Tau Beta Pi CA-Alpha the Engineering Honor Society
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Tau Beta Pi CA-Alpha The Engineering Honor Society Annual Chapter Report University of California, Berkeley Fall 2012-Spring 2013 Dear reader, The California Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Pi at the University of California Berkeley is proud to present to you another round of spectacular projects and events for the year 2012-13. This year has surpassed all our expectations as a Chapter with an officer corps bigger than ever before making new ideas and dreams become a reality to support the Engineering and the Bay area community. Our highly motivated and dedicated officers, supportive members, ambitious class of new initiates, and our faithful alumni, have truly made our chapter proud for its achievements so far. Despite issues regarding Honors list acquisition from the College of Engineering at Berkeley, we have been able to sustain if not expand our candidate class with 45 in the Fall and 68 in the Spring. This year was the first time in years that the Vice-Presidents took the opportunity of thinking outside the box and revamping the entire candidate semester to make it even more worthwhile and honorable experience for candidates. All the committees brainstormed ways of improving themselves, expanded the room of opportunities as a committee and most of all made a very conscious effort of making these events more accessible to the general public at Berkeley. One of the changes that has worked out very well for our chapter is that our fun and social events are solely now a responsibility of our activities committee allowing our Student Alumni Relations committee to focus more on student services and hone the connections we have with our outstanding alumni. One of the most amazing things that we achieved this year was working in collaboration namely inter-committee events, inter-societal events and inter-collegiate TBP events. Additionally we began using our weekly officer meeting as a place to develop important skills, such as public speaking where one officer presents a topic of interest in front of the officer corps. This helped the speaker with practice of public speaking and also educated the audience of officers. We also focused a lot on officer bonding this year with the new Friday’s at the Bent events. One-on-one meetings with the officers and the President were conducted throughout the semester so that every officer’s voice and opinions were heard and taken into consideration. We also started the custom of weekly wiki editing at the end of officer meetings which kept committee book keeping relatively easy and also a great resource for the future officers. This year had an increased focus on professional development where our professional development implemented new events and other resources like the mock interview workshops which we consider highly beneficial to our members and the community. Keeping our Tau Beta Pi’s mission in our minds, CA-A continues to go above and beyond in our outreach/service projects to provide opportunities for engineering students and Bay area community members. In the Fall, CA-A magnified the Engineering Open House event into an Open House + OverNight Host Program with engineering students all over Berkeley volunteering to host high school students. TBP CA-A officers made this event an even bigger success that past semesters in efforts to continue STEM education promotion. Finally, this year saw a further expansion of CA-A’s flagship outreach program, Pioneers in Engineering (PiE). PiE, a high school robotics competition in which Bay area high school teams are matched with Berkeley student mentors to experience engineering in a hands-on environment acting as an introduction to the stem education. PiE was able to support 23 high school teams, with double the staff members it had from last year. All in all, this year was extremely successful for our chapter. We have managed to sustain the excellent work of past generations of Tau Bates and improve the ways we provide service to our community, attract more members, and increase awareness of our society, while still allowing for internal development of the chapter. I hope you enjoy reading about our projects in the California Alpha 2012-2013 Project Report Book. Sincerely, Pritha Hait President, Spring 2013 Tau Beta Pi, California Alpha THE TAU BETA PI ASSOCIATION Chapter Survey 2013 Survey Date: 05/30/2013 For: California Alpha This questionnaire is designed as an annual survey of the activities of our chapters, the conditions under which they operate, and their customs and practices. It covers the current academic year. This effort should be a joint effort by the outgoing and incoming officers. 