A Recap of EWB-SWE and openhack’s Advisory Board Meeting on October 4, 2021

EWB-SWE and openhack’s advisory board met with representatives of both organizations on October 4 to take stock of the organization’s progress over the last year and discuss opportunities to improve our fundraising activities. This was the third meeting of the Advisory Board which was put together in 2020. 

The Advisory Board consists of Hans-Olov Olsson, Emma Rozada, Sofia Appelgren, Joakim Hedin, Carl Lindberg, Johanna Lakso. From EWB-SWE and openhack, Jan Burenius, Caroline Bastholm, Jan Byfors, Lukas Scheffer Leander participated in the meeting, held at Techno Creatives’ office in Gothenburg – a huge thank you to Emma Rozada for hosting us. 

Are we spreading ourselves too thin?

One central topic discussed during the meeting was if and how EWB-SWE could benefit from narrowing down the scope of our work to establish a clearer identity and avoid spreading ourselves too thin. 

Today, EWB-SWE works both within Sweden and internationally. In Sweden, we primarily focus on activities that serve to make the engineering sector more equitable, just and accessible. We also engage in capacity building activities. Internationally, we focus on providing know-how and hands-on assistance in primarily construction, digitalization, and water and sanitation projects. You can learn more about the different areas here.

In the next few months, we will continue to discuss how we can strengthen existing partnerships and initiate new collaborations that ensure our activities have a lasting impact in the communities they serve.

Strengthening our bond with openhack

EWB-SWE and openhack aim to work closer together in the future. How this can be achieved was another main topic discussed during the Advisory Board meeting. A concrete example of how the two organizations can collaborate is the upcoming Engineering for Humanity hackathon on November 12-14, 2021. The aim is to make the hackathon an annual event. The advisory board pondered how we can grow this event format through creative partnership structures. 

Beyond discussing concrete activities by the EWB-SWE team, the Advisory Board also examined how we can become better at communicating about our work to both partners and the general public. One question asked during the meeting was whether EWB-SWE should keep English as our main language of communication, or if we should instead communicate more in Swedish on social media and other external communication channels.

If you are a member of EWB-SWE and want to share your thoughts on how we can improve, please take five minutes to fill out our member survey (closing on October 31, 2021.)