by Dina Bertolini, Wisconsin Section Secretary

The region H conference this season took place in Ann Arbor, Michigan and was hosted by the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.  I though the SWE student section did a fabulous job this year.  They made sure there were plenty of activities for all age groups Friday evening.  Many of us who got caught up in the winter storms along our travels north to the conference still had time to fit in a kickboxing course or a massage.  All the SWE students made sure all of us were well accommodated and most importantly, they made sure all of us had left with a well-fed Sunday morning breakfast.

            The conference itself had covered many important issues.  Many of us started our day off with the professional meeting.  We discussed and agreed to many new changes for SWE.  One important focus was on our [national] website [www.swe.org].  SWE’s goal is to made the website a continual resource for SWE members and an important marketing tool to retain and attract new members.  We discussed the new committee names, such as Student Vitality Committee, which are providing Student Leadership Training for various student sections. Applications for student sections are now available on the SWE [national] web page [www.swe.org].  We discussed the rate changes and when we plan to implement them.  Lastly we discussed the budget.

            The professional meeting ended in time for many of us to see the new bids for next year’s conference and to many of our delight we were pleased to see the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s bid.  They had a few young men dressed in hunting apparel and one in a cow costume.  Throughout their presentation they handed out good, wholesome, Wisconsin cheese.  With just the Wisconsin quality cheese alone how could the students resist the University of Wisconsin-Madison J.  As we Wisconsinites expected, the University of Wisconsin-Madison won the bid over Purdue.  So many of us have next year’s conference to look forward to at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

            The afternoon seminars were all well rounded.  Some of the seminars focused on work/life conflicts due to personality, on finances and prioritizing; on leadership skills and lastly on how to effectively put together children programs in the community.  The Banquet was delightful.  The food was very good, and most importantly the desert was delicious.  To top off the evening the University of Michigan SWE chapter had an a cappella group sing for us.  Just the first song was enough to get the young girls to go crazy.  It felt like we were in a Back Street Boys concert (wow am I dating myself).  Overall the boys were very impressive.  After dinner many of the students went out and enjoyed the nightlife.  Some of us stuck around the hotel and reunited with some old friends from school or friends we’ve made through SWE over the years.  In all, this conference was a great weekend to get away.  I meet lots of new people and got to see old friends.  Most importantly I felt I gain some additional leadership skills and felt I meet and made some important friends in my field.

Aspire.  Advance.  Achieve.

The Society of Women Engineers stimulates women to achieve full potential as engineers and leaders, expands the image of the engineering profession, and demonstrates the value of diversity.

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