Welcome to Waterloo, Engineers of 2020! We are Abdullah Barakat and Don Tu, your Vice-Presidents Finance (VPF) of the Engineering Society (EngSoc)! Don, the VPF of B-Society, will be on campus in the Fall and is very excited to be seeing all of your faces. Abdullah, his A-Society counterpart, will be around in the Winter term and is just as excited to meet those of you who will be around then. If excitement were a currency, we’d pay off all of your tuition fees and throw a massive party!
Unfortunately, emotions are not legal tender and we can’t do that—instead, we’re doing the next best thing, which is managing the Engineering Society’s funds in ways that can help improve your experience as an engineering undergraduate student. For example, one of our main responsibilities is the creation of the termly EngSoc budget. This budget (funded by the $15.75 EngSoc fee that you pay every term) is where all the money for all of the great EngSoc events, services, and programs comes from. Every term, EngSoc Directors submit budget proposals to us, and we then work with them to create a budget that outlines where the money goes. Once we’ve decided on a fair budget and get it approved by the EngSoc Council, Directors are all clear to roll out the awesome events!
Another large part of our portfolios is managing the two shops that EngSoc runs: Novelties, the EngSoc merchandise/swag shop, and RidgidWare, an electronics and hardware store. Novelties, located right next to POETS in Carl Pollock Hall (CPH), is the only place on campus where you can get engineering-specific swag. We have shirts, sweaters, hats, scarves, glassware, and even pajamas available! On the other hand, RidgidWare is a handy source for all the things that an electronics hobbyist may desire. We have supplies such as LEDs, breadboards, Arduinos, and more!
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 Engineering Society Student Deals sticker on your WatCard. With this sticker, you can go to various restaurants in the community and get exclusive deals! We currently have arrangements with over seven different stores and are always looking to expand the program.
That is all we have for you in this edition of the Iron Warrior. We thank you for reading, and also for supporting the Engineering Society. We hope that you can find something from the vast selection of EngSoc services, events, and programs that you can enjoy and benefit from. Until then, feel free to check out our website, engsoc.uwaterloo.ca, to see what’s going on. You can also e-mail us at vpfinance@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca.
We wish you a great Orientation Week, and hope you say hi to us on campus!
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