Welcome to Waterloo Engineering! We are the Vice-Presidents Operations & Finance of the Waterloo Engineering Society, Abdullah Barakat and Katie Arnold! Abdullah, A-Soc’s VPF, will be serving you this fall, and Katie, his B-Soc counterpart, will take office in the Winter. We are in charge of managing the Engineering Society’s funds in ways that can help improve your experience as an engineering undergraduate student at Waterloo!
One of our main responsibilities is the creation of the termly EngSoc budget. This budget (funded by the $15.90 EngSoc fee that you pay every term) is where we get all the money for the great events, services, and programs that EngSoc has to offer. Once the budget is approved by the EngSoc Council, our Directors are all clear to roll out the awesome events! Another large part of our portfolio is managing the major service operations that EngSoc runs: Novelties, RidgidWare, and POETS. Information on these services are explained in this issue of the Iron Warrior. We are in charge of handling the day-to-day operations of these services, maintaining the inventory within Novelties and RidgidWare, and managing our student lounge such that everyone feels welcome and included.
The VPOF is also responsible for the sponsorship initiatives run by the Engineering Society. Each term, a certain percentage of the budget is allocated towards sponsorship, to which any student group can apply for funding. It is exciting to see the innovative student body working on a number of incredible projects. A committee of students, overseen by the VPOF, then decides how the money will be allocated in order to best benefit the engineering students at Waterloo.
We also chair the Engineering Capital Improvements Fund (ECIF) Committee each term, which is a fund used to make purchases to improve engineering student life at Waterloo. Items such as new furniture for POETS or upgrading supplies in the Engineering Society Office have been purchased through this fund. The fund is always taking applications, so if you have something that you think we should purchase, let us know!
Last but not least, we are in charge of the Student Deals program. If you’ve paid your EngSoc fee for the term, you can go to the Engineering Society Office in CPH and get the EngSoc Student Deals sticker on your WatCard! With this sticker, you can go to various community establishments get exclusive deals! We currently have arrangements with about eight different stores and are always looking to expand the program.
We are very excited to have you as part of our engineering community. Thank you for taking the time to read our article, and we hope that you enjoy everything that EngSoc has to offer. Feel free to check out our website, engsoc.uwaterloo.ca, to see what’s going on. We wish you a great Orientation Week and hope you say hi on campus!
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