How EngSoc Communicates with YOU!

Hey everyone! I hope midterm season has been going well for you. If you’ve still got some to go, keep on at it and you’ll make it through eventually 🙂

With a whole week spent on midterms, not too much has happened since last time. Our Snapchat geofilter design contest recently closed, so we’ll be picking a winner and announcing the results at a future Council meeting. We also managed to squeeze in an exec update video with a new twist, so make sure to check it out on our Youtube channel! Going forward, every exec update video will have a different theme to keep it interesting. Regarding the communications survey we conducted back in winter 2017, there were some delays in setting up the meeting for all four VP Comms to go over the results. However, it’ll finally be happening this week, so we’re still going to have a report ready by JAGM! I’m also currently working with Melissa to get our conference report done and up on the website. Blog posts from our AGM delegates are rolling in, so they’ll be published soon as well.

Now let’s switch topics for a sec to an issue that has probably always existed and unfortunately likely always will: student engagement—or rather, lack thereof. One thing that I hear more often than I should from students is that they don’t know what EngSoc does. “What is the role of the Engineering Society?” “What do it even do?” “How do I stay updated?” “Why should I care?” Needless to say, these are all hard but important questions that likely every EngSoc exec team has tried to address over the years.

 In the past and present, EngSoc has made several strides in increasing the effectiveness of our communications. We’ve created a dedicated team of marketing directors to improve the quality of our poster designs when advertising events and services. We posted our office hours publicly to make the executive more accessible. We’ve jumped on pretty much all the social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Snapchat (Yes! There is indeed an EngSoc Snapchat account, but it’s not very active). For my team in particular, we’ve done exec video updates, provided written updates on our goals at Council meetings, and streamlined the content sent through the mailing list to make the emails more relevant. So what has worked and what hasn’t? I think some answers will be found in the communications survey results, while others will have to be uncovered by speaking to more members of the student body.

 If you’re reading this article, that means you already frequent the Iron Warrior, which is wonderful! Our student newspaper is a great place to get updates from the exec, but there are many other channels that you can follow to get the latest scoop on EngSoc news! They are:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uwengsoc/. We update this the most often, so make sure to give it a like and follow it!

• Mailing List: http://bit.ly/mailengsoc. Our lovely Advertising Commissioner, Sarah, sends out weekly emails to tell you about upcoming events for the week. You can subscribe to certain categories so you only get notified about the things you’re interested in!

• Website: https://www.engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/. It is slightly concerning the number of students who exclaim “Wow, I didn’t know EngSoc had a website?!” Yup, we do, and it is the central hub for all things EngSoc, including our lovely event calendar (http://bit.ly/engeventcalendar) and exam bank (http://bit.ly/engexambank).

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/EngSoc or search @EngSoc on your mobile Twitter app.

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uwengsoc/ or search “uwengsoc” on your mobile Instagram app.

• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/UWEngsoc. It’s been revived from the dead!

• Poster Boards: We have them in pretty much all of the engineering buildings on campus. Take a moment to read the posters to learn about new opportunities and things to look forward to!

• LCD Screens: Have you ever seen the LCD screens in the CPH foyer, in E3, or in E5 near the ground-floor Engineering Student Machine Shop? These screens are all managed by EngSoc and feature upcoming events and opportunities for you to get involved.

 So that’s my list of all the ways EngSoc communicates with YOU. Do you think how we currently communicate is effective enough? What could we be doing better? Or more of? Or less of? Shoot me an email at vpcomm.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca to let me know. Until next time, thanks for reading!