Director Sponsor's Message: Good News for the New Year!

by Cindy Currie, STC Region 1 Director Sponsor

Happy New Year! I’ve just recently returned from the Board of Directors’ meeting* in Atlanta, GA where we spent most of our three-day face-to-face time working on the strategic direction for the next 12-18 months. Among the areas of focus are:

1. Raising global awareness of the technical communications profession;
2. Pursuing new revenue streams at both the Society and community levels that provide more value for members, as well as enticing non-members to join our ranks;
3. Growing relationships and choosing partners that support and enable new and enhanced services and programs; and
4. Restructuring our infrastructure to support and enable our strategic (rather than tactical) focus. Much more on this to come….

Vote!

The STC elections will soon be upon us and it is your opportunity to participate in choosing the leaders that will take us all forward into the future of STC and continue to shape the profession of technical communications! For detailed information about all the candidates on this year’s slate, visit http://www.stc.org/candidatesFAQ/index.asp. All candidates are very willing to be contacted for further discussion about their views, so please take advantage of this opportunity to ask and receive answers to your questions. The election opens in early March and closes mid-April.

Transform!

There are still lots of folks asking questions about Transformation. (Visit http://www.stc.org/transformation for a myriad articles on this initiative). My colleague, Region 7 Director, John Hedtke, has written an article that offers a quick look at Transformation and its impact thus far. I’ve quickly summarized John’s article below, but for the full text, please visit http://www.stcregion.org/region1 as I’ve requested that the article be posted there as well for all to access.

Here’s a thumbnail sketch of Transformation: It’s all about making changes that allow us to provide “more value for more members.” And, it provides a great litmus test for all leaders for decision-making in STC: if a strategy, initiative, or program doesn’t provide “more value for more members,” then it’s not the right thing to do. The way in which we are approaching the goal of providing “more value for more members” is to remove obstacles to our success and provide support and infrastructure for future growth. The following lists the key changes so far:

1. Improved communications at all levels
2. Changes in governance and the make-up of the Board
3. Becoming more strategic
4. Changes in office operations
5. Becoming more global
6. Offer more membership packages
7. Improved education offerings
8. Launched a general discussion forum (First ASK STC, then STC Forum)
9. Started our technology upgrade

And, last, but definitely not least, is our migrating of the "sponsor" role out into the member communities to get active support closer to those who need it. The role of Director-Sponsor is changing to one of Director over the next several years. (It should be noted that the Directors are still very much performing the Sponsor role now!) A new entity called the Leadership Community Resource (LCR) is taking over the "Sponsor" role and using STC's highly talented members with a wide range of expertise to provide more local and more accessible sponsorship and support to communities. The STC’s Transformation web page contains several articles on this initiative (visit http://www.stc.org/transformation/article16.asp for one such article). Judy Glick-Smith (STC Fellow and former President) is the initiative lead. Please feel free to contact Judy at judy@glicksmithgroup.com for as much more LCR information as you'd like.

Rechartering

Congratulations to the Boston Chapter on its recently approved rechartering document! That makes about half of the chapters in region 1 that have completed the rechartering process. Who’s going to be next? Again, I am available to assist you in the recharting process in a number of potential ways, including leading a workshop with your admin council either in person or virtually, to help ensure that you can focus on providing the appropriate content. Many chapters are willing to share their rechartering experiences with others, so all you need do is ask for support and it’s yours!

New Honors

Region 1 celebrates a number of Society honors this year:

• First, the elevation of one very well-known STC Associate Fellow, Ann Wiley (Rochester Chapter), to the rank of STC Fellow! Bravo Ann!
• Second, the elevation of three well-known senior members to the rank of STC Associate Fellow. They are:
  
  • Hans Fenstermacher (Boston Chapter)
  • John Garison (Boston, Northern New England, and Vermont Chapters)
  • Steve Murphy (Northern New England Chapter)
  
  Congratulations to these long-standing members on these significant achievements! A full list of Fellows and Associate Fellows is available on the Society website. Be sure to check them out at http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/2005_Fellows.pdf and http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/2005_AFellows.pdf (but consider giving it a few weeks to be sure that the lists are updated to reflect the 2006 additions).
• Third, three Distinguished Chapter Service Awards (DCSAs) are being given to recipients from the Southwestern Ontario (1) and Philadelphia Metro (2) chapters. I’m not going to recognize these individuals by name in this article as their chapters likely have special plans to recognize them publicly and I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone. Congratulations also to these individuals for embodying the true spirit of volunteerism and providing significant leadership to their respective chapters!
  
  And, a full list of DCSA award recipients is available on the Society website. Check it out at http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/STC_Distinguished.pdf. It may take some time before this list is updated to reflect the 2006 honorees, so check back often.

New Pins

There are also several new ways to honor those who excel in leadership and volunteerism. Two new STC lapel pins are now available. The Community Leader pin (STC logo with a lavender bar) is a great way to honor contributors who exhibit exemplary community leadership. The Volunteer pin (STC logo with a yellow bar) is designed to honor members who embody the spirit of volunteerism. Consider giving these pins to your community’s most valuable players! The pins are priced at $10.00 (USD). Visit http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/specialtyGifts.pdf for ordering information.

Note: Awarding one of these pins could be a great way to recognize a member who may already have received a Distinguished Chapter Service Award (DCSA), but who may continue to make outstanding contributions to the community or region, or for those whose contributions are noteworthy, but perhaps not quite as broad or long-standing enough to be recognized with a DCSA.

Out and About

My chapter visit plans for this winter/spring include the following:

• Northern New England Chapter Meeting, March 8
• Philadelphia Metro Chapter’s Conference, March 11
• Rochester Chapter’s Spectrum Conference, March 31
• Vermont Chapter Meeting, April 19 (or thereabouts)

I would like to visit all chapters in Region 1 during my three-year tenure as Director, and I can potentially schedule several more visits this year (April / May / June timeframe). Please let me know what your program plans are for the remainder of this STC year and if you’d like to me to visit your chapter!

About Cindy Currie

Cindy is currently the Director of STC Region 1. She is an STC Fellow and a member of the Northern New England and United Kingdom chapters, and well as numerous SIGs. She is a senior project manager at Hewlett-Packard Company.