Board

Webmaster

Here is some information for those interested in running for the Webmaster officer position. You can also refer to the SHPE Constitution available online here.

Responsibilities:
Maintain and update the SHPE website at least weekly to highlight upcoming events and make updates to the events calendar. Additionally, the Webmaster is responsible for maintaining user accounts, eg. disabling old accounts, creating new accounts for members when they join SHPE, and creating alumni accounts. Maintenance of both Officer and Member blogs includes creating new blog accounts for members as well as disabling inactive blogs. The Webmaster also maintains the Forums, creating new discussion groups as needed. This position works closely with the Historian who manages the Photo Gallery section of the website.

Contribution to SHPE:
This position offers the officer a great opportunity to interact with most everyone on the board throughout the year. You'll help promote events on the website that the other officers are responsible for as well as working closely with the president and coming up with ideas to keep the website content compelling for it's members. This position offers you the opportunity to not only build your resume (It's on my resume and have talked about it at interviews) but also to put USC-SHPE on the map as we did this year at NTCC. As the webmaster you help provide value for paying members as they have access to exclusive discussion groups which foster community amonst SHPE members.

Challenge:
SHPE-USC has won the NTCC 2006 Website competition and I would like to see this become a new tradition for our organization. This places upon the webmaster the responsbility to enter the yearly contest and make any necessary modifications to the site to win the competition. This takes some planning and hard work as you'll have to make design and technology decisions that will not only fit the timeline for the contest but make our website stand out from the rest. Entering the competition is not without it's own rewards which includes national recognition at NTCC (with accompanying job offers) as well as a $1000 award which I received this year.

What I learned:
I learned that part of the experience of being a webmaster is not just technical but one that also helps you develop communication and leadership skills more than I realized. You'll have to encourage member participation in the online community, which includes educating members about web technology as needed. According to our statement of values SHPE exists to "improve the equality of all people through the use of science and technology" and this task isn't always easy. Even as engineers, we are sometimes hesitant to try new things and it becomes a challenge to involve everyone in the process. But the importance of reaching this equality as Hispanics in engineering is both very motivating and satisfying.


I would definitely suggest to anyone interested in this position to run. Although a great fit for CS or CECS majors, any major would do well and no experience is necessary. You can ask Marisa who encouraged me to run for this position, I had no experience doing this before I started. Just the desire to learn, contribute, and grow along with the rest of the board will make you a successful webmaster.