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 EUS website has been given a brand new look! With more updates to come, students are encouraged to send any suggestions for content and format of the website to voice@ubcengineers.ca.