FY09 End-of-Year Bar-B-Que

Another successful year down, SWE Greatland held their annual end-of-year bar-b-que on June 25th to celebrate all their hard work! Laura Strand was generous enough to host the event at her house and surprised us all with a wonderful spread of seasoned steak and chicken. We welcomed new faces and had about a dozen attendees. The weather held out for us and we enjoyed the sunshine with good company. We look forward to our summer break to gear up for new activities for FY10! Congratulations to our new FY10 SWE Greatland Board:

President - Melissa Mormilo
Vice President - Susie Gaulke
Secretary - Stephanie Mormilo
Treasurer - Maria Kampsen
Section Rep - LaQuita Chmielowski

AK Run for Women Port-a-Potty

It never fails...always seems to rain on us when it's time to decorate a port-a-potty for the run for women! Melissa, Stephanie, Susie, and Cindy still managed to put their decorating skills to the test and came up with a unique "job shack" theme port-a-potty. With cones, flags, hard hat, and toolboxes, we were able to accomplish the "construction site" vision. Every year the Alaska Run for Women requests local groups to sponsor a port-a-potty to be decorated and judged before the race. The winner receives the bedpan award! Although SWE Greatland has had the privelege of being the care taker of this bedpan in the past, we were no winner this year but we always have a good time! Check out our past port-a-potty decorating skills in our photo gallery.

Glenn/Bragaw Interchange Tour

Last week we had the opportunity to walk through the newly opened Glenn Highway/Bragaw Street Interchange. Jon Carpenter and Kevin Kruger of Wilder Construction took a little time to tell us about the background and timeline of the project. We discussed the difference between the design-build process used for this project and the typical design-bid-build process. We learned that the 42” water main that runs under the new bridge fill had to be fully encased in concrete before the fill could be placed and got to see some photos of the process. Wilder shared their experience of coming across two contaminated sites that were not anticipated when the project began and how they were dealt with. We also got to see some time lapse photos and videos of the bridge girders going up. Following their presentation, Kevin took our group on a site tour. Hard hats and vests were required because we were walking into some closed portions of the site. Drivers and other pedestrians seemed to think we were just being overly cautious while walking on the new sidewalks and trails. We were able to utilize the brand new pedestrian push-buttons that make noises so you know they’ve been triggered. We walked across the new bridge, looking down on rush hour traffic on the Glenn Highway. Even though the project only officially opened last week, it operates like it’s always been here. I showed the group the newly realigned headwaters of Chester Creek. Before it was a filthy ditch that surprisingly turned out to be wetlands and impacts had to be mitigated. The newly re-vegetated ditch now looks like a creek and I feel bad for anyone who wants to change it after us because it won’t be easy! Landscaping and artwork are the two main components left to complete next year and I hope we can go out again to see the finished product. Thanks to everyone who attended and shared in the discussions, and to my Wilder guys for staying late to share with us. All of you made it a great experience!

SWE FY09 Kick-off

SWE Greatland had a great kick-off meeting on Wednesday. It was great to see new faces, as well as returning members. There was about 15 participants. We started off with an ice breaker that helped us get to know each other. We enjoyed yummy munchies over great conversation. It was a great way to kick off the new fiscal year. Melissa, the President, gave a brief overview of what SWE Greatland is about and the activities they've been involved in. We hope to continue our activities and be more active in the local schools. We are looking forward to some new and exciting meetings this year so stay tuned!

SWE FY09

It's here already!! SWE FY09! The Board had it's first meeting this past Tuesday where we discussed our ideas for the new SWE year. We hope to continue our outreach programs, increase membership, charity functions, and brainstorm on meeting ideas. All ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated! Please contact any of the officers if you have an idea. We'll be starting the year with our annual kick-off meeting which is typically a casual meet 'n greet function where members can come and meet the officers and learn what SWE Greatland is all about! We've determined that SWE monthly meetings will be held the 2nd Wednesday of every month at DOWL Engineers. Look for announcements for our September meeting! If you wish to be on the SWE Greatland mailing list, please contact any of our officers. We look forward to meeting you soon!

SWE End-of-the-Year BBQ

With nice June sunshine and great company, the SWE end-of-the-year bar-b-que was well attended and a good time by all! Laura Strand was generous enough to host the event on June 19th at her home. With approximately 20 attendees, there was plenty of food and left overs to go around. We shared comments on the Alaska Run for Women port-a-potty entry (pictures forthcoming), networked, and mentioned upcoming SWE ideas for the new fiscal year. Have a great summer everyone and see you in the fall!!

Toastmasters Meeting Recap

Thanks to Duane Epton who presented at our SWE Greatland meeting on Wednesday. Duane gave us lots of good advice on how to be an effective communicator and leader. He reviewed the essential skills to be a good speaker, how to grab someone's attention and be clear and concise about what your trying to communicate to your audience. Fellow toastmasters attended the meeting and gave great testimonials on how toastmasters has changed their life! It was encouraging to know that many of our peers have the same fears and discomforts about speaking in front of groups and knowing that they have overcome those obstacles by joining toastmasters.

Also, we would like to congratulate our first recipients of our SWE Greatland Scholarships that we launched off this year:
Margaret Dunn - East HS
Roxanne Risse - South HS
Marina Critchett - Homer HS
Each recipient received $500 toward their engineering education. Congratulations to all the applicants. It was a hard decision as they were all deserving of this award. We hope to continue our scholarship program every year here on out. If you're interested in serving on our scholarship committee, please contact any of our officers.