o Davina Chism reported that she had called many members and former members. As a result, she learned that more members want technical and growth type meeting content.

· Also discussed was the upcoming Girl Scout Engineering Badge program, set for Saturday, March 19, 2005.

o Several attendees signed up to help, and since the meeting, among many positions filled we have the following critical positions filled and available for contact:

Event Coordinator: Jaime Hunter (dallaswe@comcast.net)

Volunteer Coordinator: Cheryl Homan (CherylSFC@aol.com),

Volunteer Coordinator Assistant: Heather Chan (heather.chan@gmail.com)

o Volunteers are still needed.

Editor’s Notes: Thank you all for your many kind wishes, moral support, cards—for everything you have done for me over the past several months, after the death of my mother. We were blessed that it was a surprise and not long and drawn out—barely 16 days from the first indication of a problem.

I would like to share one thought, though—Mom always loved plants and could grow anything. My dear husband gave me a beautiful, lush, blooming Gloxinia for our anniversary (Sep 2003). In June 2004, I had decided that I had killed it. It was dry and brown—obviously I had forgotten to water. I just left it there—sad that I had allowed it to die, but unwilling to just throw it away. I decided to wait for some appropriate time to “properly” clean out the plant and pot, I didn’t water it—just allowed it to sit on the window seat. Near the end of October 2004, a week or so after returning to Texas from burying mom in Oregon (next to my dad), my husband decided he would clean up that plant and pot. Even though he thinks a plant is dead, he always takes all the dead leaves and stems off first, before pitching it into the compost pile or the trash. (Obviously, he is a more conscientious “house” gardener than I am!) When he had finished cleaning all the dead stuff off, he noticed a tiny green leaf—not more than 3/16” long. We watered it and put it back onto its window seat. It is now a good-sized plant. It has over a dozen lush leaves, about half of which are four to six inches long. Lots of new tiny leaves, too! I like to think that part of mom’s spirit saved that plant for me and that it is a sign that she is still around and in my life.

My web link for this month is: http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/ I won’t say it provides an exhaustive internet search for books or necessarily the cheapest prices, but it has been close enough for my personal purposes. “Check It Out!”

Girl Scout Engineering Badge program is coming---Saturday, 19 March 2005! Please consider volunteering. See “Upcoming Events,” newsletters, and e-mail for future announcements.

Self Improvement

LeEarl sent me an electronic newsletter last year. The newsletter was entitled “Executive Women’s Journal -- Professional insights and peer support for women business owners and executives”. Visit www.ewfinternational.com to sign up for this newsletter. While the newsletter is aimed at women business owners and women executives, there is plenty of material to help you improve yourself in the workplace—no matter what level you are or aspire to!

Understanding management styles and techniques can help you be a better employee and give you a better understanding of your manager. Learning what it takes to start or run a business can help you grow into a better job or even your own business. Some topics in the issue I reviewed were: 1) “Gauging your Management Style”, 2) “Women Managing Women”, 3) book suggestions, and of course lots of links and information for women starting or growing their business.

One area most of us need help improving is our interview skills. What? You say you are not looking for a job? That’s okay. You don’t want to wait until they call you for an interview to start learning what you do and don’t do well in an interview. Also, improving your interview skills can help improve how you talk with your supervisor, manager, their bosses, or even that presentation you are doing to the customer. If you improve your interview skills, you are improving your communications skills!

The Sunday, 28 November 2004 issue of the Star-Telegram had a wonderful article on body language and interviews, “Body language can speak volumes during interview” by Maria Caceres. One of the techniques suggested by the article is to have yourself video taped while having a mock interview. I’ve actually experienced this many, many years ago. After the initial shock of how I looked on videotape, I was able to see my body language as well as the corresponding body language of the interviewer. It was very informative—to say the least! I then had the opportunity to work on several problem areas (with help and coaching), and then be re-taped. The second interview was much better! If I can track down an online copy of this article, I will post it in a future newsletter.

Another article in the same paper was “The do’s and don’ts of job interviewing” by Marco Buscaglia. Buscaglia summarized the advice of John Challenger, chief executive of the outplacement firm: Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, Inc. While this article targeted older job seekers, it had many excellent tips for interviewees of all ages.

Many of the recommendations in both articles are what I call “duh” items. That is, if you or I thought about the given situations we could probably identify most of the suggestions ourselves. However, most of the time, these are not the things we think about. Some examples are: “Don’t patronize your interviewer.” “Don’t be too relaxed.” “Don’t be too stiff.” Being too relaxed can be interpreted as a lack of respect for the interviewer, while being too stiff can indicate eagerness or fear. Use other ways to communicate your eagerness without communicating something negative.

While we are on this topic, Jennifer Ray established a new “job opportunity” e-mail list. To be added to the list, send her an e-mail—preferably from the e-mail account where you want to receive the job announcements. Her e-mail address is mailto:jray@ppoinc.net.

Tell Me About Yourself.” This phrase frequently strikes fear into the hearts of people. It occurs frequently in interview situations, but it can happen anytime anywhere—at the office or your next social event. In interviews it comes out direct—“Tell me about yourself.” In the office or at a social gathering it probably won’t be so direct. You may be lucky and someone will say “What do you do?” or “What do you want to do?” or any one of several other pointed, limited scope questions.

Don Straits, in an article for www.careerbuilder.com, has some non-traditional advice for job seekers in response to this question or statement. See URL: http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/CareerBytes/0903TellMeAboutYourself.htm?lr=cbnh_over for the full article. I believe his advice is good for everyone to consider. You may be able to come up with a less conventional response to that social question “What do you do?” Straits’ advice is to “consider your audience”. Are you talking to the Sales Manager, the Human Resources Manager, the CEO, or ?? Each person has a preferred approach and tailoring your “personal commercial” to their personality type or approach can pay big dividends. I believe the couple of minutes it takes to read his article and a few more minutes spent reflecting on his advice could make a difference in your next interview or that next elevator ride with the boss. No. I’m not advocating verbally selling yourself to your boss or CEO, but consider his or her personality type or approach to life and use that as a guide to “what do I say to the boss” or “what do I say to Mary’s husband”.

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 February 2005, and March 2005.

FEBRUARY 2005

February - Section Meeting

SPEAKER: Dallas Area Engineers

TOPIC: ZOOM! Into Engineering for Engineers’ WEEK 2005

Fun hands-on engineering related activities for all ages - examples from ZOOM!

DATE: Tuesday, February 15

TIME: 6:15 PM, start networking

LOCATION: Nedley’s Restaurant – Community Room

CONTACT:

Feb 20 – 27: National Engineers Week Observance

MARCH 2005

Girl Scout Engineering Badge program

VOLUNTEERS still needed!

CONTACT: Event Coordinator: Jaime Hunter (dallaswe@comcast.net)

Volunteer Coordinator: Cheryl Homan (CherylSFC@aol.com),

Volunteer Coordinator Assistant: Heather Chan
(heather.chan@gmail.com)

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.

Tuesday, 18 January Meeting Details