Changing of the Guard: Tips for Enabling Smooth Officer Transitions

Many campuses throughout the nation have active sections of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In an effective section, the SWE officers work together as a team to plan, organize, and carry out a host of activities ranging from mentorship networks, career talks, middle school outreach events, and fundraisers. The team effort of these officers can make a substantial impact on the perception of and support for women in Engineering at a school and surrounding community if the officers are enabled from the beginning of the year to do so. These officer positions themselves, commonly consisting of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Event Coordinator, and Historian can provide meaningful and valuable leadership opportunities in a well functioning section. However, many sections struggle for much of the first semester organizing themselves and getting activities up and off the ground because the proverbial baton is dropped. Because the duties are generally the same for each officer from year to year and the procedures that each officer needs to follow tend to change incrementally from year to year, it makes sense to establish a system for training the new incoming officers before they officially take office to ensure a smooth transition. In this paper, the common challenges that SWE sections face during the “changing of the guard” are presented along with some tips on how to achieve such a smooth transition, backed by examples of systems that some of those very active and productive SWE sections have established and follow to make office transition a smoother process and to enable them to hit the ground running at the start of the academic year.