From Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, to virtual meetings attended from around the globe, it’s been a busy year on the FY24 Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Senate!
With the current strategic plan in place until FY27, this year was a chance to focus on developing and growing the Senate’s strategic thinking skills and capacity. You could call it a “back-to-basics” year. In addition to our normal strategic initiative work, the Senate had year-long discussions around how we want to operate to do the best work for SWE that we can.
During those discussions, we took the opportunity to clarify the Senate’s purpose: The Senate is responsible for charting the strategic direction of SWE by developing and adopting the long-range goals and strategic plan for the Society.
It’s a lofty goal that requires being very intentional about maintaining the focus on SWE’s long-term future. During our first full-day hybrid meeting of the year, held in August in Washington, D.C., after the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees installation, we asked just that: How will SWE achieve the spotlight in 2060, 110 years after our founding? Can you even imagine?
We did, and what a future we saw! We envisioned SWE in space, in the movies, working with the United Nations, and so much more. In short, we saw SWE having an impactful presence and promoting our vision of gender parity and equality in engineering and technology everywhere!
In addition to centering our work on future visioning, other core values the Senate focuses on are thinking globally and inclusively. As the Society grows and expands, the Senate must be mindful of gathering data and perspectives from a variety of sources. This is why DEI&B (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) is critical to the success of the Senate.
Elected senators have a very specific role. They represent diverse perspectives while exploring forward-thinking initiatives that shape the strategic direction of the Society. They engage with membership, participate in generative strategic discussions, and provide research-informed recommendations. Their work utilizes a forward-thinking mindset with a focus on long-term (five- to 10-year) strategic initiatives. I encourage everyone to learn more about the senator role from four past and current senators here.
This year, the Senate took on several strategic topics for the Society and made recommendations on where SWE needs to be in the future. These topics included membership belonging, systemic workplace structures, and SWE’s strategic planning process. Each team will be sharing their results in a subsequent blog post, so watch for those to be shared this week!
As the year wraps up, I’d like to thank the entire Senate including our senators, Board of Director members, HQ collaborators, and the members of the Senate Leadership Team: Deputy Speaker of the Senate Erica Messinger and Senate Secretary Julia Alspaugh. The work and effort you put in this year speaks to your dedication and care of SWE and its mission and vision.
Read More About the SWE Senate:
- SWE Senate Spotlight: Learn About the Senator Role
- Breaking Down Barriers: SWE Senate Subteam Identifies and Addresses Systemic Structures
- SWE Senate Explores Membership Belonging Within SWE
- FY24 SWE Senate Strategic Planning Subteam Findings and Recommendations
