ASME Student Leadership Seminar

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ASME Student Leadership Seminar
Leadership Skills Exercises
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Leadership Skills Exercises

• Divide into teams
• Pick a topic from the next slide
• Develop actual action plans and timetables that
  you can use and share with others
• Timing
• 30-45 minutes for discussion and to develop your
  plan
• 5 minutes/team to report findings and
  recommendations

• Think about the objective for your plan
• Is it specific and measurable?
• How will you get started?
• What resources do you have?
• What resources do you need?
• Draw on your own experiences as Student Officers
  or from your experiences with other volunteer
  organizations
• Think outside the box!

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Topics for Leadership Skills

• Fundraising
• Membership Development
• Publicity and Communications
• Organizing a Section/Student Section Event
• Building and Sustaining an Executive Committee
• SPDC Conference Attendance
• Automatic Upgrade Programs
• Diversity Action Grant Event

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FundraisingThe Scenario

• You are the Tatooine University Student Section
• You have an ME student population of 80 students,
  and 25 members in your student section
• You are located in a moderately large city, with
  some industrial activity and a university and a
  community college nearby
• Your section is fairly active in terms of
  meetings and tours, you have a monthly newsletter
  but your student section website is out-of-date
• At the SLS, your student delegates learned about
  the Student Professional Development Conference
  next spring and all of the competitions and
  activities planned for students
• All the delegates thought it would be a good idea
  to send a 4-person team for the Student Design
  Competition and several other students to the
  SPDC (approx. a 300-mile drive from your city)

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FundraisingThe Exercise

• Your executive committee has agreed to send a
  student delegation to the SPDC next Spring
• To limit out-of-pocket expenses, the student
  section is planning to fundraise
• Your group has been assigned the task of
  developing a fundraising plan
• You are meeting for the first time to start
  planning
• (Note Focus on HOW you will raise the amount you
  need,
• NOT the amount you need to raise. )

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FundraisingThe Exercise

• How will you raise these funds?
• Events, advertising, sponsors, etc.?
• Who will you solicit?
• Alumni, companies, members, university vendors,
  etc.?
• What materials will you need?
• What is the timetable?
• Is there a follow-up plan? How will you recognize
  and thank the donors?
• Focus on the plan, not how much you need.
• Develop a step-by-step approach that
  other student
  sections could use.

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FundraisingBest Practices

• Basic Fundraising Model
• Compile a list of the corporations around your
  city/campus area
• Talk to everybody in your student section /
  professors / SSAs / Senior Section(s) - ask for
  contacts in these corporations for an
  introduction
• Check with University (ask the SSA/ MEDH which
  office) about the corporations guidelines /
  restrictions for contacting them (want to avoid
  any faux pas)
• Develop a basic 'script' for people to use
• Assign people from the student section (or
  fundraising committee) to contact each
  corporation on the list (for which you have the
  university's go ahead)
• Reach out to local small- and medium-sized
  businesses for sponsorship (money and in-kind
  such as food, flowers,, give-aways, etc for an
  event)
• Thank you sponsors publicly and feature their
  names/logos in printed and online material

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Membership DevelopmentThe Scenario

• You are the Dagobah Institute of Technology
  (DIT) Student Section
• Your university is located in a small college
  town
• You have an ME student population of 160 and a
  student membership of 17
• Your student membership has stayed below 20 of
  the student population
• The local senior ASME section is active but often
  meets in a town about 30 miles away
• Nationally, about 30 of ME students are ASME
  members
• The new section chair just returned from SLS
  excited about ASME and has made a goal to
  increase the student membership at DIT.

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Membership DevelopmentThe Exercise

• Your committee is tasked with developing a plan
  to increase student membership at DIT
• How do you recruit the new members?
• How will you reach the student population?
• Will you plan a large event with outside
  speakers, or a series of smaller events?
• Will you involve the local senior section?
• Will you involve the SSA and other faculty?
• Will you visit individual classrooms?
• The District Leader has offered to visit DIT, and
  you have a Student Benefits presentation you can
  use to sell ASME.
• Remember once students join ASME,
• how will you keep them as members?

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Publicity and Communications The Scenario

• You are the Hoth Student Section
• You have a ME student population of 320 with 106
  ASME student members
• The section is active however, you have noticed
  a precipitous drop in attendance at your meetings
  and tours
• Surveying the student membership, you found that
  many indicated they did not know about the
  meetings, or didnt have enough advance notice of
  the meetings and made other plans
• In the past, your section has relied on printed
  meeting notices with occasional e-mails, and
  neither publishes a newsletter nor maintains a
  website

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Publicity and CommunicationsThe Exercise

• Your section executive committee has formed a
  publicity committee to improve communication with
  the members
• You are tasked with developing a marketing and
  communication plan for the section
• Some methods to explore
• Website Newsletter E-mail announcements (using
  online membership data and e-mail listserv)
  Advertising (campus newspaper) Phone or Text
  Message trees Bulletin Boards Classrooms
  visits etc.
• Determine what combination of methods you will
  use and how you will implement
  them
• Dont forget to factor in effectiveness cost
  when making your plan

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Organizing a Section/Student Section EventThe
Scenario

• You are the Naboo AM University Student Section
• Your university is located in a large
  metropolitan city with a local senior section
  that has 670 members, although usually 20-25
  attend their events
• Your student section is active, but the same few
  people do all the work youd like to increase
  involvement
• Your student section has had no recent
  involvement or joint activities with the senior
  section
• The District Leader has urged sections to get
  more involved with student activities
• Your student section chair made a goal to improve
  student section/senior section relations, and to
  hold at least one joint
  event per year

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Organizing a Section/Student Section EventThe
Exercise

• The Executive Committee is meeting to plan how to
  improve the interaction between your local
  student and senior sections
• Many ideas have surfaced, with two top choices
• a Student Technical Papers Night or an
  Engineering Forum with a series of speakers
  (local section officers and practicing engineers)
  coming in to discuss ASME, as well as what it is
  like to be an engineer.
• Both are excellent ideas, but the student section
  has no contact with the local section leadership
• Your SSA spoke to a local section officer who
  indicated interest
• You must decide on the activity, and how you will
  approach the local section leadership to ask for
  their support
• How would you get this started?
• Identify the tasks you must complete, as well as
  what you will be asking the local section to do.

