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 Our current bylaws are out of date and have mandatory changes that need to be made per the updated Society Bylaws.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!

Wrapping Party and Potluck

SWE Greatland gathered for our annual wrapping party and potluck this past Wednesday, December 8th. We sponsored 17 backpacks through the Anchorage Home Builders Association (AHBA) program. Our members had a lot of fun playing Santa's elves to give children in our community a bright Christmas. A huge thanks to Susie Gaulke for coordinating our participation again this year! Many thanks to the extra elves for bringing paper and their mad wrapping skills to lighten the load!

Tanya Hickok hard at work.

Sarah Stephens and Irene Sipin (mad skills!)

Irene Sipin, Devki White, and Jenny Cronlund

Our littlest elf - Jedrek Chmielowski

Sixth-Best Job in America? Yours

Money magazine's ranking of civil engineering as the sixth-best job in America was spotlighted in a recent CNN video. ASCE shared the good press with its members. And the best part? The engineer highlighted was a woman! Check out the article and video - http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=12884902060.

Prison Tour

SWE Greatland members toured the Goose Creek Correctional Center on Thursday, September 23rd. The site is monstrous and has design details unlike any other project we've seen! Thanks to Clayton at Neeser for guiding us through (and back out of) the site safely! Here are a few highlights:

Networking cables in the Guard Tower

Back-up fuel tanks

We need more power!

One of two security fences.

Bunk beds, anyone?

Cells under construction