SWE Greatland Update 11-29-11

Holiday season is here, but don't forget to squeeze in a few SWE activities into your busy schedule....SWE Greatland Update 11-29-11.

SWE Greatland Update 11-22-11

We have a lot to be thankful for - donors, volunteers, outreach opportunities, and more...SWE Greatland Update 11-22-11.

SWE Greatland Update 11-15-11

Volunteer, stay involved...SWE Greatland Update 11-15-11.

SWE Greatland Meeting: Exercising Both Sides of Your Brain!

What a great turnout at our monthly meeting today! With 16 attendees, the meeting was lead by Stephanie Mormilo and Julie Morman who helped us exercise the right side of the brain. As engineers, we often use the left side - the reasoning side of our brains. With some simple exercises that was introduced to us at the meeting, it helped us use both sides our brains and expand our thinking in new ways. It definitely made us think of our natural reactions to situations and how we can challenge ourselves to tap into our non-dominant side. As always, it was great to see new faces at the meeting! We hope the interest continues in the future.

SWE Greatland Update 11-8-11

We have lots to look forward to, check it out...SWE Greatland Update 11-8-11.

SWE Greatland Board Meeting

SWE Greatland Board met today to discuss upcoming activities, Engineer of the Year nominations, fundraising, scholarships, and E-Week. We will be sending out fundraising letters soon. We fundraise for scholarships and several outreach programs including Girl Scout workshops. If you are interested in helping or donating, contact any of our board members. We are also looking forward to a few popular activities coming up: monthly meeting (Nov. 9th), professional development workshop (Dec. 3rd), and shoebox program (Dec. 14th). To review the board meeting minutes, click here. If you want to learn more about our future events, sign up for our email updates by contacting Melissa Branch.

Midnight Sun Brewery Tour

Thanks to Katie Johnson for organizing a tour of the Midnight Sun Brewery last night. We had an excellent turnout with new faces and great social dinner after the tour. Gary, our tour guide, was very informative and highlighted interesting facts on the oldest brewery in Anchorage. We were also excited to find out that he started his career life as a civil engineer! Midnight Sun had a great selection of festive beers and even featured a tasty beer for breast cancer awareness.

New Addition to the Nutter Family

Congratulations to Keri Nutter, Outreach Co-Chair, in delivering a healthy baby girl on Oct. 25th! Welcome the newest member of the SWE Greatland Section, Audrey Grace. Audrey was born at 4:17pm weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and 20.5 inches long. The Nutter family is happy and healthy. We can only hope we have another engineer on our hands!

ASHRAE Presidential Member Bellenger Remembered

We are saddened to hear that another great female engineer has passed. Immediate past ASHRAE President Lynn G. Bellenger, who served as the first woman president in the Society’s 116 year history, passed away Wednesday, Oct. 19. She was president for the 2010-11 Society year, with her term ending in June 2011.

Bellenger, P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, was a recognized expert in energy management, with a strong focus on the need for energy modeling to help create and refine more efficient buildings. She was a partner, Pathfinder Engineers & Architects, Rochester, N.Y.

To honor the remarkable legacy that she leaves, ASHRAE announced on Friday the creation of the Lynn G. Bellenger Memorial Fund, which will be used to recognize women in engineering through scholarships or other means. Please click here if you would like to donate. Otherwise, contributions can be mailed to Lynn G. Bellenger Memorial Fund c/o ASHRAE 1791 Tullie Cir. NE Atlanta, GA 30329.

Bellenger was a recipient of an ASHRAE Exceptional Service Award, a Distinguished Service Award, two first-place ASHRAE Technology Awards and the Lincoln Bouillon Membership Award. She received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Principia College and a Master of Science in environmental science from Rutgers University.

SWE Greatland Meeting: Women & Politics

Thanks to Janet Reiser for speaking at our monthly meeting today. As a female engineer, she shared her experiences in the world of politics - what made her run for State Senate, what campaigning was like, and lessons learned from the experience. It was very informative and enlightening. Thanks Janet!

SWE Greatland Update 10-18-11

October is looking busy, see what we've got to look forward to...SWE Greatland Update 10-18-11.

JBER Girl Scout Workshop

Volunteers Melissa Branch, Keri Nutter, Shorty Mormilo, and Jo Neumaier participated in the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) Girl Scouts Art, Architecture, and Engineering workshop at Ft Richardson today. This is the first time SWE Greatland has participated in this particular workshop. Approximately 80 girls grades 4 through 9 attended and participated in the event. Our activity was "dirt towers" to explain and exhibit the use of geosynthetics to strengthen roads, retaining structures, and embankments. Thanks to the volunteers that gave up their Saturday to educate our future engineers!

KAKM Harvest of Wines

Thanks to the 15 volunteers that helped out with the annual KAKM Harvest of Wines. Your hard work made the event run smoothly and KAKM is grateful for your time and dedication. It was a good time by all with silent auction, live auction, and great food with wine. It gives us a great opportunity to publicize SWE and network with the community. Thanks again to: Becky, Jason, Cindy, Melissa, Kristin, Katie, Sarah, Laura, Tanya, Keri, Tyler, Sharon, Karen, Haide, and Jen.

SWE Greatland Board Meeting

The SWE Greatland officers met today to discuss upcoming meetings for the rest of the year, potential leadership workshop, volunteer opportunities, and approved the FY12 budget. This month we are busy with helping at KAKM Harvest of Wines (Oct 14th), JBER Girl Scout workshop (Oct 15th), our monthly meeting "Women in Politics" (Oct 19th), and the brewery tour at Midnight Sun (Oct 26th). Click here to view our meeting minutes. If you are interested in any of our activities, contact any of our officers, sign up for our weekly updates, or look us up on facebook!

