Sydney Women in Engineering Annual Report 2014 1 2014 Main Sponsors Experience It! Student Conference Sponsors 2 Sydney Women in Engineering Annual Report 2014 Contents Chair’s Report ... 5 2014 Committee Members ... 6 Committee Members’ Report ... 7 Eminent Speakers Breakfast ... 13 International Women´s Day ... 15 Winter Gala Dinner ... 17 Panel Discussion ... 19 Student Conference ... 21 Mentoring Events ... 23 Site Visit ... 25 Christmas High Tea ... 26 Events Calendar ... 27 Leaky Pen eNewsletters … 28 3 4 Chair’s Report Julie Mikhail Another year ended and time for me to hang up my hat as Chair and hand over to a new committee. Our usual program of events kept us busy as usual, but the addition of a new event, Experience it! Student conference was definitely the highlight! It was also a year where our networks grew and a great relationship was established with Women in Project Management (WIPM) who attended our kick off event in force celebrating International Women’s Day. We continued to build on this relationship and in June joined forces Annual Report 2014 Report Annual to present our annual panel discussion. This year the focus was on ‘Champions for Change’ and giving companies the opportunity to present on what initiatives they are taking to bring about change in the ‘diversity’ space. A great evening, with great facilitation, prompting great discussion. Our glamour event, the WIE winter gala was held at the Star Room (IMAX) and while gathering numbers for this event always has us at the edge of our seats we somehow always manage to pull through with great attendance and this year an outstanding speaker in Kathy Hirschfeld. The Eminent Speakers breakfast was dynamic! The four speakers had the audience captivated and showcased the diversity of career options afforded by an engineering degree ranging from academia, politics to defence. But for me the stand out event of the year was the student conference! Our energetic student ambassadors built on our great relationship with UNSW and put on a top class event that I could only be proud to present as a WIE Sydney Division event. Initially proposed as a 2 day event, we scaled back to a one day trial to gauge interest in the concept. Aiming for 100 students we hit 150 before the closing date and could have easily had more. The number of volunteers involved, the program and the organisation of the day was top class, attracting a great amount of sponsorship and corporate interest. Working in a volunteer organisation is always a struggle especially as workplaces scale back and everyone’s 9-5 workloads increase. So I am always grateful for the dedicated team I am privileged to work with and also very grateful for the support staff we have at EA Sydney Division. There is no way we could achieve a fraction of what we do without that support. Financially our sponsors always pull us through and this year WIE continued to see Sydney Women in Engineering Engineering in Sydney Women support from last year’s sponsors Resmed and Evans and Peck (now Advisian) and many new sponsors through the student conference. 2015 brings with it new leadership and a new committee, fresh ideas and rejuvenation, I am proud to close off another successful year and wish the future committee the best of success. Julie Mikhail Chair WIES 5 2014 Committee Members Annual Report 2014 Annual Report Chair Website Coordinator Julie Mikhail Yee Yeng Lambropoulos Vice Chair Publications Coordinator Jade Gan Rezarta Rushitaj Treasurer Mentoring Coordinator Sydney Women in Engineering Engineering in Sydney Women Allira Hudson-Gofers Mai Yeung Secretary Student Ambassadors Melissa Melrose Varuni Fernando Annette Au National Representative Melissa Jovic 6 Treasurer Report Allira Hudson-Gofers Annual Report 2014 Report Annual This year has again been financially challenging for WIE Sydney Division with an improving, but still noticeable, impact of the global financial situation on both event attendance and corporate sponsorship. Nonetheless, WIES is pleased to report that our commitment to hold all usual events was maintained in 2014. We are also thrilled to report the addition of an exciting new event, the WIE Experience It! Student Conference, held in September this year. Such events would not be possible without our event attendees, together with the generous support of our event sponsors. WIES would like to thank our 2014 event sponsors: Resmed, Evans and Peck (now Advisian), University of New South Wales, Qantas Airways Limited, GHD Services, Minerals Council of Australia, Encompass Credit Union Limited and Rail Track Association of Australia. Planning for 2015 is well underway and continue to include consideration of budget forecasting and appropriate event costing for members and non-members to