Welcome To Engineers Without Borders!
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit humanitarian organization established to partner with developing communities worldwide in order to improve their quality of life. This partnership involves the implementation of sustainable engineering projects, while involving and training internationally responsible engineers and engineering students.
Old News
Yuri Estrada will discuss her efforts to organize a new project team and present on the project she is considering applying for. Members are encouraged to sign up with her if you would like to join in on the early stages of organizing a project. Her email is: estradayuri@gmail.com.
- Christina Ho and Shannon Flanagan will discuss the EWB International Conference they attended several weeks ago in Amherst MA. They also participated with the newly forming educational committee and will discuss future collaboration between chapters and local schools.
- Members of the Cambodia Dam Project will discuss their recent trip to their dam site to oversee the construction of levees. This will be the main topic for the evening and they will be going into some depth on the design of levees as well as lessons learned on the site dealing with local contractors.
- Other activities going on in the chapter right now include the organization of a Fundraising and Marketing Committee headed by Kathrine McCullough. We will be sending out more information on the subject in an upcoming email. Additionally, the Usalama Project Team will be organizing shortly and taking new members to participate in the next phase of their relationship with the community, a plan and development of the school compound.
Please forward this message around to your friends and coworkers. There are a lot of new opportunities for new members now and it would be a great time to promote our organization
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EWB-NY Presents
- Concert For Cambodia - A Fundraiser in support of the Balang Dam project.
Saturday March 10th at 8 P.M. @ Fontana's, 105 Eldridge St. NYC. $10
Featuring: Zigmat, Inflowential, Meta and the Cornerstones, DJ Lechuga.
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Chapter Meeting: 6:00pm, Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Our next Chapter meeting will be held at Parsons Brinckerhoff at One Penn Plaza, click directions above for directions. Don't forget to RSVP to get access to the building. Email Matthew Sisul at sisul@pbworld.com. See you there.
Other Topics include:
Setting Goals for 2007
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City College of New York - EWB Chapter is looking for a Mentor
CCNY-EWB is working on a project in Honduras and is seeking support in Embankment Design. If you are interested, please contact Christina Ho at HoC@coned.com to apply. Visit www.ccny-ewb.org for more information on the project.
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East Coast Technical Advisory Committee (ECTAC):
The ECTAC is a project review group that oversees and approves EWB projects organized by chapters along the East Coast. It is made up of about 25 engineers that meet and discuss projects once or twice a month via web/phone conference. If you are interested in the organization or want to learn more, email Scott Snelling at mr.scottsnelling@gmail.com . Also, visit www.ewb-usa.org and in the "EWB Sourcebook" section of "Downloads", download Section 8, TAC.
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ProjectSolve Collaborative Software
Parsons Brinckerhoff of New York has offered us the opportunity to use their internally developed project organizing software. It is available over the internet and works as a secure server with which project members and volunteers can operate and organize information. We have been approved to train EWB-NY members in its uses and functions. Please email Matt Sisul at sisul@pbworld.com if you are active in the chapter or looking to be and want to secure access to this software or if you want to learn more about its uses and why it will be helpful for EWB-NY members.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project Team Updates - Cambodia Dam Project
Stay tuned for updates from the Cambodia Dam Project team. They recently sent 3 members to Cambodia to perform a site assessment. The site assessment team from the Cambodia Dam Project will be organizing an official and complete presentation on the subject of their project, what they did, what they learned and how this will influence the direction of the project at the EWB-NY Chapter meeting tentatively scheduled for the end of January. More information to follow. To get involved, email Project Lead Bryse Gaboury at bryse.gaboury@gmail.com . Visit http://www.ewbnewyork.com/cambodia/index.htm for more info.
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Volunteering Locally in NYC
Christina Ho of EWB-NY and the Usalama Water Project is spearheading volunteering for EWB-NY locally. Specifically, she is working on Engineering Days w/ activities for students k-12 with support from EWB-USA, ASME, ASEE & Girl Scouts of America. The program seeks to provide opportunities for EWB-NY members to work with students and teach them about Engineering and about Development. For more information or to get involved email Christina at hoc@coned.com .
Additionally, Christina was contacted by the Faculty Advisor of the EWB Chapter at CCNY. They are looking to organize Technical Workshops where their members can be trained in specific construction techniques. They asked us to provide teachers or demonstrators that have experience in the following fields:
Surveying
Concrete mixing (on grade with hand tools)
Concrete Water Tank building
Bricklaying
Waterproofing
Trenching
Cutting and connection PVC and steel pipe.
