Hello again everyone, I hope you have been enjoying your term so far. Midterms are right around the corner, and things are getting busier than ever for EngSoc!
Our Joint Council meeting is coming up in two short weeks, the day after Summer Leader Retreat, on Sunday June 22nd at 10am in DC 1351. Some changes that are being proposed include the adoption of new governing documents, which are being recommended by the Governance Review Committee. This motion, if carried, will result in an election being held at the meeting for eight Board of Directors’ seats: four for A Society and four for B Society. Elections are also being proposed for two Chief Returning Officers, and for the at-large members for an Executive Review Committee. The Executive Review Committee will be responsible for objectively examining the current EngSoc executive structure and proposing a rearrangement of the executive duties, including the creation or retirement of executive positions. If you are interested in running for any of these positions, please read the Joint Council material available on the Society website and come out to the meeting! Be prepared to present a very brief speech detailing your interest in the position and any experience or skills you have, whether they be EngSoc-related or not. All interested students are encouraged to attend and run, regardless of whether or not they are class reps!
Also coming up at Joint Council is a motion to create a Teaching Excellence Award. The Engineering Society is hoping to begin the process of recognizing teaching excellence in the Faculty of Engineering, whether that be by a professor, lecturer or lab instructor. This new policy, if adopted, will regulate the termly formation of a Teaching Excellence Award Committee, which will collect nominations from students and present the award to one winner per term. The winner will then be nominated for further awards both campus-wide and externally. It is the hope that this recognition of exceptional teaching will motivate instructors to work to increase student satisfaction with their lessons, and allow those who go above and beyond to be recognized by the student body in a meaningful way. This will also hopefully increase exposure of Waterloo Engineering teaching excellence to the rest of Waterloo and to external groups.
Two more big things that the Engineering Society is trying to adopt are Mission and Vision statements, which serve to define the purpose and direction of the Society. These have been written and rewritten over the past three years by six previous sets of executive, and are finally ready to be presented and adopted! These will also be voted on at Joint Council, and hopefully be incorporated into the new bylaws to be preserved for years to come.
In other news, Leadership Award applications are still open until June 15th – that’s this Sunday! The award description, nomination package and eligibility requirements are all available on engsoc.uwaterloo.ca. The award is $1000, so please be sure to check it out before the deadline!
All Joint Council items and awards 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, and I hope to see you at the meeting!
Leave a Reply