Hello,

I attended the Women in Engineering Advisory Group Annual General Meeting on June 1st in Guelph, Ontario. The following are some highlights from that meeting:

The Women in Engineering Advisory Group is composed of representatives from each of the provincial and territorial regulatory groups and representatives of Engineers Canada. The representative from the CFES is officially an observer but expected to contribute to the groups and is invited to vote on most of the substantial items. Other observers were present at the 2008 Annual meeting including the Dean of Guelph’s Engineering College and a representative from the WISEST committee. The purpose of the meeting was to develop and priorities actions for Engineers Canada.

Two action items resulted from the meeting:

• The first action is to ensure that the new message being brought forward by Engineers Canada to high school students about engineering emphasizes the social aspect of engineering and the social opportunities which exist in engineering. We want to show that engineers can help people, help end poverty and help battle the climate crisis as well as work in the more traditional roles.
• The second action item is to develop a standing committee to consider an initiative to educate employers about best practices for treating women in the work place.

I updated the group on the status of the National Conference for Women in Engineering. In the discussion that followed, we talked about the possibility of the WIEAG helping maintain continuity in the NCWIE. Ideas of holding the NCWIE as a parallel conference with either the CCWESTT conference or the CFES Congress were popular. I will be meeting with individuals from the WISEST committee as well the WIEAG to explore these opportunities in more detail.

Mark Hlady
Commissioner of Social Issues
University of Alberta
social@cfes.ca