Engineers Make a World of Difference

Individual Awards Training

Maureen MasiulisChair FY15

Awards-chair@swe.org

Agenda

• General Information• Awards• How To Complete a Nomination• Responsibilities of a Nominator • Notification & Feedback• Tips to Applying• FAQs• Questions

INDIVIDUAL•Achievement Distinguished Eng. Educator•Distinguished Service Emerging Leader•Entrepreneur Fellow•Global Leadership Prism•Resnik Challenger Medal Rodney D. Chipp Memorial•SWE Distinguished New Eng Work Life Integration•Suzanne Jenniches Upward Mobility Spark (NEW)•Advocating Women In Engineering (NEW)COLLEGIATE•Outstanding Faculty Advisor Outstanding SWE Counselor•Outstanding Collegiate Member

Nominations Due – March 31st

http://societyofwomenengineers.swe.org/index.php/awards/individual-awards#activePanels_

Individual/Collegiate Awards

SWE Membership Required

Individual & Collegiate Award Changes from 2014

• Introduces two new awards• Advocating Women In Engineering• Spark

• Update to Formal Statement Word Counts and Resume/SWE Resume Page Counts• READ THE REQUIREMENTS CAREFULLY

• Migration to Award Application Tool from Survey Monkey Nomination Form and Package submission via email

• General Cleanup of Awards Package for clarity and consistency

Advocating Women in Engineering Award

• Honors an individual who has demonstrated professional excellence in their chosen STEM field

• Has proven to be an advocate of women in engineering and SWE’s objectives.

• Must have an engineering or science degree with work in STEM fields.

• Award Criteria: 75% Advocacy, 25% Career Achievements.

• Maximum of five (5) awards may be presented annually.

Spark Award

• Honors a person who has contributed to the advancement of women by mentoring those around them.

• Has made a difference in the lives of many by affecting women at a variety of levels ranging from high school through more senior levels in relation to their position.

• Award Criteria: 70% Impact on Women Engineers, 20% Successes & Challenges, 10% Leadership & Community Involvement.

• Maximum of five (5) awards may be presented annually.

How To Complete a Nomination:Process

• Use the ‘Award Guide’ to select the award that best suits the candidate

• Verify the candidate meets the ‘Qualification’ requirements• Collect all items listed in the ‘Nomination Checklist’ for the

award selected

• NEW FOR 2015: Fill out the ‘Application’ online at https://app.smarterselect.com/programs/20842-Society-Of-Women-Engineers

• NEW FOR 2015: Submit the application online by March 31. Packages must be received by 11:59 PM, Central Time. No exceptions will be made for late packages.

NEW FOR 2015: Award Application Tool

Create User Name & Password

• Preview the application• Start a new application• Revisit Existing Application• Nominate More Candidates• Email notifications such as

incomplete package reminders

How To Complete a Nomination: Reminders

• All packages are to be submitted electronically in a Microsoft Word or PDF format

• Individuals are allowed to receive only ONE award per year.• Incomplete nomination packages or nomination packages that do

not meet the award requirements will be disqualified. • Several of our awards have requirements for years of experience.

It is the responsibility of the nominator to calculate this information prior to submitting a nomination, and ensuring that your candidate meets the requirement for the award.

• Packages must be submitted online through the application tool. • All letters of recommendation require some form of authentication

from the author.

Responsibilities of a Nominator

• Submit a complete application by March 31 11:59pm CST. • Accurately complete the nomination form.

• Submit all required artifacts.

• Inform the nominee of the result of their nomination.

• Request feedback from the Awards Chair.• Discuss feedback with the nominee.

THE NOMINATOR IS THE POINT OF CONTACT BETWEEN SWE AND THE NOMINEE

Notifications & Feedback

• Recipients will be presented at the WE15 Annual Conference for women engineers in Nashville, TN, October 22-24, 2015.

• Notifications will be made to nominators starting July 1. • If notification is not received by July 15, nominators are asked to contact the

Awards Program Manager at awards@swe.org.

• All notifications will be completed by July 31. • Feedback will be provided to nominators at their request after July

15 until December 31. • To request feedback on a nomination packet, please send an email clearly

stating the nominee name and award applied for, to the Awards Chair at awards-chair@swe.org.

• Nominators must confirm that the phone number and email address provided on the nomination form is current and correct for both the nominee and nominator or we will not be able to reach you!!!

Tips to Applying

• Plan Ahead - Many of the nomination packages take time/effort to put together• Read the requirements

• Incomplete nomination packages or nomination packages that do not meet the requirements will be disqualified

• Judges come from a variety of backgrounds, review MANY packages, and ONLY score candidates by the material presented• Clearly demonstrate that you meet the requirements• Give Measureable information to demonstrate to the judges the impact

the candidate has made relative to the selection criteria wherever possible• Don’t assume they know things – what your programs are, positions

you’ve held• Include applicable information but be concise; don’t add additional

language just to meet the word limit. • If you have questions ask them

• Talk to people that have applied• Email the awards chair

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does Co-op time count towards number of year’s experience?• Co-op time will not be used to count towards years of experience.

• How do advanced degrees count towards experience? • Years of experience are counted as full-time work experience as of

December 31. Periods of unemployment or part-time employment are not counted toward years of experience. Each advanced technical degree obtained while not working full-time counts as an additional year of experience toward this calculation.

