Committees
Joining a committee is a great way to become more involved in Tau Beta Pi. Below is a list of each committee along with a short description. If you are interested in joining any of these committees please contact the committee chair for more information
Social Committee
Volunteering Committee
Engineering Futures
Financial Committee
Rube Goldbergh
Dodgeball
Symposium Committee
Symposium Co-Chairs: and
The symposium committee is in charge of setting up our largest annual event. They are required to schedule a speaker, reserve a room, provide programs and drink / food if necessary. This year the focus is going to be on the health effects of global warming.
Social Committee
Social Chair:
The goal of the social committee is to promote Tau Beta Pi to the College of Engineering and the whole university. A small first step is to change out the presentation board outside Stanley Auditorium (1505 SC). This group is responsible for planning fun and interesting social events, not just for Tau Beta Pi, but for the whole College of Engineering . Planning a bowling night, tailgate pre-game party, or a talent show would all be possible.
Volunteering Committee
Volunteering Chair:
Tau Beta Pi is looking to take on a variety of new activities this semester, and community service is a great way to encourage participation within the organization and to get involved in community outreach. Because this has not been a traditional activity that Tau Beta Pi participates in, we are able to shape our volunteering goals for this year and coming years.
The first option is to participate in smaller, short-term volunteering events. An example of a few of the activities would be cooking dinner for the Ronald McDonald House, collecting cans for the Crisis Center, volunteering at charity runs, volunteering at Dance Marathon, etc.
Another possible idea is to set up a larger scale volunteering project that can be done on an annual or bi-annual basis. Rebecca Whitaker from the Dean's office has suggested we get involved in a program called Dreamcatchers – children who are first-generation Americans are given the option of receiving a mentor throughout the school year, and we would serve as a mentor to the child in the program. Tutoring programs, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and other established community service programs are groups we can coordinate with to assemble an volunteering program for Tau Beta Pi.
Another option is to look more into a community outreach program. Some Tau Beta Pi organizations around the nation are involved in setting up an "Engineering Day" for children – we could ask for information from those programs to establish our own program for the Iowa City/Coralville area. Different demonstrations, projects, and activities that would enable children to explore the engineering field would be set up, and it would be an event that would require a lot of planning, but also be a lot of fun.
Engineering Futures
Engineering Futures Chair:
The goal of the engineering futures committee is to set up engineering futures event. These events are established to provide certain essential engineering skills that are not explicitly covered in courses. Sessions are offered in: People Skills, Team Chartering, Analytical Problem Solving and Group Process. This semester we're doing problem solving, though next semester we can choose from any of the remaining three. Setting futures up is a matter of contacting nationals, reserving a room and providing food and drink. Most importantly, the futures committee is there to advertise, get the word out and make sure we have a good showing for the event. Generally contacting MIE floors, SWE, WISE, Theta Tau, etc. in addition to flyers and word of mouth.
Financial Committee
Financial Chair:
The goal of the financial committee is fundraising. Ideas for clever and enjoyable fundraising are crucial. One event will be a Carver cleanup after a basketball game, with a good number of people this will not take long and it generates quite a bit of money for Tau Beta Pi. As of right now Tau Beta Pi has a reasonable amount of money, but if all projects go as planned the money could disappear quickly. It is the committee's job to generate ideas for making money and taking care of the organization's funds.
Rube Goldbergh
Rube Goldbergh Chair:
Rube Goldbergh is basically a competition to build a very complex machine which performs a simple task. This competition would consist of teams building their machines and then running them out in a public arena in front of engineering students and a panel of judges. The goal is publicity. We'll also be running this in conjunction with Theta Tau and maybe SWE as well; it's a big project.
Dodgeball
Dodgeball Chair:
Dodgeball is our MECCA week activity. This committee needs to reserve the Fieldhouse, and to get the dates. We need to talk with Engineering Student Council to find out the dates of MECCA week and to reserve our day for activities. They usually try and spread out the activities, and so we need to make sure that we have a representative at the student council meetings so that we can pick what date we would like it. Also, we could get a prize for the winner? We had a decent turn out last year, but perhaps if we give people more incentive to play, we will get more participation.