board of Directors elections at the July 9th EngSoc meeting. Anyone is eligible to run for any of the positions listed in this article, so please ask me any questions you may have about the positions and I would be happy to answer you.
The society also adopted mission and vision statements at the meeting. The mission of the Society reads “The University of Waterloo Engineering Society exists to promote a positive undergraduate experience among its members through representation of student opinion as well as support of academic, professional and social needs. The society will strive to provide means for its members to develop and succeed as undergraduate students, and in their future endeavors.“ The vision of the Society reads “The University of Waterloo Engineering Society will work to better facilitate representation of its students on all relevant matters. The Society will strive to grow and improve its academic, professional and social events and services to cater to the expanding diversity of its members.”
Also at the meeting, updates were presented from all executives. Leila, the A-Society president, and I presented our joint initiatives for the next year. I will discuss these in more detail in the next Iron Warrior issue, so stay tuned!
All Joint Council motions mentioned in this executive report are available on the Society website at engsoc.uwaterloo.ca. If you have any questions, or have anything else you’d like to hear about or ask me, please shoot me an email at president.b@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca, or come by the orifice anytime! Talk to you soon B-Soc!
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