ensure that WIES are able to continue to provide quality events throughout the year. I will be stepping down from the role of Treasurer at the end of 2014 and would like to take this opportunity to express my delight in being part of such a wonderful committee over the last two years. It has been a privilege to serve WIE Sydney Division (WIES) as treasurer and I encourage everyone to volunteer to get involved with any one of the Engineers Australia committees. Finally, a very special thank you must go to Rimma Kolodizner, Accounts, Engineers Australia Sydney Division for her invaluable assistance and support throughout the year. Engineering in Sydney Women 7 National Representative Report Melissa Jovic Annual Report 2014 Annual Report My involvement in the National Committee for 2014 is as follows: Represented and attended the WIE National committee face-to-face meetings in March 2014 in Adelaide and November 2014 in Melbourne (as a part of the EA Convention); Represented WIE Sydney at teleconferences with National Committee held on Thursday 3 July 2014 at 2:30pm and Thursday 4 September 2014 at 2:30pm; Provided WIE Sydney Division activity reports at each meeting and an activity report for WIE National Annual Report; Participated as a member of evaluation committee for WIE Gender Diversity awards; Assisted in Eng Talk scope and brochure review; Liaised between WIE National and WIE Sydney and provided all the WIE National Committee correspondences to WIE Sydney Division in a timely manner; Promoted and ensured that WIE Sydney Division Strategic Plan is in line with the WIE National Committee Strategic Plan; Raised the WIE Sydney Division questions and issues with WIE National Committee and provided the WIENC feedback to WIES; Attended all the WIES monthly meetings and WIES events throughout the year; Sydney Women in Engineering Engineering in Sydney Women Organised the WIE Sydney Division 2014 Site Visit in September 2014 to Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, specifically to Sydney metropolitan network controlled in area of operations (RMC) and infrastructure (ICON). Provided assistance at WIES events throughout 2014. 8 Website Coordinator Report Yee Yeng Lambropoulos Annual Report 2014 Report Annual Overview Engineers Australia (EA) Content Publishers are responsible for editing the look and contents of the website. The Website Coordinator for the Sydney Division Women in Engineering (WIES) ensures that website information pertaining to WIES activities is current and accurate and WIE events are advertised on the website and promoted through social media in a timely manner. Achievements Outcomes and achievements in respect of website coordination are summarised as follows: Maintaining the WIE intranet (Confluence) to facilitate sharing of key policy and procedural documents, records and templates among current Committee members, and for handing over roles and responsibilities to the next committee. Liaising with EA and WIES Committee to ensure timely updates of the WIE and EA events calendar to inform and alert members and the public on upcoming WIES events and activities. Posting WIES Committee meeting minutes, Leaky Pen newsletters and event write-ups on the website to inform the public of WIES activities. Maintaining the photo gallery for members and the public to browse WIE event photos, panel discussion proceedings and eminent speaker presentations (members only). Promoting WIE activities through social media, including LinkedIn and Facebook. Engineering in Sydney Women Planning for 2015 We will continue to promote Women in Engineering to EA members, university students and the public by keeping them informed of WIES events and activities. We will work closely with EA to jointly promote WIE events and activities to members and non-EA members. We aim to update WIES member profiles and expand our database to capture a wider community of women engineers, with a view to facilitating networking opportunities and promoting the engineering profession, giving better exposure of members’ experience and capabilities to potential employers. We will also continue to update contents of the WIES intranet by adding relevant policy, regulation documents, guidelines, instructions and work templates for organising various WIE events throughout the year. We will build on this valuable depository of knowledge and facilitate handing over of duties and responsibilities to the next Committee. 9 Publications Coordinator Report Rezarta Rushitaj Role responsibilities: Annual Report 2014 Annual Report Coordinating the write up of all Sydney WIE events and liaising with EA to ensure that articles and advertisements for WIE are published in the EA Sydney eNewsletter; Producing WIE eNewsletter “The Leaky Pen” 4 times a year