1b. How many members and initiates participated in your chapter projects throughout the year? Members: 120 Initiates: 113 c. How many hours did members and initiates contribute to chapter projects throughout the year? Members: 1973 Initiates: 1066 2. Does your chapter set a minimum grade point average? No How many candidates were ineligible because of this GPA cutoff? 0 3. How does your chapter secure class rankings? [ ] President requests from registrar [ ] Advisor requests from registrar [X] Registrar may not release information due [ ] School does not rank students to privacy laws 4. What is your chapter’s total initiation fee (including national fee ($32 + $7)? Students: $105.00 Alumni: $39.00 Eminent Engineers: $39.00 5. What does your chapter initiation fee include other than the national fee and the Convention assessment? [X] Initiation Banquet [X] Other Other: Activities fee to cover the cost of food and other event costs. 6. What change has been made to your initiation fee this year? [X] None [ ] Raised [ ] Lowered 7a. How do you notify candidates of their eligibility? (choose ALL that apply) [X] Letter [X] Email [ ] Printed Invitation [X] Personally [ ] Facebook or other social networks [ ] University Listserve [X] Other Other description: Flyers and chalking with instructions on how to check with the College of Engineering. b. Have you ever tried to personally contact candidates? Yes c. Does your chapter obtain address information? [X] No [ ] Yes [ ] Street [ ] Email 8a. How do you notify electees of their eligibility? (choose ALL that apply) [ ] Letter [X] Email [ ] Printed Invitation [X] Personally [ ] Other b. Have you ever tried to personally contact candidates? Yes Revision 3.31 RHT Page 1 of 4 Document Date: 6/1/2013 THE TAU BETA PI ASSOCIATION Chapter Survey 2013 Survey Date: 05/30/2013 For: California Alpha 9. What activities do you require electees to perform before initiation? (choose ALL that apply) [X] Write Essay [ ] Take Exam [X] Polish Plaque or Monument [ ] Polish and Wear a Bent [X] Collect Signatures [X] Other [X] Work on current Projects Number of hours 6 10. Did your chapter send a letter to candidates/electees/parents from your dean? No If YES, what was the reaction? If NO, why not? We write our own letter. 11. Did your chapter use the invitations available from Headquarters? No If YES, what was the reaction? If NO, why not? We use our own invitations. 12. Was your chapter able to initiate "just one more" electee than the previous year? No If YES, what was the reaction? If NO, why not? The college refused to directly provide us with the contact info (or even names) of eligible candidates. We therefore had to rely on them to contact the candidates for us. 13. What percentage of electees were initiated... In the fall? 85 In the spring? 95 14. How many meetings did your chapter have this year? Advisory Board: 1 Initiation: 2 Business: 50 Social: 8 15. How many chapter members attend meetings on the average? Advisory Board: 8 Initiation: 91 Business: 30 Social: 80 16. What action does your chapter take against a member for non-attendance? [ ] Fined [ ] Reprimand [X] Declare Inactive [ ] Nothing 17a. How many advisors does your chapter have? 20 b. How informed are your advisors concerning your chapter’s condition and activities? [X] Well [ ] Moderately [ ] Poorly 18. Is the Eligibility Code read at each election meeting of your chapter? Yes 19a. Is a copy of your bylaws given to each of your new members? No b. Is an electronic copy of your bylaws available? Yes 20. Are the minutes of all meetings of this college year in your chapter records? Yes 21. What bookkeeping system do you use? [ ] Tau Beta Pi [ ] One required by the school [X] Neither 22. Does your chapter operate on a budget? Yes 23. How well do the students, faculty, and staff in your engineering school know about Tau Beta Pi? [X] Very [ ] Somewhat [ ] Slightly Revision 3.31 RHT Page 2 of 4 Document Date: 6/1/2013 THE TAU BETA PI ASSOCIATION Chapter Survey 2013 Survey Date: 05/30/2013 For: California Alpha 24. How well do members of your community know about Tau Beta Pi? [X] Very [ ] Somewhat [ ] Slightly [ ] Not at all 25. How often are projects and programs of your chapter given publicity? [ ] Always [X] Frequently [ ] Sometimes [ ] Never If Never, why not? 26. Are new initiates given public recognition? [ ] Always [ ] Frequently [X] Sometimes [ ] Never If Never, why not? 27. How do retiring officers communicate duties and responsibilities to their successors? [X] Chapter Officer Installation Procedure [ ] Write Letter [ ] Neither 28. Is there an active Tau Beta Pi alumnus chapter in your vicinity? Yes If so, do the two chapters cooperate? Yes 29. Do you communicate with your chapter’s alumni? Yes If so, do you invite local alumni, including faculty, to special chapter functions? Yes 30. Does your chapter have a current and functioning website? Yes If yes, what is the URL? tbp.berkeley.edu 31. Did you read The Bulletin? No Did you notify your members when The Bulletin became available online? No 32a.