WAAIME is now a division of SME, through a merger in 2008. Since the merger WAAIME has continued to support students with scholarships. WAAIME (formerly known as the Women’s Auxiliary to the American Institute of Mining Engineers) was created on February 20, 1917 to do philanthropic work in local mining communities where members lived, providing service to the country, to the community and to provide scholarships.

WAAIME VIDEO 100 AWARDS

WAAIME Founders Award

The Founder’s Award was established to recognize exemplary service to WAAIME and its goals. It recognizes an individual who has contributed significantly to WAAIME through a local section and/or committee, by furthering the goals and purposes established in WAAIME’s incorporation, or by advancing the Vision and Strategic Goals of the SME WAAIME Division.

Click here to learn more and to make a nomination.

WAAIME Objectives

The WAAIME objectives, as written by President Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover in her letter to her membership in February 1959, remain:

• Section 1. To render service to the country and to the community through all that pertains to the interest of the professions of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineering.
• Section 2. To promote philanthropic work and the interchange of ideas amongst its members.
• Section 3. To devise and promote ways and means of procuring a fund and to maintain such fund for the purpose of assisting promising students to obtain a technical education in Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineering and their allied subjects.

WAAIME Guidance Documents

2025 WAAIME Operations Handbook

2025 Guidelines for WAAIME Booth

The WAAIME Operations Handbook and each of its guidance documents inform WAAIME volunteers of how our Division works. The guidance documents share our Executive Committee's minimum expectations for a given activity or topic. Guidelines do not set mandatory requirements. They are intended to outline reasonable boundaries within which volunteers can function in carrying out their work. They are in no way intended to stifle new ideas, initiatives or creativity. The Handbook and guidance documents are "living documents" that are timely updated when needed to reflect better ways of doing things.

If you have additional questions, please contact:

WAAIME Staff Liaison - Rachel Grimes
Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration
12999 E. Adam Aircraft Circle
Englewood, CO 80112
Email: waaime@smenet.org