• An MBA does not count for an additional year of experience

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do the following count toward years of experience?• Does the time I worked as an intern or co-op? My service record

counts it.• What if I worked part-time and I got paid by my company while I

went to school? Can I count my part-time work for 2 years as 1 year since I worked 20hrs/week for those 2 years?

No, experience for SWE Awards is counted as full-time, post-graduate work only. We do not count part time work, internships or co-op experience. Periods of unemployment are also not counted.

Frequently Asked QuestionsCalculating Years of Experience Example

Scenario 1:

• Bachelors Degree• Interned for 2 semesters for company

(company service time counts as 6 months)

• Worked 4 years full time

• Went back to school for Technical PhD full time / worked part time for 4 years

• Worked 3 years full time afterwards

• Technical Masters Degree obtained counts as 1 year

• Technical PhD only counts as 1 year

Total = 9 years of work experience

Scenario 2:

• Bachelors Degree

• Worked 4 years full time

• Went school part time for Masters in Engineering and worked full time for 3 years

• Went to school part time for Masters in Business Administration and worked full time for 2 years

• Stay-at-home mom for 1 year

• Worked for 3 years after degrees

Total = 12 years of work experience

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is it necessary to obtain new Letters of Support each year if we are resubmitting a candidate?

• If the nomination is more than one year old, we recommend securing up-to-date letters of support, as we would like the information to be as current as possible. We understand that many of the same supporters may be asked to submit new letters, however, this gives the nominator a good opportunity to solicit additional and/or new sponsors for letters of support. If the nomination was submitted in the previous awards cycle, the existing letters of support may be resubmitted, if they are no more than one year old.

• Do we accept submissions from International candidates? Do they have to work in the U.S to be considered?• We will accept submissions from International candidates as long as

they meet the requirements stated within the award criteria.

• Why Signed Letters? What do you mean by Signed Letters of Recommendation? • All required letters need to be signed• We need to ensure the letter of recommendation comes from the person

who is sending in their support for a candidate. Here are the acceptable forms of a “signed” letter.

1. PDF/Word Document/Scanned .jpg with Recommender’s Signature

2. PDF or .jpg of email chain to nominator showing electronic letter came from recommender(s)

• Nominator will certify and maintain documentation should SWE request

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does the Nominator have to be a SWE member?• In some instances yes, for example for the Outstanding Collegiate

Member Award the Nominator must be a SWE Collegiate Member, Collegiate Section Faculty Advisor, or a SWE Member in good standing. - Refer to the Collegiate Award Training presentation

• Can I Nominate myself?• No, we prefer that you find someone to be your nominator to be

another point of contact. You can ask your local SWE organization (Section, Member-At-Large Organization, Region) or someone at your company to nominate you.

• Can a Nominee Request Feedback after they are notified of the results?• Yes, but it is preferred to work with the nominator as sometimes it is

the nominators who may need the feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions

• If an individual is employed by a corporation that is a member, but that individual is not a member themselves, are they eligible for the SWE membership required awards?• No, the individual is not considered a member. We verify that by

checking their membership number. Corporate Members of SWE are allotted a certain number of memberships that they can be assign to their employees. If the candidate was not given one of those corporate memberships, she will need to sign up as a SWE member prior to submitting her application.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does the candidate have to have an engineering degree?• Review the awards packet for each award’s specific qualifications• Here are answers to a few awards seeking more clarification

• Emerging Leader – No, as long as she has been working/actively engaged in an engineering or technology profession

• Collegiate Member Awards – No, as long as she qualifies for SWE membership and is a member, she can be nominated

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is There More Credit Given for More Recommendations?• No, we are looking for quality vs. quantity for the letters. However, do

provide the required number of recommendations and from the outlined criteria for the award.

• For example some awards require the person’s local SWE Section to provide a letter, while others require one from a Team Member.

• More recommendations than the allotted also gets a candidate removed from the competition

• For the Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award, is it better to submit an individual or department/organization/company?• Either meet the award requirements but Individual Candidates for the Award

have been traditionally stronger than submissions for departments/organizations/companies.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is a SWE Resume?• A SWE Resume is a resume of all the activities, projects, leadership

positions your candidate may have done in SWE on the local, regional, and society levels.

• The separate SWE resume is to provide the judges with more information that the normal resume may not contain as not everyone can fit all their SWE participation on their job resume. (Also helps to reduce formal statement word count on SWE activities down and talk more about other criteria for those awards which require a SWE resume)

• SWE Resume not required for ALL of the awards, please see the criteria for each award.

• Recommended for those awards that require SWE involvement such as the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award.

• Do not include if the criteria does not require it

Frequently Asked Questions

• Any recommendations for Universities, government agencies, small engineering firms, etc. in making submissions / nominations?• Work with your local SWE section officers, members who work for your

company. They may understand the organization better than the company designee to pull award packets together to find suitable candidates

• www.swe.org , click on Local Sections and navigate down to find a local section’s website or click on the Region and email the Region to help provide you with a contact.

• Compare potential candidates to bios found of previous recipients• Work with your potential candidate as you may need her/his help

gathering the right information• Companies who may have had a previous recipient – compare the

format, content of the previous package and cross-check to the award’s current criteria.

Frequently Asked Questions

Questions

• The Training Presentation & Replay is available• SWE Website:

• Awards -> Individual Awards

• By Emailing: • awards-chair@swe.org