May 2006 ISSUE
checking in
Compiled by APEGGA Staff
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Picture from left are: Luke Schoenfelder, Seth Falk, Josh Vani, Lisa Johnson and Bryan Wright. They are the winners of the APEGGA-sponsored Robust Design Award. This was the Holy Spirit Catholic School students’ first time at the FLL tournament. |
√ Where All Good Ballots Go
You returned your ballot by mail, registering your choices for the new Council
and its Executive Committee. But returning the ballot is not the end of its journey.
All ballots are kept under lock and key until a Ballot Counting Committee can be formed and is ready to proceed with its task. Made up of a minimum of six volunteer APEGGA members, this committee oversees the entire counting process.
Once established, the committee meets to determine what irregularities in
the ballots will be valid votes and which will not be accepted based on preset
guidelines. The Ballot Counting Committee meets again, usually for an entire
day, to open and check all the ballots and then coordinate the counting. Each
ballot envelope is checked for any irregularities, such as having two ballots
in one envelope.
Valid ballots are not hand counted. They are scanned by an optical scanning unit
at the University of Alberta. It is the responsibility of the committee to scrutinize
this scanning procedure and ensure that all protocols are followed, so it’s
satisfied that everything is as it should be.
The ballots and the scanning results are returned to APEGGA. The results are verified by the committee with the signing of a Ballot Counting Committee report, which is then given to the Executive Director & Registrar. At this point, all the candidates are notified and given the outcome in confidence. This outcome includes the number of votes cast. The election results are then announced publicly at the Annual General Meeting.
Ballots are destroyed after the Annual General Meeting. An objection beforehand at the AGM, however, can trigger a recount.
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√ Students and Professionals Mingle Over
Dinner
Some 50 professionals mixed and mingled with over 200 engineering students, at
the annual First and Second Year Engineering Dinner at the Fairmont Palliser
Hotel in Calgary on March 15. The APEGGA-sponsored event was an opportunity for
students to get a sense of their career paths and find out first-hand where their
education may take them.
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√Answering The Call of the Ring
Students and practicing members recently participated in the Ritual of the Calling
of an Engineer at two Iron Ring Ceremonies. In Calgary on March 18, 426 engineering
graduates received their Iron Ring while 72 geoscience graduates received their
Earth Rings.
The numbers in Edmonton on April 1 were 483 engineering graduates and 52
geoscience graduates.
Watch next month’s PEGG for stories about two graduates and their paths
to the ring ceremony.
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√APEGGA Welcomes Two New Staff
Two new employees have joined the APEGGA ranks. Noushin Zadeh-Omidi, who helped out with Annual Conference registrations, joins the Registration Department as applications administrator.
Noushin will assist the Registration Supervisor, the Assistant Director and the Director of Registration.
Also joining us is Semra Camgoz as administrative assistant of communications. Semra will also help with reception on the 16th floor, and will be the key contact person for the audio-visual equipment in the Lindberg Conference Centre.
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√ APEGGA Sponsors Award At FIRST LEGO
League Tournament
One of the ways APEGGA encourages and nurtures students’ interest in engineering,
science, math and technology is by supporting science-related events. The FIRST
LEGO League, or FLL for short, tournament is one such event. It is an international
event that engages children aged nine to 14 in playful and meaningful learning
while helping them discover the fun in science and technology.
Each September, FLL teams from around the world are presented with a challenge, and the teams design, build and program a robot to accomplish that challenge. Forty teams from across the province participated in Alberta’s third annual tournament, which was held in Edmonton on Feb. 4. Students from Holy Spirit Catholic School in Devon won the APEGGA-sponsored Robust Design Award for their robot.
Related Links
www.apegga.org/K12/outreach/toc.html
www.firstlegoleague.org
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√APEGGA Sponsors Variety of Projects
APEGGA is a proud sponsor of the University of Calgary’s Engineering Student’s
Project Fund. This year, the $5,000 was divided between five different projects.
They are: SAE Mini Baja Team, GNCTR Team (concrete toboggan), Formula SAE Team,
Solar Car Team and Bridge Building team.