Cissy Sylo is the Director of Engineering Services for the City of Frisco. She is responsible for the following divisions within the City: City Engineering; Transportation; Construction Inspection; and Facilities Architecture & Construction.

Her previous experience includes DFW International Airport as Assistant Vice President of Planning (over Business Planning, Transportation Engineering and Aviation Planning group), HNTB as Director of Municipal Services, and the cities of Carrollton as Director of Transportation and Arlington as a Graduate Engineer. She has a bachelor and masters degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is married and has three children: Brock (18), Spencer (14) and Morgan (9).

LeEarl’s description of our speaker

LeEarl’s Corner

GOALS FOR PROGRAMS

I’ll be serving as the program chair for this year and I hope you’ll find something of interest that attracts you to our meetings. My intention is to build on last year’s success by keeping our 3^rd Tuesday as the standard meeting night and Nedley’s as our restaurant of “choice”. The next objective is to have the programs defined well in advance so you can start planning your calendar as soon as possible.

My unofficial theme for this year is “SWE ARE WE”. As you’ll find on the initial calendar listing, our speakers will be women engineers who are outstanding role models, who will be sharing aspects of their jobs and/or personal lives. For most of the programs, the speaker(s) will also be SWE members.

Cissy Sylo who holds the highest-level title for engineers within the city of Frisco, City Engineer, will launch our year. As such, Ms. Sylo is also one of the highest ranked women engineers in city government throughout the nation. I encourage all members to invite others share in the unique experience of how this woman achieved this accomplishment, handles city politics, and works to shape Frisco for the present and future.

At this time, I’m also planning four programs with very unique subjects and formats. These are two Show ‘n Tell opportunities, a panel of engineers who will share their parenting experiences, and a hands-on fun activity for our EWEEK program.

So, try to reserve the 3rd Tuesday of the month (time off in December) for SWE Dallas and share in the SWE are WE theme experience.

ENGINEERING CAREER NIGHT – October 26 (see flyer for more details)

For the second time, Eric Stromberg is serving as chair of our annual Engineering Career Night for middle and high school students, parents, educators, and counselors. This event was started more than ten years ago by past-chair LuAnne Beckley as a way for students to learn about the aptitudes and preparation requirements that are related to successful engineering careers. This year it is being held at Newman Smith High School, a science and technology focused magnet for Carrollton students.

Please help to spread the word and contact Eric if you are available for helping with the event. We require several members to participate as speakers, hosts, and role models.

NEW OFFICERS

Voting is in process for our new officers and the votes will be counted and announced by the end of our September meeting. The slate consists of Jaime Hunter for president, myself for vp/program chair, Jennifer Ray for secretary, Barbara Vilbig for treasurer, and Davinia Chism for Section Rep.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We have all levels of leadership opportunities for members and friends within SWE. These include serving as committee chairs, vice chairs for Career Night and Girl Scout Badge programs, and needed volunteers at all levels. We’re ahead of the game this year compared to recent past but have many openings. Please let us know if you can help and how.

NEWSLETTER EDITOR

For the past few years, our newsletter has gone without an official editor and Presidents have taken on this responsibility. Member Roslyn Taylor volunteered in the spring to serve in this capacity for us. Roslyn thinks that this is a great way for her to use her prior newsletter experience and help Dallas SWE, even though she is unable to attend meetings. For now, I’ll serve as Roslyn’s link for news concerning what is happening at meetings and other events. She’s going to do the hard part of putting more icing on the cake.

Editor’s Comments: My background is best described as “checkered”; my tastes are eclectic at best; my leanings are best described as conservatively liberal. I was born in San Francisco, CA and have moved around a bit. The furthest West that I have lived was near Honolulu, HI while the furthest East was Storrs, CT, and many places in between. I’ll have lived in Texas 2.5 years on 1 October 2004. But, wherever I have lived, my heart still considers Oregon home!

I came to engineering indirectly. As a senior in Chemistry at Oregon State University (the other OSU), I witnessed the arrival of the first computers (PDP-8s) into the research laboratories of my analytical chemistry professors. The professors barely allowed the graduate students near the computers—we undergraduates had to watch from the doorway! Listening to the comments and concerns being discussed led me to believe that I needed an understanding of engineering and electronics so that I could design and interface laboratory equipment with computers. Ten years later, the U.S. Air Force provided the opportunity to receive my B.S.E.E. and later my M.S.E.E. in discrete digital control theory through the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Once I became an engineer, I never went back to Chemistry.

IEEE says I’ve been a member since 1979, but it certainly doesn’t feel that long—well, maybe on a few, rare days! My adult work experiences range from library technician and girl Friday through laboratory assistant and chemist transitioning to microcomputer support technician, network engineer, consultant, editor, electronics engineer, and Air Force officer (not necessarily in that order). The longest I’ve held one job title was a little longer than 4.5 years—except for the job titles of “mom” and “wife”—those I’ve held the longest! My hobbies and interests are even more widely varied than my work experience.