2012 SWE Greatland Scholarship

SWE Greatland is launching their scholarship program again this year! They are awarding (2) $1500 scholarships and (1) $1000 scholarship. Applicant eligibility includes: female, high school senior in the state of Alaska, and intends on enrolling in an ABET-accredited engineering program at a four-year college or university. Applications must be most postmarked by February 22, 2012. For an electronic application and reference form, click on the following links: Scholarship Application Form; Scholarship Reference From.

SWE Greatland Update 9-26-11

Stay in the loop...SWE Greatland Update 9-26-11.

SWE Greatland Kick-Off Meeting

Thanks to those that came to our kick-off meeting! It was good to see all the old faces and meet the new. We encourage new faces to learn about the section, see how you can benefit from SWE, and volunteer. We are constantly looking for suggestions on how to be a better section, so we appreciate your feedback! The meeting was held during lunch today since it was requested that we try lunch meetings as it may be more convenient for our members. It was a casual potluck meeting with ice breakers, information on SWE Greatland and what we have planned for the fiscal year, and prizes. It was a good time by all and we hope to see everyone again next month!

SWE Greatland Update 9-13-11

Lots of opportunities...SWE Greatland Update 9-13-11.

SWE Greatland Update 9-2-11

Looking to volunteer? See how you can...SWE Greatland Update 9-2-11.

In Loving Memory - Trish Opheen

As many of you know, we lost one of our own recently. Patricia (Trish) Opheen died on Thursday, August 18th. Trish was our Engineer of the Year in 2006. She most recently participated in our Lessons Learned panel in May. Several of us attended her memorial service. It was sad and beautiful and extremely well attended - a testament to the impact Trish had on this community. Trish was an amazing woman and engineer. She will be greatly missed.

SWE Greatland Board Kick-Off: Part 2

SWE Greatland Board met again today to continue their previous board meeting. We just have so much to discuss and plan for the upcoming year! Today we discussed professional development workshop topics, social lunches, outreach activities, charity walks/runs, community involvement, publicity, collegiate sections, conferences, national reporting, and succession planning. To review our meeting minutes, click here. Please contact any of our officers if you if have any suggestions, questions, or feedback. We would love to hear from you!

SWE Greatland Board Kick-Off: Part 1

SWE Greatland had their first FY12 board meeting today. We discussed the budget, initiating the scholarships again this year, membership, future board meetings, meeting topics, and technical tours. A poll recently went out to the section and we have incorporated everyone's feedback for our FY12 events. Look for our future email updates for information, time, and dates! We hope to have an exciting SWE year!

SWE Greatland Social Lunch

SWE Greatland had their first social lunch of FY12 at Doriolas today. It was great to get together and catch up with everyone and hear what they've been doing this past summer. We hope to see you all again in future socal lunches and meetings. Stay tuned!

SWE Greatland Update 8-12-11

See what's going on in SWE Greatland World...SWE Greatland Update 8-12-11.

Welcome New Committee Chair: Katie Johnson

Welcome to SWE FY12! Your dedicated board and committee chairs have committed to serving another year of SWE. To learn more about your officers, click here. We would also like to welcome an additional committee chair this year, Katie Johnson. Katie is our new Continuing Development Chairperson.

Katie (Katherine) Johnson was born and raised in Anchorage Alaska. While pursuing a degree in mathematics in Indiana she decided that she ultimately wanted to live in Alaska. When she graduated from Purdue in December 2003 she returned to Fairbanks to see what could be done with her education. After teaching 8th grade for a year she decided to return to college to obtain a second degree. In 2006 she went back to school at the University Alaska Fairbanks to obtain a second bachelors in mechanical engineering. While there she tutored students in developmental math, was the Chair of the student chapter of ASME, and a member of SWE and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. After graduating in May 2008 she worked for a year on the Denali gas pipeline project studying and monitoring temperature data before coming on board with Michael Baker Jr. as an E.I.T. in June 2009.

Katie will be in charge of coordinating our Saturday professional development workshop and helping out with our monthly meeting topics. If you are interested in being on her committee, you can contact her by email.

We Need Your Comments: Region J By-Law Changes

Comment Away! Please comment here or send comments to chmielowskil@eeiteam.com by August 29, 2011.

Region J needs to submit updated bylaws to the Society Secretary in order to remain in compliance with Society policies. Our current bylaws are out of date and have mandatory changes that need to be made per the updated Society Bylaws. The following link is to an updated version of our bylaws in accordance with FY 12 SWE REgion Bylaws template https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UelLY9rUGqzCbUWGZl4xT4KkaxTccotODR4BtJl4dy0/edit?hl=en_US

The new bylaws will be voted on at WE11.

SWE Greatland Update 8-4-11

Time flies! SWE FY12 is already here! There are several ways you can stay in the loop, volunteer, and hear what's going on in the community: get on our mailing list to receive our electronic updates, "Like" us on Facebook, and check out our SWE Greatland Calendar. See what's going on this year so far...SWE Greatland Update 8-4-11.

SWE Greatland President Weds!

Congratulations to SWE Greatland President, Melissa (Mormilo) Branch! Melissa married Robert Branch today at St. Anthony's Church in Anchorage, Alaska. It was a beautiful summer Alaskan day with great company and good food. Melissa looked beautiful in her wedding dress. We were all surprised with a serended traditional African song by the priest; even the bride and groom were pleasantly surprised! The food was catered by Two Fat Guys Catering and all the dishes were delicious, as were the homemade cupcakes made by a special friend in lieu of a wedding cake. Several SWE members attended the ceremony and reception and we were even delighted to see that FY12 Director of Regions, Linda Thomas, flew up from WA for the celebration!