Happy Saturday!  Is it frosty in your location?  I woke up to -23 C, -29 C with the wind chill! 

All PEng's should have received their voting packages via email yesterday, January 18th.

One of the questions that was not asked during the Coucillor-at-large webcast was our thoughts as candidates regarding PEO's role in the Engineers Canada 30 by 30 initiative.  I noted a thread on the LinkedIn Professional Engineers Ontario Discusion Group with comments that this is an OSPE and not a PEO responsibility and that the PEO should not be contributing resources to this.  This is my response:

"I’d like to offer a different perspective.  We’re not talking about a driver’s licence.  If this was simply about obtaining a P.Eng. licence and making sure that the process was equally accessible to everyone, I would agree with some of the comments, but that’s not the case.  When you obtain your P.Eng., you are also becoming a member and associated with that is the PEO and chapter culture.  We have chapters, we want people to be engaged in their chapters and in our self-regulated profession.  For some, obtaining and / or retaining their P.Eng. is a choice if they are non-practicing or employed in a workplace that falls under the industrial exemption.  Our annual licence fees contribute to the culture. 

Have you ever had men email you and share that they attended a few chapter events, but they didn’t return because, as a man, they felt uncomfortable and unwelcome?  I have had women contact me with exactly those words. Have you ever been at PEO event with your non-engineer wife and have her later share with you that she was talking to a female chapter member about your engineering work and the woman stated to your wife “More important than his work, is he good in bed?” – this has happened to me and my non-engineer husband.  How many dozens upon dozens of PEO and chapter meetings and events have you sat through and the only pronouns used in reference to engineers throughout have been masculine? 

We, the PEO, need to sell the profession and value of becoming and staying licenced even if an engineer, like myself, is non-practicing.  We want female graduate engineers to want to become Professional Engineers and to be proud of being one.  The PEO has the responsibility of ensuring the PEO and chapter culture is inclusive and welcoming – we need to put resources towards continuing to change the culture and to making sure that it actually changes."

What are your thoughts about the chapter and PEO culture?  What changes would encourage you to participate more in the volunteer aspects of our profession?