ANNOUNCEMENTS

WIC committee meeting at AIChE Annual Meeting

The WIC committee meeting and receptions were held at the November '98 AiChE meeting in Miami. The meeting minutes follow.

1998 National Meeting Minutes

1999 is here and in full swing! It's time that WIC does too!!!

The long-awaited minutes from the November Business Meeting follow.

Old Business

The 1998 AIChE WIC November Business Meeting was held at the National Meeting in Miami Beach, Florida on Tuesday, November 17th at 4:00 p.m. A reception followed at 6:00 p.m.

The meeting started with old business. Joan Brennecke, 1998 WIC Inaugural Chair, started the meeting by allowing each subcommittee chair to present what had been accomplished during 1998. Some items discussed are as follows:

Information & Communication Subcommittee chaired by Joan Brennecke:

Website is up and running! Guests to the site can sign in and request additional information including signing up for the mentoring program.
A List-Serv should be up and running in early 1999.
A list of U.S. female faculty was compiled for communication to universities.
Roommate-matching service was successful for 1998 National Meeting and should be continued for future meetings. 15 - 20 responses were received from both faculty and students. Thanks to Kimberly Forsten for leading this service.

Outreach Subcommittee chaired by Betty Feehan:

An announcement on the program was in an issue of AIChExtra
Mentoring program established! Participants joined from the website, the Extra article as well as the National Meeting.
Some programming at future National Meetings will be planned geared towards mentoring.

Networking Subcommittee cochaired by Shannon Brown and Yvette Baxter-Drayton:

Planned the National Business Meeting and Reception.
Flyers announcing the Meeting/Reception, brochures describing WIC, signs and registration/sign-up sheets were found at the National Meeting and attracted more participation.

Visibility Subcommittee chaired by Stephanie Sullivan:

A list of potential Fellow nominees was generated and a nominee, Esin Gulari, was put forth for 1999 consideration.
An article followed by an advertisement were published in AIChExtra issues announcing our activities.
WIC recommended that Jennifer Brand be included in the 1999 Local Section Program Planning Handbook's Recommended Speakers List.
A presentation has been developed about WIC to share with any group, industry or academic, that may be interested.
Some female chemical engineers were submitted to be featured on the National Academy of Engineering's Celebration of Women in Engineering website.

1999 Officers Elected

Chair	Joan F. Brennecke
Chair Elect*	Leonore C. Witchey-Lakshmanan
Secretary	Stephanie T. Sullivan
Treasurer	Betty Feehan
Past Chair**	Teresa Cheung

* Chair Elect will take over duties as WIC chair the following year.
** Teresa Cheung was chair of the original Task Force.

New Business

WIC has been approved to have a session in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. A session held in 1997 was poorly attended. Several ideas were generated for session presentations:

History of Women in Engineering - Barbara Todd (Phillips Petroleum) shared with us later in the week some of the research she has completed on this. Also, Kimberly Forsten (Virginia Tech) mailed a copy of an article from Scientific American (November 1993, pp. 94-103) related to this. Barbara is very willing to research this as time permits. It was noted that we need to compile the information before it is all lost.
The Glass Ceiling
SWE 50th Anniversary, book summarizing June 2000
Starting your own company
Women in other cultures
How to mentor
Diversity
"Out of the box" thinking
Academic vs. Industrial Mentoring
Balance family & career, work/life balance
Family leave or parttime work - how to plan for/request
Dual career couples

Sean Bersell, Senior Director, AIChE Public Affairs, informed the Visibility Subcommittee that an opportunity had arisen for AIChE participation on a Congressional Commission. The "Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development Act" required eleven people with such expertise to be appointed to examine issues relative to the Commission's name. Seven of these people would be appointed from industry and four from academia.**

Many awards are available annually to active, successful members of AIChE in addition to Fellow status. I now have a 1999 AIChE Awards booklet which lists those available, which are classified as follows:

	General
	Council
	Committee
	Division
	Forum

Anyone who may be interested in learning more about these awards, please let me know. WIC needs to inform women in AIChE that these awards are available so that we might be better represented and acknowledged for our work in these areas. If you know of candidates or of great achievement, please let us know. An award may already be in place that can recognize that individual for their accomplishments.

