The Queen's Concrete Canoe Team (QCCT) is a multi-disciplinary design team rooted in civil engineering that designs, constructs and races a canoe primarily using elements of material and structural design. If selected as a Concrete Canoe Team Captain (1 of 2), you will oversee the development of QCCT’s entire canoe project, in addition to supervising the executive committee consisting of concrete, design and construction, finance, and communications with the potential for more sub-teams.
As a QCCT Captain, your duties additionally include further the progression of the team’s personal experience, design skills, and relationships within and outside of the team. The Captain’s play a main role in ensuring the team is continually enrolled in it's success as well as having a fun and memorable experience that can be looked at positively years later.
The canoe team will compete in May at the Canadian National Concrete Canoe Competition (CNCCC). The successful applicants will take on a managerial role in the high-level planning and design of the entire canoe and act as the main liaisons between the sub-teams, as well as with the Engineering Society, the Civil Department, and the CNCCC. As the primary liaison, the Captains must stay updated on all progress of the canoe's development by hosting executive meetings, and by being present at mixes and construction periods. The Captains must lead the completion of competition milestones such as reports and schedules, and arrange for the team's attendance at Engineering Society design events.
The role of captain has no required experience, although having past experience on the team through coming to competition, or being present on the team in the past is advantageous. The this role has a high time commitment and has a lot of responsibility to perform at your best for a long duration of time. This role is not advised to anyone who is not able to make this commitment for the following year.
As a Captain, It is important to keep track of planning, design, testing, and implementation milestones for the canoe to ensure competition readiness. Additionally, the Captains will represent the team at the competition, school showcases, and other outreach events, including through the creation and execution of presentations. Note that we are hiring for 2 Captains. The Queen’s Concrete Canoe Team encourages applications from women, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community. Responsibilities
- Stay informed about the technical requirements and timelines for the competition.
- Communicate regularly with the CNCCC, Engineering Society, Civil Department, material suppliers and executive
- Develop project plans (scope, success criteria, deliverables, Gantt charts, etc.) with co-captain/exec members.
- Identify roadblocks and barriers for project deliverables, developing mitigation strategies and alternative actions for these roadblocks.
- Manage the technical progress of the sub-teams and assist executive members with any technical challenges or barriers.
- Hold weekly meetings with the canoe executive team and with general members.
- Facilitate communication between sub-teams.
Requirements
- Excellent time management and organizational skills.
- Experience with project management, project management tools (e.g., Gantt charts), and leadership.
- Good critical thinking and decision-making abilities.
- Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills.
- Good communication and presentation skills.
- Independent, quick learner who is interested in all aspects of engineering design.
- Familiarity with concrete mix design is beneficial.
Our contact can be reached at canoe @engsoc.queensu.ca if you have further questions and we are more than happy to answer.
We are planning to host interviews within the next 2 weeks with the estimated dates between March 24th and March 28th 2025.
The written application deadline is March 20th at 11:59pm