While most UBC Engineers were busy hunkering down for the first week of the spring term, a small group of dedicated student leaders packed their parkas and headed to Whitehorse to represent UBC at the annual Canadian Federation of Engineering Students’ Congress.  Why would anyone in their right mind travel to the Great White North in the dead of winter of their own free will? The answer is to network with over 150 other engineering student leaders from all across Canada in the context of professional development, engineering student society development and leadership training.

The five day conference, which also serves as the annual general meeting of the CFES, played host to over 45 sessions on topics ranging from how to develop a strategic plan for an organization to maintaining effective accountability, and from how to manage risks to how to keep volunteers motivated. In addition to all of that, the Trainers Certificate Course made its debut.

Last year UBC was well represented within the CFES, with Sean Heisler serving as the Canadian Engineering Competition Activity Manager and Alexandra Dozzi serving as VP Finance and Administration. In the coming year UBC will have even more representation with Alex Lush serving as VP Services and Development, Sean Heisler serving as National Councillor, and Madison Myrfield serving as Western Ambassador.

Overall the congress was a success, motivating a next generation of leaders within your EUS with new ideas and fresh enthusiasm to continue serving you!

Want further information on the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students? Visit www.cfes.ca

So it’s 2012, we’re into second term, and it’s giving me a great opportunity to look back on the roller coaster of a first term. For the first 6 or so weeks, I was spending a lot of time away from campus, connecting with other schools, APEGBC, and industry.

In order for the rest of this post to make sense, here’s a short description of the various organizations that the EUS is a part of throughout the year.  To start off, WESST (Western Engineering Student Societies’ Team) is an association between most of the accredited engineering programs in Western Canada (from BC to Manitoba). Its purpose is to improve the various engineering student societies through informal information sharing. It also oversees the Western Engineering Competition (WEC), the qualifying competition for the Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC).  WESST is a regional member of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES), whose main goal is to provide bilingual opportunities for engineering students across the nation.

The weekend after Frosh Retreat (which was awesome), I was headed off to Kelowna for the President’s Meeting of the CFES. The main goal of this is to bring the VP Externals from across the country together, to forge new relationships that can help the student societies share information and improve the way they serve and interact with their constituents. It also gives the newbies a chance to experience plenary (where voting and motions get passed) and get used to the style, the current chair, and each other. This was especially important this year as the new chair had a different style than normal, so even the old fogeys were a bit confused.

CFES President’s Meeting

Shortly after returning from PM, I was off to WESST Retreat & Olympics, which serves as the annual general meeting of the Western Engineering Student Societies’ Team and informal information sharing of the western provinces and engineering schools!  It’s goal is to facilitate the informal transfer of information, and keep us as a uniform body for dealings with the CFES. It was a great weekend, with a bunch of new faces, and 2 of our own were elected to executive positions.. again! For those of you that dont’ know, UBC has had 2/3 of the WESST exec for 4 elections now! Congratulations to Madison Myrfield, our conferences coordinator and current WESST VP Communications, for his election as the incoming (and now current) President, and to Michael Elder, our Godiva Band leader, the new VP Communications. Just shows what an awesome school we are, and what sort of quality students we have kicking around.

UBC & UBCO Delegation on the road to WESST Retreat ’11

 
With another quick turnaround, I was off to the APEGBC annual conference and AGM in Kelowna (again) the following weekend. There I took part in the Student Advisory Committee, which helps APEGBC determine how they can better serve the engineering students across BC with the MAPS program. That’s Membership Advantage Program for Students, and all of you should sign up if you haven’t already! The faculty pre-pays all of the fees so it’s free! You can check it out here.

As this is already a lot of information, I’ll leave this as Part 1/2. I hope you’ve learned some more about the different organizations there are out there, and what I was up to this term! I encourage all of you to consider applying for conferences, as it’s a great opportunity to increase your network, learn from other students, and explore how you can be more involved with your engineering undergraduate life!

The Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) Congress is the Annual General Meeting of the CFES, the official national organization for student engineers.  The week of Congress incorporates a number of elements instituted both for the purposes of enhancing the knowledge of CFES member schools, and furthering the national organization as a whole.  It is at Congress that the organization is examined for principle, longevity, and executive accountability, as well as serving as the forum for decision making & elections.  As well, with over 45 engineering societies represented by the CFES nationwide, Congress provides an opportunity for inter-university knowledge transfer and collaboration.  Delegates will get the opportunity to meet with student representatives from east to west to discuss & experience what it means to be a part of the engineering student community.

This year’s Congress is hosted by Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland January 2-8, 2011.

Download an application here. Applications due October 31 @ 6pm.

Following up on UBC’s massive success at the Western Engineering Competition, the EUS and Shell sponsored the twelve student members of the four qualifying teams to compete in the Canadian Engineering Competition from March 18-21, 2010!

UBC was once again very successful, placing 2nd in both Senior Design and Extemporaneous Debate.  Congratulations to Andrew Carne, Bob Orlando, Justin Stevens, and Eric Pospisil for their second place finish in Senior Design!  Congratulations to Sean Heisler and Fraser Macdonald for their second place finish in Extemporaneous Debate!

If you are interested in attending CEC next year, look for information on the qualifying UBC Engineering Competition coming in Fall 2010.

This year’s conference will feature a multitude of workshops, guest speakers, roundtable discussions, and activities focusing on women’s involvement in the engineering and science industries. There will also be many networking, career building and educational opportunities with various companies and organizations spread across the three days. But best of all, NCWIE also serves as an excellent platform to meet with other bright and motivated engineering students from all across the country as well as successful women from the industry. (more…)

Today’s the last day for the CFES application!

And NCWIE is due on Friday…

Here’s the application form for CFES Congess 2009.

CFES Congress Application [doc]

For more info, ask Joel Mertens, VPExternal, at vpexternal at ubcengineers.ca.

For more applications, visit the applications blog category!

Update: There’s now a CFES Congress 2009 site at http://www.cfescongress2009.ca/en/