Role Descriptions

Section officers serve for a term of one year. All officers and committee chairs participate in a SWE Pittsburgh monthly phone call and an annual face-to-face meeting.

Elected Positions

President

The major responsibilities of the Section President are to administer the business of the section, call and preside over the monthly Pittsburgh board meetings, pass on membership information from SWE Headquarters (HQ), coordinate section activities, and represent the section before the public. The President must submit the leadership roster to SWE HQ. The President works with the Treasurer to prepare the budget and the annual financial report. She/he should assist the committee chairs in establishing goals and developing strategies to achieve those goals. She/he must motivate section members and encourage them to contribute their ideas and energy to the section. After completing her term(s), the President may stay on the board as “Past President” and acts as an advisor to the new President and Executive Committee.

Vice President - Programming

The VP of Programming’s primary responsibilities are to plan and schedule membership meetings and special events and engage speakers or activities for those meetings or events. The VP of Programming is responsible for making room arrangements and promoting attendance by preparing announcements for the meetings or events. She/he writes thank‐you notes to speakers and writes or assigns someone to write summaries for the meetings or events. She/he will arrange joint meetings with other technical societies and also provides guidance to a programming committee. (Programs in 2021-22 have been virtual.)

Vice President - STEM Outreach

One of the primary goals of SWE is to encourage young women to consider careers in engineering and to educate the public on the merits of an engineering career. To that end, the VP of Outreach is responsible for coordinating volunteers to speak and participate in career seminars, judge science fairs, oversee the Certificate of Merit program, and other K-12 Outreach programs. She/he also ensures that the section’s Outreach activities are entered into SWE’s online Outreach Metric Tool.

Treasurer

The Section Treasurer is responsible for section finances and must maintain an accurate accounting of all income and expenditures (deposits and payments). The Treasurer assists in grant applications, sets up and provides financial information for fundraising tools (Amazon Smile, Give Pittsburgh, GiveGab) and must prepare a summary budget for each Executive Board meeting. She/he prepares and submits the IRS form. She/he and the president must prepare the Section Financial Report at the end of each fiscal year, and send it to SWE HQ. The report summarizes the account activity and lists the sources of income.

Secretary

The Section Secretary records, publishes, and distributes meeting minutes from each monthly SWE Pittsburgh Executive Board meeting. If she/he cannot personally attend a meeting, she/he must assign someone to take the minutes instead. The Secretary also manages the Gmail account and Google Calendar with section events, and updates the Google Drive with key section documents for the year. She/he also maintains the participation records and the tracks the progress towards meeting the section goals.

Committee Positions

Nominating Committee

Proposes at least one qualified candidate for the elected officer
Holds the election for the officers and reports the results

Fundraising Committee

Leads fundraising efforts in support of outreach, certificate of merit, professional development day and other SWE supported activities

Collegiate Liaison

Bridge the gap between the section and collegiate sections in the area
Assist collegiate sections with submitting required section documents (Financial Report, Leadership Roster, Section Agreement, etc).
Plan annual Leadership Summit to connect all SWE leaders in the area

Membership Committee

Welcome new (and transferred) members to our Pittsburgh SWE Section
Member retention, Recognize our members
Grow our membership in SWE Pittsburgh - ideas are welcome

Social Media Committee

To connect with our members no matter what social media platform they may be following.
To connect with the larger engineering community in the Greater Pittsburgh area

SWE Pittsburgh Website Committee, Webmaster

Provides a hub for information about SWE Pittsburgh

Job Bank Committee

Coordinate job opening listings for companies and universities reaching out to the Pittsburgh SWE section
Companies and universities who have posted openings on our website and in the newsletter: (and many more!)

Newsletter Committee, Editor

Provide a communication platform for members & local community
A point of contact for both members & non-members
Presently use Mail Chimp for SWE Pittsburgh Newsletter
Solicit articles from SWE Pittsburgh officers, leaders, and members
Articles include upcoming events and activities, re-cap past activities, member information, job openings, member achievements, and any other items of interest to the members

SWE-Pittsburgh Events Committee

Assist the VP Programming in planning Professional Development Day, tours, seminars, etc., as needed. (Year round)

STEM Outreach Committee

Volunteer leaders coordinate with the VP of STEM Outreach to create and deliver youth programming.

Specific roles on the STEM Outreach Committee include:

Certificate of Merit Chair – Runs the yearly Certificate of Merit program that recognizes local high school girls who excel in math and science and are interested in engineering or technology as a career.
YouTube Channel Manager – Uploads videos to our SWENext YouTube channel (as needed)
SWENext Programming Chair – Creates programming for the SWENexters in Pittsburgh (at least one program every two months), both virtual and in-person. (Year round)

SWENext Mentor/Advisor Program Chair – Matches high school students with mentors or one-time advisors from our section. Handles any requests we get for job shadowing or talking with an engineer, matching up a SWE member with a student. (Year round)
Carnegie Science Center (CSC) Events Chair - Fields “requests for participation” from CSC, finds volunteers to participate in those events, and buys materials needed. (September – May)
STEM Outreach for Schools Chair – Fields requests from schools for participation in their STEM nights, virtual classroom visits, science fairs, etc. Finds volunteers from among our members to participate and decide on hands-on activities to do. (September – May)
SWE-Sponsored Competitions Chair – Handles the details for the three competitions where we sponsor awards: Future City, PJAS, and PRSEF. Interacts with the hosting organization, advertises for volunteers, finds judges, etc. (December – March)

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