Rensselaer's Chapter of UPE


Committees

Structure and planning are important to any successful organization. This is why UPE clearly defines the roles of all of its officers and committees. The officers (Upsilon, Pi, and Epsilon) all communicate regularly to ensure a smooth operation with plenty of activity. Pi, the vice-president, directly oversees the planning and membership committees. Epsilon, the secretary, is responsible for aiding and guiding the finance and public relations committees. Upsilon, the president, is the umbrella that oversees all committees and keeps things progressing. Upsilon also maintains the structure and framework of UPE by overseeing the rules committee.


Upsilon (President)

Jenay Barela

Upsilon is the President of the chapter. The Upsilon needs to motivate, inspire, and keep the chapter moving. He/She not only needs to be excited enough to keep himself/herself motivated, but also to push others to keep things moving. The fun and success of this chapter depends on the excitement, interest, and activity of its members, and the excitement, interest, and activity of its members depends on the Upsilon's motivation. For this reason, the Upsilon is required to attend all meetings and events, and furthermore to attend all committee meetings where his presence is requested. He/She is the direct overseer of the Rules Committee, and works to maintain a level of inspired structure and order needed for any successful organization. Furthermore, the Upsilon works with the Pi (Vice President), and Epsilon (Secretary) as a more distant overseer of the other four committees. The major responsibilities of the Upsilon are to maintain an exciting level of activity, get a greater number of local chapter events to happen, and make UPE more known to the community. Other responsibilities include maintaining a healthy relationship with both the national board and the Computer Science department, and helping to reshape the chapter as necessary.


Pi (Vice President)

Dylan Sheils

Pi is the Vice President of the chapter. The Pi's role is to keep an overview of the finer details of the chapter's everyday affairs. Specifically, this includes planning events and the recruitment and election of new members. As such, the Pi is the overseer of the Planning and Membership Committees and needs to work closely with each of these to make sure things are happening. The Pi needs to help deal with higher-level issues such as the reaction of the department to certain activities, the financial repercussions of taking on certain tasks, and the effect of holding certain activities or failing to hold certain activities will have on the chapter as a whole. This being a more detail-oriented perspective than the Upsilon's, the Pi will have a more intimate role in a smaller scope of activities than will the Upsilon, and will need to keep the gears of the chapter rolling smoothly.


Epsilon (Secretary)

Anthony Nool

Epsilon is the Secretary of the chapter. Correspondence between UPE and the outside world will happen primary through the Epsilon, or under the supervision of the Epsilon. Communication is an important part of Epsilon's responsibilities, which includes emails, phone calls, letters, and other forms of communication to the national board, department, and sponsoring organizations, among others. Epsilon is also in charge of maintaining an organized collection of chapter minutes, and giving copies to the Press Secretary (head of the Public Relations committee) to be posted on this website. Epsilon will be the overseer of both the Public Relations committee, which will be responsible for the mass communication directed toward the outside world (website, postering for public events, fliers, etc.), and the Finance Committee, which will need to present to the Pi a budget to be brought to the department. Epsilon shall thus maintain records of the chapter.


Web/IT Committee

Bill Ni

The Web/IT committee is responsible for updating the website as well as helping maintain the servers.


Finance Committee

Jared Gridley

The finance committee is in charge of maintaining a budget, fundraising, collecting dues, and requesting funding from the Computer Science department and various other organizations. If UPE plans to hold large, memorable, and useful events, it is important for the finance committee to budget and raise a sufficient amount of funds. The finance committee will be the lungs of the chapter, breathing air into ideas and making anything possible.


Events Committee

Liam Roberts

The events committee is responsible for organizing and planning all events and activities for the Rensselaer chapter. This includes events such as I/Os, programming competitions, and any UPE-specific activities. At times, transient committees will be created for a short time by the planning committee to take care of one event and then dissolve. These subcommittees must ensure adequate opportunities exist for all active and candidate members to demonstrate the minimum level of "required enthusiasm". It is important for them to originate novel programs to add value to ongoing active membership. The events committee acts as the legs of the chapter, keeping it moving and keeping it interesting.


Social Committee

Liam Roberts

The social committee is responsible for organizing social events for UPE members.


Membership Committee

Albert Dong

Considering UPE is comprised of only juniors, seniors, and graduate students, the membership committee is vital to the longevity of the chapter. The committee is charged with finding new and effective ways of attracting potential members. Once they have found interested candidates, it is also their responsibility to perform an initial review and summary of the candidate's strengths and weaknesses. It will also have to collect all documents needed for application to the Rensselaer chapter of UPE. Transient committees may be created to hold events to raise interest among new potential members. The membership committee is the heart of the chapter, keeping the chapter's attendance high to keep the strength of the chapter high.


Programming Competition/Sponsorship Committee

Daniel Della Vecchia

The ProgComp committee is responsible for putting together our annual Progamming Competition. They solicit sponsorships from companies for the competition's prizes, develop the competition's questions, and run the event when it takes place.


Alumni Committee

David Qian

The alumni committee writes our newsletters that get sent to alumni as well as deal with any alumni communication.


Design Committee

Bill Ni

The design committee creates posters and flyers for all events hosted by UPE as well as helps with any other design work that is needed.


Tutoring Committee

Aarnav Patel

The tutoring committee organizes all the UPE tutors and helps match them with students. They also run review sessions before CS1 and DS exams.