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Building and Sustaining an Effective Executive
CommitteeThe Scenario

• You are the Geonosis University Student Section
• You have an ME population of 218 students, with
  58 student members
• Your section has been active for the last few
  years, but members of the executive committee
  declined from 12 to 6
• This has put an extra burden on the remaining
  officers, who are becoming burned out due to
  schoolwork, job obligations, and other outside
  activities
• In the short term, this will make it difficult to
  sustain the level of activities and programs that
  the student section offers
• Additionally, all of the remaining members are
  seniors scheduled to graduate in the spring, so
  the long-term continuity and survival of the
  student section is at stake

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Building and Sustaining an Effective Executive
Committee The Exercise

• You are at a meeting of the current officers to
  discuss plans for recruiting new members to the
  executive committee
• The task is to come up with a plan that will
  interest and attract new officers, especially
  underclassmen, as well as design a method to keep
  them interested and rewarded as they serve on the
  committee
• You need to set a goal of how many new officers
  you need, determine how to find interested
  candidates, and sell them on the benefits and
  rewards of serving as an officer.
• What will you do?

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Student Professional Development Conference
Attendance ParticipationThe Scenario

• You are the Bespin University Student Section
• Your section has about 150 student members and,
  in the past, has had a very active program of
  tours, speakers, and social events
• However, even with all this activity, your
  section has not participated in district
  conferences
• In fact, this is the first year your section has
  sent a delegation (5 students) to the SLS
• At the SLS, the delegation learned of the Student
  Professional Development Conference and other
  activities, including student competitions and
  networking opportunities with other students and
  senior members
• The delegates and, later, the executive committee
  agreed that Bespin University should send a
  delegation to the SPDC

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Student Professional Development Conference
Attendance ParticipationThe Exercise

• You have been assigned to a committee tasked with
  planning and promoting Bespin Universitys
  student delegations attendance and participation
  in this years SPDC.
• The Executive Committee set a goal for 10
  students to attend the SPDC, with at least one
  entry in the Old Guard Oral Contest (2 max), one
  in the Old Guard Poster Contest (2 max), and at
  least one team entered in the Student Design
  Contest (no limit).
• How will you inform the student members, promote
  the activities and contest, and decide who will
  participate? Will you involve the SSA and other
  faculty? The senior section?
• How will you cover travel costs?
• What is your timetable?

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Automatic Upgrade ProgramsThe Scenario

• You are the Coruscant University Student Section
• Your section has 131 student members (90 of the
  ME student population) and has always had strong
  participation
• In fact, your section won the Student Section
  contest two years ago, had winners in the Student
  Design Contests, and had representatives on the
  Student Section Committee
• Doing research for the upcoming ABET
  accreditation review, the ME department surveyed
  alumni to determine their affiliation in
  professional societies
• They were shocked to find that only 15 of
  graduates have remained members of ASME, and many
  once-active student members no longer belong to
  ASME

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Automatic Upgrade ProgramsThe Exercise

• Based on this information, the student chair made
  a goal for the year
• Improve the retention rate of Coruscant
  University graduates by publicizing ASMEs
  Automatic Upgrade Program (student members are
  automatically upgraded to Members upon
  graduation)
• The chair also intends to hold programs that
  include alumni speakers who are current ASME
  members, and engineers from the local ASME
  section, to inform the students of ASMEs career
  benefits.
• You have been assigned to the planning committee
  to organize an ASME alumni engineering forum to
  promote ASME after graduation
• This program is intended for all graduating
  seniors
• The chair wants to invite 3-4 alumni to address
  the seniors
• What type of program will you plan? How will you
  invite and identify the alumni?
• What costs do you anticipate?
• Can the District Operating Board and ASME
  Headquarters Staff help?
• What is your timetable?

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Diversity Action Grant EventThe Scenario

• Your ASME Student Section has decided to apply
  for a Diversity Action Grant, a competitive
  grants program which makes of awards of between
  500 and 1,500 to fund events which
• Promote the inclusion of women and
  under-represented minorities in ASME Student
  Sections and in mechanical engineering.
• Inspire K-12 students to excel in science,
  technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
  education and/or,
• Assist minority- and/or women-owned businesses
  solve engineering design problems.
• The application deadline for the 2008-2009
  academic year is November 1st.

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Diversity Action Grant EventThe Exercise

• Determine the focus for your event, making sure
  it meets one or more the DAG objectives.
• Write a description of the planned event,
  including how it will be accomplished, the target
  audience/customer, the benefits of the project.
  Be innovative!
• Develop a budget for the project, including
  possible cost sharing with local industry,
  universities and/or the local ASME Section.
• Consider collaboration with other engineering
  groups on campus, e.g., SWE, NSBE, SHPE, EWB.

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Diversity Action Grant EventFollow up!

• Check your event plan against the DAG Dos and
  Donts at http//www.asme.org/Communities/Diversi
  ty/Dos_Donts_Application.cfm
• Submit your plan for the event and request for
  funding at
• https//secure.asme.org/BMWDAGApp/grant.cfm

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