Preliminary Needs Assessment

5 Ps for Effective Facilitation & Preparation

(Adapted from Schuman, S. (2005). The IAF handbook of group facilitation:
Best practices from the leading organization in facilitation. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.)
Perspective
What is the organizations values, purpose, vision, and mission?
The mission of the SEC targets three main areas; it strives to be
the representative voice of all engineering students; it works to
increase engineering awareness through its programs and events;
and it fosters the professional advancement of all engineering
students within the College of Engineering. These three facets of the
Council's mission are carried out through several committees in its
Internal, External, and Development divisions.
What is their organizational structure?
Internal Division
The Internal division targets the representative voice aspect of the
mission statement. The Internal committees include Legislation, Society
Relations, Marketing, Membership, and Systems Administration.
Legislation -- The Legislation committee is responsible for
drafting a survey administered each semester to all engineering
students asking them questions about their experiences within and
concerns about the College. The committee analyzes the results and
presents recommendations to the engineering deans and department
heads at the Faculty Dinner, which is held at the end of each semester.
At the dinner, the committee members and several other
representatives from SEC discuss issues and concerns with the College
administration. The Legislation committee is also responsible for
relations with other Student Government Organizations.

Society and Graduate Relations -- The Society and Graduate

Relations committee is responsible for maintaining relations with the
several engineering societies across the campus. The committee hosts
several events that bring members of the Council together with
members of the various societies.

Marketing -- The Marketing Committee is responsible for

effectively and creatively promoting events hosted by the SEC and the
College of Engineering. The committee members work closely with
other SEC committees to develop and implement marketing materials
and strategies needed to increase awareness of engineering events.
The committee also develops a yearly planner called the Look Book
which is distributed to engineering students at no cost.

Membership -- The Membership committee serves the Council's

members by hosting social events, assigning members to committees,
tracking member points, and facilitating the member selection process.
The committee also hosts Parents' Weekend Brunch, an event for
engineering students and their parents held during Texas A&M's
Parents' Weekend.

Systems Administration -- The Systems Administration

Committee contributes to SEC by applying the latest technologies to
ease the lives of council members and better disseminate information.
The committee is responsible for adding features and content to the
website, keeping the office servers and workstations running and up to
date, and finding innovative ways to use the latest technology to help
SEC fulfill its mission statement.

External Division
The External division seeks to increase engineering awareness. The
External committees include E-Week, FAME, Philanthropy, and TREC.
E-Week -- The National Engineers Week (E-Week) committee is
responsible for spreading engineering to all other students on campus.
The committee runs an entire week of events, usually in February,
where the main goals are increasing engineering awareness and
breaking the common engineering stereotypes. This is a very dynamic
committee that can easily incorporate new ideas every year.

Spark Conference -- The Spark Conference committee hosts an

annual k-12 conference for students who are interested in pursuing an
engineering degree. The conference includes tours and information
relating to all disciplines of engineering that are offered at Texas A&M.
The event is typically held over one day in the Fall semester.

Philanthropy -- The Philanthropy committee organizes and

leads SEC in community service events of all kinds, as well as hosting

Engineering Day (E-Day) for young students each semester. Some

typical philanthropy projects that are routinely performed are canned
food drives, Angle Tree, Big Event, Replant, and Race for the Cure, just
to name a few.
TREC -- The Texas A&M Regional Engineering Conference (TREC)
committee hosts a design competition for students at Texas A&M and
surrounding universities in the Central Region of the United States. The
competition is usually hosted over two days in the Spring and is well
known for its amazing prizes. Members develop the concept, build the
track/area for competition, plan social events, and run the two day
event in its entirety.

Development Division
The Development division targets the professional
advancement aspect of the SEC mission statement. The Development
committees include Career Fair, Corporate Relations, Engineering
Development, and Finance.
Career Fair -- The Career Fair is SEC's largest and most visible
event of the year. The goal of the Texas A&M Engineering Career Fair is
to provide students with the opportunity to visit with recruiters from
hundreds of companies seeking engineers for internships, co-ops, and
full-time positions. The committee organizes and plans the career fair
in both the Spring and Fall semesters. The event is held at Texas A&M's
Reed Arena, where recruiters set up booths for their company. In the
past, Texas A&M's Engineering Career Fair, the largest student-run
career fair in the nation, has drawn in over 4,000 students to visit with
more than 350 companies.

Corporate Relations -- The Corporate Relations chair is

responsible for maintaining professional ties with corporations and the
Council's corporate sponsors. The chair invites representatives from
companies to speak at SEC General Council meetings and is
responsible for providing companies with sponsorship information.

Engineering Development -- The ENGR 111/112 Department

and Industry Night Presentations serve to increase students exposure
to the wide variety of opportunities available within the Dwight Look
College of Engineering and within the field of engineering after they
graduate. Throughout the semester, the 2000+ students currently

enrolled in an ENGR 111/112 course will have the opportunity to

register for and attend presentations about: (1) the 13 different
departments of the College of Engineering and (2) companies within
the field of engineering.
Finance -- The Finance chair maintains all of SEC's finances. The
committee collects member dues, processes Council expenditures and
income, maintains the budgets for all committees within the
organization, and communicates with the Student Organization Finance
Center (SOFC).

Ad-hoc Committees
In addition to the three divisions, SEC also has ad-hoc committees
which fulfill a number of various goals in the council.
Purpose
What kind of atmosphere and tone do we need to create in order to
accomplish the results they want?
Professional but open enough to have comfortable dialogue.

Product
What is the most important thing that needs to be accomplished?
The group needs to come to the conclusion that group thinking without
analysing all possible solutions can result in poor decision making that
could be devastating to the organization.
Who will use the information and how will it be used?
The facilitators and group members.
What specific information do they need and in how much detail?
Little to no information prior to this activity.
Who else will see the information?
Only the facilitators and group members.