As an ASEE Student Chapter, one of the toughest aspects for operating a chapter is providing beneficial opportunities that meet the needs of the members. Due to the varied scope of the needs for each member, finding a harmonious balance between member desires while avoiding duplication of existing programs can be challenging. This leads to a strain in building and maintaining a healthy membership. In a previous paper, we presented an analysis on the ability of our student chapter to evolve with the changing focus on a major university campus. As a chapter with a majority of graduate students, a challenge was placed upon us to develop new programs that still met the needs of our members while passing successful programs to the college. We follow up that report by presenting effective strategies that we found useful in keeping us afloat while working to re-identify ourselves in the college. We focus on the graduate student turnover in a student chapter. The phenomenon of graduate student turnover is certainly not unique to our institution; however, it is an important factor in the health of a student chapter. Each leadership transition typically involves a shift in vision and can be accompanied by fluctuations in overall membership. In realizing our desire to perform high-impact service to the university and local community, we have recognized the benefit of partnering with various campus organizations. These partnerships enable us to have a broad impact relative to our group size. In order to build and retain a substantial membership base, we have attempted to identify and focus on those program areas that appeal to a large audience in the engineering community. The topics are selected to fill needs and supplement engineering education provided by departments within the college. A discussion on future initiatives focused on increasing and maintaining interest in our student chapter is presented.
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