{"id":16266,"date":"2024-05-12T18:22:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T18:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/?p=16266"},"modified":"2024-05-15T15:55:38","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T15:55:38","slug":"scrapbook-spring-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/scrapbook-spring-24\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Road Again (and Again)"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1715537715421{padding-top: 20px !important;}”]By Troy Eller English, SWE Archivist<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1692734371359{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1643229446072{padding-top: 18px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16215″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1705700369192{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1692734741942{padding-bottom: 18px !important;}”][vc_column_text]\n
President Naomi McAfee (on left) stands with university faculty and administrators as Deborah Winbush (center) holds the North Carolina A&T Student Section charter certificate at a 1973 banquet. \u201cMy thanks to all of you and especially to the membership who unhesitatingly welcomed me in all of my travels,\u201d McAfee wrote in the May 1974 issue of the SWE Newsletter<\/em>. \u201cI managed to visit 17 of the 20 sections and 33 of 47 student sections. It has been a magnificent two years for me and I hope for the Society as well.\u201d<\/h6>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cThe life of a president is a busy one, closely resembling the new \u2018superwoman\u2019 image promulgated by the media. Full-time job, SWE paperwork, travel to SWE meetings, and speaking engagements \u2026,\u201d explained President Paula Loring in her column in the May 1979 issue of the SWE Newsletter<\/em>. \u201cI have traveled to many places to speak and meet with members. I didn\u2019t see many tourist sights, but I learned the culture very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although such visits have helped presidents of the Society of Women Engineers closely connect to and engage with members, in the early years presidents often could scarcely afford the time away from their typewriters.<\/p>\n

Just a month after assuming the presidency and responsibility for a young organization in financial and structural disarray, Miriam \u201cMickey\u201d Gerla feared coming home to a large stack of SWE mail after a four-day tour of SWE sections in New England in December 1956. She optimistically embraced the opportunity for strategizing en route, writing in a Dec. 8, 1956, letter to recording secretary Virginia Tucker: \u201cFortunately I love writing and thinking on trains or planes, and at this time I carry my work with me where I go.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1692734371359{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1643229446072{padding-top: 18px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16216″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1705700398246{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1692734741942{padding-bottom: 18px !important;}”][vc_column_text]\n

President Olive Salembier (seated, second from left) visited students at The University of Texas at El Paso in March 1972. She had spent the prior day with the St. Louis Section, which she described in the March 1972 issue of the SWE Newsletter<\/em> as \u201ca calming influence after having been routed out of bed at 2 a.m. and evicted by burly firemen and Montreal Canadien[s] hockey players when the hotel caught on fire!\u201d<\/h6>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]For others, time spent on the road was time not spent answering the never-ending flow of SWE business correspondence. Patricia Brown made many visits from Dallas to New York City during her two-year term as president beginning in 1961. She helped open SWE\u2019s first headquarters office and onboard its first executive secretary, a position vital to lessening the workload of SWE\u2019s beleaguered volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we are making significant progress,\u201d she reported to the Council of Section Representatives in a June 8, 1962, letter, \u201cbut I must leave many things undone \u2014 things that are important, perhaps even essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, SWE\u2019s presidents have often made concerted efforts to visit as many sections as possible each year, a goal that became increasingly difficult as the number of student sections rapidly expanded in the 1970s. \u201cIf there is one thing travel teaches me it\u2019s that I\u2019m not as young as I \u2018used to was\u2019,\u201d Arminta Harness lamented a few months after assuming the presidency in an Oct. 6, 1976, letter to the executive committee.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1692734371359{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1643229446072{padding-top: 18px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16217″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1705700411108{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1692734741942{padding-bottom: 18px !important;}”][vc_column_text]\n

At the end of her first year as SWE president, Lydia Pickup reported visiting 17 student sections and eight professional sections between July 1968 and June 1969. She created a chart to track visits made by herself and other executive committee members as well as to determine whether their visits correlated with subsequent section growth.<\/h6>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cI can only say if this pace doesn\u2019t slow down a bit my only ambition is going to [be to] become a past president!\u201d Rather than slowing down, however, Harness logged some 120,000 miles during her two years as president, largely at her employer\u2019s expense given the meager amount SWE could allocate in its budget for the president\u2019s expenses.<\/p>\n

Despite the concurrent challenges of time, workload, energy, and funding, SWE presidents have often looked back on their time on the road with fondness as they closed out their terms. \u201cThe most pleasurable part of this year has to have been my travels to visit SWE members,\u201d Sharon Loeffler reflected in her final report to the membership in June 1981. \u201cI managed to get to all four corners of the U.S. and many points in between. Each trip gave me renewed strength and enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n

SWE\u2019s growing international presence in the past 20 years has expanded presidents\u2019 travels, reflected in FY23 President Dayna Johnson\u2019s theme for that year, \u201cA World of Opportunity Awaits.\u201d And current SWE President Alexis McKittrick, Ph.D., reflects on the common themes that emerged from her travels to WE Local events in her column here<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1715537715421{padding-top: 20px !important;}”]By Troy Eller English, SWE Archivist[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1692734371359{padding-top: 10px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1643229446072{padding-top: 18px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_single_image image=”16215″ img_size=”full” style=”vc_box_shadow”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1705700369192{margin-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1692734741942{padding-bottom: 18px !important;}”][vc_column_text] President Naomi McAfee (on left) stands with university faculty and administrators as Deborah Winbush (center) holds the North Carolina A&T Student Section charter certificate at a 1973 banquet. \u201cMy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,200],"tags":[453,450],"thb-sponsors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16266"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16417,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16266\/revisions\/16417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16266"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.swe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=16266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}