Email Christina or myself to sign up to teach or to learn.
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EWB-NY Fundraising Concert
Dan Garcia of EWB-NY and the Cambodia Dam Project is organizing a fundraising concert to be held in the spring to raise money for our various projects. The details of the event are as follows: it is to be held in early March at Galapagos, in Williamsburg. He has two bands that have agreed to play and is looking for 1 more. Also a dj will be spinning at various points in the night. He plans to organize an audio/visual room with artifacts/artwork/photography from our projects. This hopes to be a learning experience for our group and a model on which we can prepare future shows in the NYC for our continued fundraising efforts.
He is looking for volunteers to help with the promotional and organizational aspects of the event. Additionally, if you have recommendations for a band to perform, please check with the band and have them send promotional material or samples to Dan. Please email Dan at garciad@pbworld.com.
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Open Call for EWB-NY Executive Board Members
The staff at EWB-NY is looking for help in running the organization. Operations would run smoother if there were more members sharing responsibilities and contributing their unique talents. We have openings for Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer. Below are brief descriptions on the roles of the positions. Naturally, these are suggestions and persons holding the positions will be allowed to determine the scope of their position. Email the chapter president at ewbnewyork@gmail.com if you are interested in running for a position. We have received some tentative responses and general interest in some of the positions, but would like to make the announcement official. Candidates will be announced at the next chapter meeting and the vote would follow at a later meeting.
Vice President
* Assist President
* Improve EWB-NY organization
* Coordinate Committees and facilitate communication
* Oversee Website development
* Work closely with Project Leads
* Potentially successor to president upon completion of his/her term of office.
Treasurer
* Track money raised by Chapter Fundraising and Project Teams Fundraising.
* Approve expense reports.
* Manage project accounts with Project Treasurers
* Organize Chapter Fundraising
Secretary
* Attend Meetings, take Meeting Minutes
* Coordinate Members
* Assist various Committees as developed
* Work with other executive members as necessary.
* Serve as point of contact for the Chapter for new members and media.
* Manage chapter correspondences and records.
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-Chapter Meeting scheduled for November 15, 2006-
Our Next meeting will be held on wednesday November 15th at 6:00 P.M. at Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Professor Toby Cumberbatch from Cooper Union will give a presentation on his field of study.
Location map for PB
Please RSVP with ewbnewyork@gmail.com to ensure you obtain a building pass
If you are planning on coming to our next meeting, please look over this information packet and questionnaire.
-Cambodia project assesment trip: November 10th-
On November 10th, the NYC chapter of Engineers Without Borders will send a team of three engineers to Cambodia to review the design of the dam.
For two weeks, the team will help design a 25 foot weir, or dam, to collect and store water for irrigation that can sustain families during the dry season. The water will also irrigate rice crops and allow a second growing season.
The team will return to Cambodia in January, 2007 to oversee the weir's construction. It will serve about 18,000 people. Please visit Cambodia in the Project section of the website for more information or visit the Cambodia Project website!
-'Usalama Team' meeting: November 9th 2006-
The next Usalama Team meeting will be held at 6:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 9th. It will take place at a bar called Loreley located at 7 Rivington st, http://www.loreleynyc.com/
Agenda: Update on project status and discuss next course of action. A draft submittal of the pipeline design drawings was submitted to EWB-USA for review at the end of September. EWB-USA has promised to respond with comments by next Tuesday, Nov 6th.
-Post or view valuable information on EWB Google Groups-
Check out EWB Google Groups!
-EWB-USA to organize East Coast TAC committee-
EWB-USA is attempting to organize an East Coast Technical Advisory Committee (ECTAC) committee. The TAC is involved with the following work:
The TAC reviews all projects at several stages. All new projects are first reviewed for suitability, and then viable projects are assigned to chapters. The TAC reviews travel plans prior to assessment trips, and reviews the technical feasibility of a project prior to implementation trips. The TAC gives final travel approval to projects prior to any trips. There is a 3 hour evening meeting on the first or second Monday of each month. New project reviews are conducted between TAC meetings.
These professionals oversee a project and help to guide project teams through the EWB-USA process. TAC Liaisons will check mentor's qualifications prior to the mentor working with a student design team, and will review project teams and make sure the proper training and technical expertise are available for the projects. Liaisons will suggest training possibilities and possibly organize professionals to work with the project. They will also verify that all professional and student team members are members of EWB and that all necessary paperwork is turned in on time for the project.
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