I have two hopes: 1) that some of my personality came through in the above description, and 2) that we will evolve this newsletter into something you enjoy reading, find useful and helpful, and actually look forward to receiving!

My most useful non-engineering web link is http://www.bartleby.com/. It is an online source for a wide variety of reference material. I use the dictionary and thesaurus functions most often, but have also found the American Usage and English Usage references very helpful also. “Check It Out!”

UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR

Meetings are the 3^rd Tuesday of each month September 2004 through June 2005, except December. Currently, additional events are scheduled for the months of October 2004, February 2005, and March 2005.

OCTOBER 2004

October Section Meeting

SPEAKER: Dallas Area Engineers

TOPIC: Career Show ‘n Tell

Attendees are invited to briefly describe and possibly show something related to their job experience.

DATE: Tuesday, October 19

TIME: 6:15 PM, start networking

LOCATION: Nedley’s Restaurant – Community Room

Engineer/Technology Career Night

SPEAKER: Various SWE members and Guests

TOPICS: Presentations Concerning Aptitudes,

Education, and Experiences in Engineering Careers

DATE: Tuesday, October 26

TIME: 6:30 – 8:30PM

LOCATION: Newman Smith High School, Carrollton

CONTACT: Eric Stromberg

Future Dates

SWE Cares

Recognizing that going through career transition is normal, SWE helps its members by offering a dues discount to members who experience a period of unemployment. We want to help you find not just any job, but the right job that meets your career expectations.

www.swe.org/careers: You know what to do and you know how to do it! Visit the SWE career center where job opportunities meet SWE member resumes. Join the SWE resume database where hundreds of recruiters identify new candidates all the time.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

• To inform young women, their parents, counselors, and the public in general of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers and of the opportunities open to them.

• To assist women engineers in readying themselves for a return to active work after temporary retirements.

• To serve as a center of information on women in engineering.

• To encourage women engineers to attain high levels of educational and professional achievement.

CHECK US OUT! www.dallaswe.org

If you need to update your contact information, please feel free to use the submission form on the web. There is also a survey page. Please take the opportunity to let us know your opinions. We would greatly appreciate your input.

CITIZENSHIP

This is an election year. The following non-partisan election information is provided to aid you in becoming more informed on issues in conjunction with exercising your freedom and privilege to vote. We have received notification of the following Candidate Forums:

CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION NEWS FOR DALLAS ENGINEERS

As most of you know, early voting will start soon, but there is still time to communicate with candidates on issues of interest to you and other engineers. So far, candidate forums are only scheduled for Congressional Dist 32 – the only district with two well-financed races.

Even though you may not reside in Dist 32, we still encourage you to attend one or more of these forums and use this as an opportunity to communicate your concerns and to increase the candidates’ awareness of issues of particular interest to engineers.

At the present time, we have the following information on the five Frost/Sessions Candidate Forums:

Candidate Campaign Offices (alphabetical order) http://www.martinfrost.com

http://www.petesessions.com

Date: Sunday, September 12th

Sponsor: World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas

Location: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Time: arrive prior to 6:30 since the 7pm debate is being televised.

Special requirement ticket may be required

More Info: http://www.dallasworld.org/programs/speaker/20040912_debate.html

Date: Wednesday, October 6^th

Sponsor: League of Women Voters of Dallas

Location: Mt. View College in Oak Cliff.

Time: 7pm

More info: http://www.lwvdallas.org/calendar.html

Date: Thursday, October 14th

Sponsor: Dallas Jewish community Relations Council

Location: TBD

Time: 7:30 – 9:30 PM

More info: 214-615-5254 or jecrcdallas@jfgd.org

Date: Wednesday, October 20^th

Sponsor: KERA public broadcasting

Location: TBD

Time: TBD

More info: http://www.kera.org

Date: Friday, October 22nd

Sponsor: KTVT Channel 11

Location: TBD

Time: TBD

More Info: http://www.ktvt.com

Society of Women Engineers

Dallas Section

P.O. Box 852022

Richardson, TX 75085

Tuesday, 21 September Meeting Details

Abstract – to be provided

About Our Speaker –

LeEarl’s description of our speaker

GOALS FOR PROGRAMS

ENGINEERING CAREER NIGHT – October 26 (see flyer for more details)

NEW OFFICERS

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

NEWSLETTER EDITOR

UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR

Meetings are the 3rd Tuesday of each month September 2004 through June 2005, except December. Currently, additional events are scheduled for the months of October 2004, February 2005, and March 2005.

OCTOBER 2004

October Section Meeting

Engineer/Technology Career Night

Future Dates

SWE Cares

Special requirement ticket may be required

Meetings are the 3^rd Tuesday of each month September 2004 through June 2005, except December. Currently, additional events are scheduled for the months of October 2004, February 2005, and March 2005.