What is FAMF?
The Faculty Association Membership Fee (FAMF) is a fee that all engineering undergraduate students pay to the Engineering Students’ Society (ESS) per academic term (Fall and Winter, Spring/Summer not included). The fee is currently set at $10.00 and is up for renewal this year to be increased and changed.
FAMF has existed in some variety since 2003 when the ESS first successfully proposed a membership fee to alleviate costs, provide further services, and more. Throughout the years it has changed and morphed into what we have now, and what we are proposing for the future. Some of the current services, opportunities, and items that receive funding partially or directly through FAMF include:
Discipline clubs such as the Mechanical Engineering Club, Civil & Environmental Engineering Students’ Society, Electrical Engineering Club and more.
Engineering student groups including project teams such as ARVP and Formula SAE.
Individual students attending conferences, competitions, and other professional development opportunities.
The annual GEER Week which sees all disciplines face off against each other to see who is crowned as discipline of the year.
Health and wellness initiatives that help alleviate some of the stress of the engineering programs.
The impact of the membership fee stretches far and wide across the engineering campus. One fun highlight would be funds from FAMF allowing ARVP to purchase new computer hardware for simulation purposes, assisting in their accomplishment of coming third in the autonomy challenges of the international RoboSub competition - including beating Waterloo!
All of the current line-items of the fee are remaining, albeit slightly changed, with the fee renewal. You may find information about each item under the What is Changing and Why section.