SWEeter Futures Individual Rewards

In a few weeks, we will begin piloting SWE's new outreach tracking tool called SWEeter Futures. This new and powerful tool is conceptually based on the program introduced in 2008 in Region B. For the first time, SWE will be able to capture and report on all of the great outreach initiatives its sections and members are involved in. High-performing sections and regions will be rewarded with financial awards to be used for future events. These awards will be driven by the event data captured in the tool, and by WE13 will replace the outreach awards conferred annually during the Celebrate SWE! event held on the final night of conference.

Additionally, we will also like to implement individual recognition and rewards to encourage volunteer participation in outreach events, similar to the benefits one might receive as a member of a frequent flyer or buyer program. As an outreach practitioner/volunteer, we would like your help in defining this portion of the program.

Please share your thoughts with us on how to encourage individual SWE members to raise their hands to help us on this critical strategic priority of encouraging girls to choose engineering and technology as their careers of choice.

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* 1. Please select the choice that best describes your situation as an engineering outreach practitioner.

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* 2. How many hours a year do you personally commit to engineering or STEM outreach of any type to girls? This information will help us determine if there is a correlation between responses and level of respondents' involvement.

Note that outreach can consist of anything from working a career fair to one-on-one mentoring to small or large group events, as long as the ultimate activity works directly with girls or people who work directly with girls, such as parents, teachers, coaches, or other adult influencers.

  0-10 hours annually 11-20 hours annually 21-40 hours annually 41-75 hours annually 76-100 hours annually greater than 100 hours annually
activities with girls
activities with adult influencers
planning outreach activities

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* 3. Please rate your level of agreement with the following statements regarding individual rewards criteria. Each statement should be considered separately and they are not mutually exclusive.

  Strongly disagree Disagree Neither agree nor disagree Agree Strongly agree
Rewards should be based only on hours of direct engineering outreach contact with girls.
Rewards should be based on hours spent in planning and delivering outreach to girls.
Rewards should be based on hours that include any volunteer training for outreach activities.
Milestone rewards should be conferred at intervals based on accrual over time, not annually.
Annual awards should be made to top individual outreach practitioner based on prior year logged hours.
Individual members should be rewarded for recruiting family and friends to do outreach.
Cash incentives are critical to the success of any individual rewards program.
Rewards such as paid annual membership or conference fees would be effective individual incentives.
Commendation letters to employers regarding outreach commitment would be an effective individual incentive.
Monthly recognition of milestone achievers in SWE newsletter would be an effective individual incentive.
Annual recognition of milestone achievers in conference edition of SWE magazine would be an effective individual incentive.
Free Agilent kits would be an effective incentive.

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* 4. Please provide further suggestions for rewards that would motivate individual members to participate in planning and delivering engineering and technology outreach activities to girls.

Thanks for providing your input on this important initiative. If you have questions about the SWEeter Futures pilot, please contact Randy Freedman at randy.freedman@swe.org or Mary Phelps at mary.phelps@swe.org

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