The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders.

Region C of SWE includes all sections in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. This blog is meant to serve as an interactive news source for collegiate members from these states regarding upcoming events and best practices at the individual, university, region, and national levels within SWE. Use the links below the map to learn more about us.

Map of SWE Regions

Regional Collegiate Team Definition | RCT Long Term Goals |
Professional Sections | Collegiate Sections

Regional Collegiate Team Definition

Regional Collegiate Team Organizational Chart

Here are a couple of points to assist with the positions, terminology, and acronyms:

Collegiate: In the future, the word “collegiate” shall be used more and more frequently when referring to collegiate level student programs and members. This is a strategic change to help the Society and supporting community distinguish between the collegiate “student” member and the K-12 “student” to which SWE reaches out. A change to the Society Bylaws has been proposed.
Collegiate Region Team: a region team composed of people addressing collegiate issues, working together within the region. The team includes (but is not limited to):
Region Collegiate Representative (RCR): a collegiate member serving on the Council of Representatives (COR), responsible for running region collegiate meetings at national and regional conferences, assisting the collegiate section hosting the Regional Conference, and communicating with the Region Governor about collegiate activities and issues within the region.
Region Collegiate Communications Editor (RCCE): a collegiate member compiling region information for distribution to the membership. Also a RCCE would be the first runner up to take the RCR position if the current RCR decides they could not perform the assigned duties.
Collegiate Interests Representative (CIR): a collegiate or professional member serving on the Collegiate Interests Committee, strategizing methods to improve the value proposition for collegiate members, evaluating and recommending collegiate programs, creating leadership opportunities, and streamlining processes.
Region Collegiate Membership Coordinator (RCMC): a collegiate or professional member serving on the Membership Committee, and aiding the collegiate sections in increasing their membership and maintaining their charter requirements.
Collegiate Leadership Coaches (CLC): a collegiate or professional member working directly with collegiate Sections, facilitating the sharing of best practices between student sections within the region, addressing specific issues they have with their ongoing operations by coaching them through modules developed by the Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee.
SWE Future Leader (SWEFL): A freshman or sophomore collegiate member who shows outstanding potential for future leadership in SWE and is invited to take part in the Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF) held annually in the summer. After the CLF, SWEFLs may be called on to participate in SWE collegiate focus groups and encouraged to apply for SWE leadership positions at their collegiate section or at the region or national level. SWEFLs are nominated by other collegiate or professional SWE leaders. The SWEFL application typically becomes available in the April timeframe.

Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF)

The Collegiate Leadership Forum (CLF) is an annual event used as an opportunity to train RCRs and RCNEs. CLF was started in 2005 by a recommendation from the Student Transition Team. Beyond RCRs and RCNEs, the CLF has now been expanded to include additional groups of collegiate members by invitation only. In 2006, the added participants were SWE Future Leaders (SWEFLs, see above). In the future, invited groups may include collegiate section presidents, grad students, collegiate leadership from struggling sections, etc.

The CLF typically takes place in August, in conjunction with the SWE BOD installation. Activities include the BOD installation dinner, leadership training, SWE training, professional development, and networking with other collegiate leaders, the Region Governors, and BOD members. All travel, accommodations, and activities are completely free to participants.

Any questions about the CLF can be sent to the CLF Coordinator at clf-coordinator@swe.org.

RCR and RCCE Elections

The RCR represents collegiate members’ interests to SWE national leaders by actively participating in the strategic discussions of the Council of Representatives (COR), The COR charts strategic direction and adopts long range goals of the Society

The RCCE produces a regional newsletter for collegiate members by compiling articles, news, and announcements that are relevant and timely. Newsletters should contain SWE best practices, events, and activities that benefit collegiate members.

Each Region’s RCR and RCCE work closely to enhance opportunities for college members. RCR and RCCE receives expense-paid travel to the annual SWE Collegiate Leadership Forum! The 2009 Forum took place during the summer in Chicago, IL.

Election Process:

A standardized election process is in place for the election of RCR and RCCE.

The process:

Applications are accepted online, only.
Seven weeks prior to each region conference, a call for applications is distributed to collegiate members and region leaders to announce the application deadline.
Biographical information on each candidate is disseminated electronically to all region collegiate members prior to the start of voting.
A one -week online voting period allows collegiate sections to cast their vote, if they are unable to attend their regional conference and participate in the collegiate meeting in which votes are tallied.
At the collegiate meeting during the regional conference, candidates may provide a speech to the collegiate membership regarding their interest and qualifications for the position.
A vote will be called at the meeting. Online and live votes will be compiled, and the election results will be announced at the region conference

Click here to apply for the RCR or RCCE position online.

It is recommended that you review and prepare answers for the application questions prior to completing the online application. The application questions can be found here. Any questions about the RCR/RCCE positions or the application and voting process can be sent to the RCR/RCCE Coordinator at cic-rcr@swe.org

Collegiate Leadership Coaching

Collegiate Leadership Coaching is a task force dedicated to empowering sections with the tools and training they need to build strong sections as well as obtain valuable leadership skills. SWE’s Collegiate Leadership Coaching content and tools are found in My SWE Communities section of the web site.
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Long-Term Goals

The Region Collegiate Team’s (RCT) long-term goals are to:

Drive continual improvement in the collegiate experience within the Region
Continue to develop strategic goals that address the key collegiate issues in the Region
Deliver at least one new program, initiative, or improvement to the region to address a key collegiate issues in the Region each year
Annually revisit, update, and revise the key collegiate issues in the Region