Engineering Futures Session

Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures Program — Hosting a Session

The award-winning Engineering Futures (EF) curriculum provides professional skills training in interpersonal communications, team and meeting management, creative problem solving, and oral presentations. Four EF modules are adapted from materials provided by Interact Performance Systems Inc. and are available only to current college students; the fifth module (Effective Presentation Skills) is available to both current students and to TBP alumni chapters.

Please follow the guidelines below:

Identify a chapter contact person.
Select a module.
Decide when to hold your session.
Submit a session request online.
Find and reserve a room with the required resources.
Publicize the session.
Register students in advance.
Host the session.
After the session.
Additional resources.

Identify a Chapter Contact Person

You need someone who takes ownership of the session! This person is in charge of organizing the session and will follow up on all details relating to session setup. This person is the liaison between the students and Headquarters and your facilitator. At some chapters, this role is the job description of a specific officer; at others, the president takes on the role.

Select a Module

Please review the Curriculum for details on the modules offered.

A chapter may begin with any module and typically cycles through modules before repeating any. If you are unsure what module(s) your chapter has held in the recent past, please contact Headquarters for that information. Headquarters or any facilitator may also help you select a module if you are unsure.

All of the sessions are designed to be interactive learning experiences, and require a minimum of 15 participants. The Effective Presentation Skills module is unique because each participant must be willing to speak in front of the group; please make sure that you communicate this requirement to participants if you choose to host the EPS module.

Decide When to Hold Your Session

Most sessions are held on Saturdays. If your chapter is fortunate enough to have a facilitator living in the area, it may be possible to do a weeknight or Sunday session. When you submit the session request, you will be asked for a "first choice" and "second choice" date, so please be prepared to provide an alternative in case no facilitators are available for your first-choice date.

Please look at your school's calendar before requesting a session. In particular, avoid days when your campus is hosting an at-home sporting event (or "away games" with significant rivals!) and avoid the weekends before and after school break. Historically, sessions scheduled on the weekends around Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day are poorly attended, so we recommend that chapters consider alternative dates.

For 2017-18, we are not able to accommodate requests for sessions on the following holiday weekends:

September 2-3
November 25-26
December 23-24
March 31 - April 1

Submit a Session Request Online

All sessions must be requested online at least 6 weeks in advance. Facilitators are assigned by Headquarters based on availability, travel costs, and training needs. Once a facilitator is assigned to a session request, the host chapter account will be charged $50 at the time the facilitator is confirmed.

A full refund of the session scheduling fee ($50) will be credited to chapters who have at least 15 participants at the session.

Chapters who have fewer than 15 participants at the session will be charged an additional $10 per person "no show" fee (e.g., a session with 10 participants will cost the chapter $100 - the original $50 scheduling fee plus $10 for each of the 5 "no show" participants).

Online Request Form

Find and Reserve a Room with the Required Resources

Engineering Futures sessions are very interactive discussions and not lectures! For that reason, the chapter should reserve a room in which the tables and chairs may be moved around, rather than a lecture hall. The suggested room layout is an arc of chairs in a single row facing the screen or board. A visual is provided here. Please discuss the specific room layout with your facilitator prior to your session.

General equipment required for sessions:

Computer and digital projector or overhead projector
Blackboard or whiteboard or flipchart
Chalk or markers (for board above)
Blank/scrap paper and pens

Publicize the Session

You may invite any student to attend your session. This may include your new initiates, your TBP chapter members, members of other student groups, or anyone in your engineering college. You may also invite students from other majors - including those outside of science and math. Consider hosting an EF session as a chapter project – a "service" to other students and a way to introduce Tau Beta Pi to freshmen and sophomores.

Make sure that you inform all participants that the sessions are interactive and let them know the start and end times (most sessions last 3-4 hours; check with your facilitator for details). Feel free to use the standard posters or create your own to publicize your Engineering Futures session. Publicize the session at meetings, by posters and fliers, or through advertisements in college newspapers and magazines. Advance work here will pay off - enthusiasm is contagious! Let someone who has attended talk about what they learned. Publicize specifics of what participants will learn - your facilitator can help explain the content. Have a calling campaign before the Engineering Futures sessions to remind those who signed up to come. Have professors and/ or chapter advisors make announcements during their classes to encourage attendance and even encourage them to attend and get a first-hand look at Engineering Futures.

Register Students in Advance

When your session request is confirmed, TBP Headquarters will provide you with a URL where students can register in advance for your session. All of the EF sessions are designed to be interactive, group learning experiences, and chapters are required to have a minimum of 15 participants at each session.

In order to ensure that your chapter is on-track to have at least 15 participants at the session, you are required to solicit registrations in advance. A minimum of 10 participants must be registered for the session at least 2 weeks in advance, or the session will be cancelled. Please note that the chapter liaison is responsible for monitoring the session registration and ensuring that the 10-registrant minimum is met by this deadline. (Please note that the $50 session scheduling fee is not refunded for sessions that are cancelled due to lack of registrants.)

Historically, 25% of people who pre-register for a session will not actually attend. Thus, your chapter should continue registering participants in the two weeks before the session and strive to have 20 or more registrants prior to the session date. This will help to ensure that you reach the 15-person minimum for the session.

Host the Session!

Your chapter representative will need to meet the facilitator at least 30 minutes in advance of the session to assist with setup, and will need to be available throughout the entire session (as a participant, ideally!).

Your chapter representative is also responsible for taking attendance at the session, and ensuring that all participants have completed the online registration form (either in advance or once they arrive at the session).

Depending on the timing of the session, your chapter may wish to provide snacks or meals for participants - chapters without sufficient financial resources can charge a small fee to cover food, may suggest that participants bring their own food, or can simply schedule the session during a time when a meal does not need to be provided.

After the Session...

After the session, TBP will review the attendance reports from the facilitator and the chapter representative. Chapters who have at least 15 participants at the session will receive a credit equal to the session scheduling fee ($50). Chapters who have fewer than 15 participants at the session will be charged an additional "no show" fee of $10 per person below the 15-person minimum. For example, a session with 10 participants will cost the chapter $100: the original $50 scheduling fee, plus $10 for each "no show" below the 15-participant minimum.

Each registered participant will receive a brief follow-up session survey to the email address they used to register.

Additional Resources

Engineering Futures Curriculum
Engineering Futures Facilitators
Engineering Futures Session Request Form
Engineering Futures Publicity Posters
Headquarters for more information!

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