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University of Washington Outstanding S-PAC Achievement

Sometimes a project is noteworthy not because of the end result or destination, but instead because of the journey — the obstacles overcome during the planning process. In the case of the recent University of Washington S-PAC, both the journey and the destination are cause for celebration.

Curtis Lu is a senior at University of Washington, studying electrical engineering, math, and philosophy. He has been an IEEE member for three years and actively volunteering for his student branch for the past two. Curtis was the catalyst behind an amazing comeback for the student branch of University of Washington. Their 131-member student branch held an S-PAC that attracted 320 attendees and ultimately brought a stagnant branch back to the forefront of student activity in the electrical engineering department at the University of Washington.

When Curtis arrived at University of Washington, no one in the IEEE student branch was active, their membership numbers mostly students subscribing to publications and not volunteering or attending IEEE sponsored events. There were no activities and no active members. Curtis knew about IEEE through his father's volunteer activities for IEEE at the section level. Curtis and his contemporaries, Chris Sugg, Michael Warren, Karen Boers, and Kimberly Motonaga, formed an executive committee and endeavored to reactivate their branch. They chose to make professional activities part of the comeback.

UW's S-PAC planning committee chose the tough road to follow in their planning. And the return on their hard work was a phenomenal event, a cornerstone in the renaissance of their student branch. Not only was UW's student branch new at project planning, with no branch history from which to draw, they also decided to give away the tickets: a bold move that requires hard work and faith. A free ticket tends to be perceived as worth what was paid for it. But the S-PAC planning committee wanted to make the IEEE student branch a visible entity at UW. They wanted a stylish and memorable come back and that included free tickets.

With no precedence for the magnitude of their event, they planned a Student Professional Awareness Conference with national speakers, corporate networking, and they planned to feed 320 people for free. Their monthly general meetings were attracting about 10 students. Their bank account was nearly empty. The difficulties they faced were to promote the event, sign up students to attend, and the added burden of extra work to ensure the students who sign up will actually attend.

Students lead very busy lives. With no initial investment in attending the event, they are likely to find themselves in a crunch preparing for a test at the last minute, unable to make their prior commitment. Often this leads to broken promises by students who didn't use their free tickets and didn't cancel their reservation. This can lead to S-PAC planning committees spending hundreds of dollars on food that goes to waste.

Due to the proposed size of this S-PAC the monetary risk would be not hundreds but thousands. This posed its own problem. The student branch's bank account was empty after years of inactivity. Internal IEEE funding sources could only commit a few hundred dollars. So the S-PAC committee hit the communication highway looking for corporate sponsorship. They wrote letters and made cold calls. They sold their idea to enough corporate sponsors to raise $13,000 and guarantee their S-PAC would not meet financial failure. Corporate sponsors could choose to sponsor an "Industry Table" where the company logo was posted and students could sit there for dinner to meet a company representative, or they could purchase a resume book, or both. The S-PAC committee sold 30 tables and 15 resume books.

Their next big obstacle was attendance. They had to get 300 students interested and keep them interested long enough for them to come through and show up. UW's S-PAC committee took all the right steps to get the word out. They made regular announcements in all the engineering classes. Their webmaster designed an online conference registration format for easy sign-up and attendance tracking. Students who signed up were then sent multiple confirmation messages to keep the event among their priorities. But it was their marketing strategy that guaranteed success. And it was simple: students who attended the conference were going to meet industry representatives interested in hiring them. This was a networking opportunity that was too good to pass up. The result was minimal cancellation, standing room only, and a waiting list.

The S-PAC planning committee at University of Washington put on a spectacular event for their student branch that will not soon be forgotten by those who attended. But their most significant accomplishment was for themselves. The best part of the S-PAC for Curtis was what he learned about project planning and management. His biggest fear was that no one would show up — a fear he can now say he conquered. The hardest work was finding enough corporate sponsorship to fund the catering and rental bill. But what Curtis and the S-PAC planning committee got for their hard work is the experience and confidence gained when an event this big is planned and brought about. The experience and confidence they gained from S-PAC planning is an immeasurable value to their future endeavors.