Members of the Professional Development Committee presented to the Business Meeting information on the new structure of AIChE. The reorganization aims to "organize the Institute to be responsive to the needs of its members and other stakeholders." The existing "Council" will now be the AIChE "Board of Directors." Reporting to this Board will be three Councils with 1999 leadership as follows:

Chemical Engineering Technology Operating Council

Al Wechsler, Chair
Matt Tirrell, Vice Chair

Career & Education Operating Council

Stan Proctor, Chair
Dick Seagrave, Vice Chair

Societal Impact Operating Council

Shariq Yosufzai, Chair
Pete Lederman, Vice Chair

The first formal meeting will be held in March 1999. We were told that 1999 will be a transitional year from the old structure to the new structure. So, we must be patient while bearing the pains of change. WIC would be a part of Societal Impact.

Stats from the November Business Meeting/Reception:

Approximately 32 individuals signed into the WIC Business Meeting while an additional 34 individuals signed into the WIC Reception. Pictures of the event estimate that approximately 75 people were actually in attendance. Seven requested information about subcommittees; one wanted to be on the mailing list; eight both volunteered to mentor and be mentored; four requested a mentor; another four would like to mentor. Participation in both events was outstanding. 1999 in Dallas hopes to be even bigger and better.

** WIC put forth our Chair, Joan Brennecke, for nomination in early January. Sean Bersell has since requested in writing that the Governor of Indiana nominate her as the National Governors Association will be responsible for appointing the four academic representatives. Joan's participation as a leading force of WIC and her guidance of the University of Notre Dame's SWE chapter, along with her academic teaching and research experience, well supports her nomination. We hope that she is appointed to the commission.

Establishment of WIC - copy of Council Report

At the November '97 meeting, as a result of an effective presentation by the Gender Issues Task Force, Council approved the formation of the Women's Initiatives Committee. The Executive Summary of the task force report follows; for a copy of the full report e-mail Betty Feehan at bettf@aiche.org.

REPORT TO COUNCIL OF THE GENDER ISSUES TASK FORCE

October 1997

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The new strategic plan for the AIChE explicitly affirms in its Mission Statement the commitment to "uphold and advance the professional standards, ethics and diversity" within the organization. In November 1996, the Executive Committee of the AIChE Council formed a Gender Issues Task Force, charged with reporting back to Council by November 1997 on:

the past and present status of women in the organization and the profession,
an assessment of the future professional needs of this group of women, and
recommendations on long and short-term strategies to meet such needs, consistent with the objectives of the Mission Statement with respect to diversity.

The fourteen-member Task Force, chaired by Teresa Cheung, concluded that chemical engineering is ahead of the other engineering disciplines in being an attractive career choice for women. AIChE has an excellent opportunity to attract proportionally more women members in the future, if it provides an environment which supports their interests while expanding their career and leadership opportunities. Some of the main issues specific to women members involve the competing demands imposed by childbearing and traditional caregiving roles on career advancement, as well as some cultural differences in value systems and some subtle residual discrimination.

The Task Force conducted its work through two face-to-face meetings, and many teleconference calls and e-mail exchanges over the past nine months. Having concluded its work, the Task Force recommends the adoption and implementation of the following mission statement and strategic initiatives.

Women's Initiatives Mission

AIChE will lead in promoting the entry, development, and full participation of women in the Institute and the profession.

Strategies

Establish a new entity within AIChE to accomplish the Women's Initiatives Mission.
Develop and/or distribute resources on subjects pertaining to women in the profession.
Mobilize AIChE to meet the needs of existing and potential female members of AIChE and the profession.
Provide networking means for women in AIChE to use each other as resources.
Increase the visibility of women within AIChE and the profession.

Implementation Plan

The Task Force outlined six action items to be completed within the next year to launch the implementation of the above strategies.

Determination and appointment by Council of the interim leadership and membership of the Women's Initiatives Committee [January 1998].
Definition of the management structure and responsibilities for the Women's Initiatives Committee [March 1998].
Approval fo the operational by-laws for the Women's Initiatives Committee [Target for ratification: 1999].
Development and execution of a communication plan to announce the formation of the Women's Initiatives Committee, its mission and goals, and its planned strategic activities [Begin upon Council approval of this report and continue].
Establishment of a permanent Women's Initiatives Committee and integration of this new entity with the new volunteer organizational structure [November 1998].
Identification of AIChE resource requirements (In addition to continuing in-kind contributions by volunteers) and allocations of staff [Fiscal 1999 budget due May 1998. Estimated start-up costs for 1998 are $4500].