Tau Beta Pi

The Engineering Honor Society

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Tau Beta Pi November 2025 Officer and Advisor eNotes

Welcome back! These eNotes contain important and up-to-date information and links to help you and your chapter as the academic year is underway. A summary is at the top of the page with links to more detailed information and references. If you have questions about the information provided, contact Headquarters at 865-546-4578 or by email.

TIP OF THE MONTH

  • Consider having your chapter's eligible student members pick up their invitation to join TBP in their Dean's office. Makes them super-nervous or super-worried -- but they'll show up!

CHAPTER OPERATIONS

ASSOCIATION NEWS

Chapter Resources

Headquarters has prepared tools to support collegiate chapters during in-person, hybrid, or cross-chapter initiations. Officer resources are available here. Membership and chapter reports, with an overview of each, can be found here. For general questions, contact Sean, our chapter specialist, at tbp.chapters@tbp.org. For time-sensitive items, contact Kelly Caro.

Membership Process, Initiations, and Virtual Resources

Chapters must use the interactive, electronic reporting system on the web for all undergraduate membership reports. Your chapter has only one user name and password; if you do not have or remember your login or password, please contact HQ at tbp.chapters@tbp.org to have your credentials reset. Details on how to submit the membership and chapter reports are available online. You are strongly encouraged to review the model Membership Process Schedule when planning your chapter's activities.

  • Free image materials are available, including posters and brochures to place around campus to showcase TBP; order here.
  • Send professional membership invitation or email; sample electee invitations are here and sample electee materials are here.
  • Work with the dean's office to send a letter to candidates and their parents; sample student letter and sample parent's letter.
  • Discuss TBP member benefits during meetings with eligible candidates; a list of benefits is here.

Your Report of Eligibility is due at HQ within the first five weeks after the start of your school term. Bylaw III requires that a fine be levied if the report is not received. Your chapter may submit its Report of Eligibility using an Excel spreadsheet. Instructions are available here.

Your report must list the entire top-fifth of the senior class and the entire top-eighth of the junior class, (including those who are already members) even if some names are below a GPA cutoff set by your chapter. If your chapter has one, indicate the GPA minimum on the Report of Eligibility. Round any fraction up to the next whole number. For example, 1/8 of 100 is 12.5, so you would list the top 13 students. Also, if a tie exists you must list all students with the same GPA in the last position. It's okay to exceed the total number of eligible students in this case.

After contacting your eligible candidates, the chapter members must vote on those candidates and submit to HQ as the Report of Election. This report must be submitted with each electee's online catalog card (which should be completed by the electee) and APPROVAL RECEIVED BEFORE you hold your initiation. Contact Kelly Caro if you have not received approval at least two days in advance. DO NOT HOLD AN UNAPPROVED INITIATION as your chapter could be fined and placed on probation. Online catalog cards must be completed before membership items can be ordered. If you want keys and certificates for initiation, plan to submit at least three weeks before initiation.

Order Chapter Image Materials for the Semester!

Headquarters provides chapter supplies, including: two poster options, information and decision brochures and a brochure holder, invitation to orientation sessions, and invitation to membership cards, envelope, and reply cards. Samples of these and more were available at the 2025 Convention. Many supplies are available for order from the TBP Store.

Chapter Graduation Regalia Orders

All requests for chapter graduation regalia should be placed through the regalia page of the Tau Beta Pi Store. Submit orders as early as possible and allow a minimum of 2-3 weeks for processing and shipping. As a reminder, requested regalia will be held until any old outstanding chapter balances are paid in full.

Host an Engineering Futures Session on Your Campus

Engineering Futures (EF) is TBP's award-winning professional development program. The EF web page allows members to learn more about the program, view the upcoming online sessions, submit their interest in becoming a facilitator, and allows chapters to request an in-person session!

Request a Campus EF Session: TBP chapters may submit requests to host an in-person EF session for your own members and/or as a service or outreach activity for your campus or community. Go here to learn more and to request a session.

Important: The sessions are open to the public, so they are not limited to TBP members only. You also must have 15 people pre-registered two weeks before the requested session is scheduled. Contact Kelly Caro if you have questions about scheduling an EF session.

Involve Your Advisors

Each chapter should have at least four advisors. If not, you should locate additional advisors to add to your corps, perhaps in a discipline not currently represented on the advisory corps, someone local in industry, or an alumnus of the chapter. They must be a member of Tau Beta Pi. If you need help determining if faculty members are Tau Bates, email your list to Kelly Caro.

Invite all advisors to chapter meetings, activities, and initiations. Include them on the membership email distribution list, if they are not already on it. Request they display a TBP Poster outside their office. Ask them to talk to potential candidates and promote TBP in their classes.

Chapter Awards from the 2025 Convention

Congratulations to the winners of the following awards which were announced at Convention:

R.C. Matthews Outstanding Chapter:

  • Winner: Florida Alpha, University of Florida
  • Honorable Mentions: Kansas Gamma, Kansas State University and Illinois Alpha, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

R.H. Nagel Most Improved Chapter:

  • Winner: Texas Theta, University of Texas at El Paso
  • Honorable Mentions: Florida Beta, University of Miami and Missouri Alpha, University of Missouri-Columbia

J.D. Froula Most Improved Membership:

  • Winner: Minnesota Alpha, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
  • Honorable Mentions: New York Upsilon, U.S. Military Academy and Texas Delta, Texas A&M University

The winners of the 2025 Chapter Project and Chapter Excellence Awards will be available through a link to the Convention press release in the upcoming December eNotes.

The 2025 Convention photo is here.

Chapter Awards and Association Awards photos will be available for downloading through links on this page. Be sure to share with your chapter members and post the images on your website. All other Convention images will be posted in the coming weeks at the same site.

At the 2022 Convention, a new program, NEST (New Engineering Solutions for Tomorrow), was introduced. Through this program, a competition is hosted annually in which students submit solutions related to a general topic chosen by the Convention body. These solutions are referred to as EGGS (Engineered for the Greater Good Solutions). The students are encouraged to work in teams and present their unique EGGS to the Convention, in order to convince alumni and industry sponsors that their ideas are worth investing in to solve the NEST challenge. A panel of alumni then selects the most innovative and practical EGGS to be awarded an investment. The funds are used to build a prototype, which is then presented at the following year's Convention to showcase what was made possible.

At the 2024 Convention, "Resource Insecurity" was selected as the challenge topic. The winning solution project, "Atmospheric Water Condenser for Water Insecurity Amelioration in Developing Countries," was presented at the 2025 Convention to Texas Alpha at The University of Texas at Austin represented by Mrigayu Ghosh, TX A '26.

The selected challenge topic for next year is "Mitigating the Impact of Natural Disasters". For more information about NEST, visit their website or contact tbp.nest@tbp.org.

Executive Council Election Results

The following alumni were elected by the Convention to fill three positions on the Executive Council for the 2026-28 term:

  • Joseph P. Blackford, DEN, DC G '95; nominated by the Kansas Gamma Chapter
  • Marla A. Peterson, AZ A '83; nominated by the Arizona Alpha Chapter
  • Steve E. Watkins, Ph.D., MO B '83; nominated by the Missouri Beta Chapter

Cameron H.G. Wright, Ph.D., P.E., LA G '83, decided to remove his name from the running prior to Convention.

Biographical information on the three new members is here.