A Great Year in Review

by Heidi Marr, President

Professor Dave Goodwin (our chapter's incoming UW Faculty Liaison) told me recently that time flies by quicker every year. If that's the case, I must be pushing 95 because this past STC year certainly flew by for me. It seems like just yesterday that I was lunching at The Bookshelf (Guelph) with Ted Edwins and Lynda Baxter. They were extolling the virtues of chapter presidential and vice presidential duties (read: twisting my rubber arm to consider a post) and I'm so glad our lunch meeting was successful. 

Volunteers and Our Successes

We have had a great year! I cannot emphasize enough how much I value the volunteer participation our chapter enjoys. We (myself included) often take the "givens" for granted. 

For example, our chapter holds free monthly meetings. Many chapters struggle to meet quarterly and most charge attendance fees. Our chapter hosted free telephone seminars this year. We have received excellent feedback about this additional benefit to our membership and hope to continue this service in the future. 

Our chapter continues to support other endeavours you have come to expect. We offer a dynamic Web site. We send out a vibrant monthly newsletter. We communicate with our membership through regular e-mail announcements. We sponsor both professional and student competitions. We host annual workshops on a variety of relevant topics. We celebrate our successes at the yearly Wine & Cheese and BBQ. And, we have money in the bank! 

None of these activities would be possible without our pool of dedicated volunteers. I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped out this year -- we had almost 70 volunteers (approximately half our membership)! You are responsible for making this year a success. Volunteering not only provides a sense of accomplishment, advances your career, and helps you give back, it also makes STC meetings way more fun!

Next Year's President

I'm pleased to report we have a full council lined up for next year and our chapter will be in good hands. I'm passing the baton over to Opal Gamble, a long-standing council member. I'm confident she'll be a fantastic President. 

While part of me will miss hosting general and council meetings (sad, but true), I'm excited about the responsibilities I get to take on as IPP (Immediate Past President). It will be my job to round up new volunteers for the coming year (watch yourselves) and help our chapter recognize excellence by nominating individuals for awards. So, here's to another great year -- I hope 2004/2005 takes us to unprecedented levels of chapter success!