Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

by Debbie Kerr, President

Many of us take our STC membership for granted. We pay our dues and then continue on with our lives. We might attend some general meetings, use the job bank, attend a Webinar, register for an education seminar, or go to the year-end BBQ, but for many of us, everything seems to just be there when we need it.

It’s not until something is missing or doesn’t work that you realize the work that goes into making the Southwestern Ontario community run smoothly. It is a team approach that makes everything fall into place. Each year, the members of this team are thanked privately, in thank you cards, and I thought since they are serving you publicly, I should thank them publicly as well.

I am proud of what they have done, so I wanted to share with you some of their accomplishments this past year.

Webmaster and Past President – Opal Gamble

Opal continued in hyperdrive, even after finishing her term as president. As past president, she attended our council meetings, and is still involved in recruiting people to be on next year’s council. Not content to sit back and hold one position, Opal also took on the role of webmaster. She updated and restructured our website, which had not been done in a long time. She also enabled those attending our education seminars to pay with a credit card for the first time. With some technical tweaking, she managed to get our volunteer and paying job postings on the same page, so that the volunteer positions are more likely to be seen.

Program Manager – Donald Johnstone

Donald is one of the most organized people that I know. Very early in the year, he already had speakers scheduled for most of the general meetings right through to the end of the year. He covered a wide range of topics and managed to get a variety of door prizes for every meeting. As always, the Wine and Cheese networking meeting was a hit.

Hospitality Manager – Marisa Latin

Marisa greeted each person at each general meeting. She made sure everyone signed in and had something to eat and drink. There was no way that someone new could not feel welcome coming to one of our meetings once Marisa flashed her smile.

Quill Editor – Margie Yundt

Margie injected life into everything she touched, whether it was online or in person. Her quick wit and editing style made the newsletter a hit this year, and her role as instigator made every meeting that she attended lively and interesting. Her leadership skills, while I was recuperating from surgery, were greatly appreciated.

Treasurer – Carol Lawless

Carol watched the finances closely, and if you wanted to know anything about them, you could have an answer within minutes. When we were working on the education seminar, Carol had a spreadsheet that let us try different scenarios to see what the outcome might be. When you think of finances, you want stability, and Carol certainly provided that whenever we were looking at the numbers.

Recorder/Secretary – emily layng

emily attended nearly every council meeting (I think she only missed one) and always managed to make them sound even more exciting than I remembered them. Her unique outlook on things always made me smile.

Membership Manager – Leanne Rollins

Leanne exceeded her goal of increasing our membership count when she recently announced that our count had reached 170. Perhaps some of that is because of her zest for life. Her articles show her excitement for not only her role as membership manager, but also as a contract writer. For those of you have received Leanne’s requests for information about yourselves, so that we can learn more about you as new members, why not let some of her enthusiasm rub off on you? We just you want to feel part of our group.

Student Awards – Pauline Horn / Heidi Marr

While Heidi made some arrangements for this portfolio, she had to hand it over to Pauline part way through because of other commitments. Pauline took over the portfolio and successfully collected submissions and presented two student awards. One of the students sent a thank you email that raised the visibility of our chapter even further at the University of Waterloo. Pauline also helped with the Volunteer and Program portfolios, which demonstrated the true nature of being a team player.

Education Manager – Kim Creed

Kim ran successful education seminars for the second year in a row. Each year it takes a leap of faith that the expenses for the speakers, hotel, and food will be less than the income from the attendees, but each year Kim gets the combination right. We collect the feedback forms, and there is always nothing but praise for the results of Kim’s work.

Employment Manager – Ursula McCloy

One of our most popular pages on our website is the job bank, and the number of postings seems to be growing. Ursula is always there to help people with those postings and to answer any questions that job hunters and potential employers may have. Ursula was responsible for making the arrangements with PEER Group so that we could have a place to have our council meetings and webinars (Web-telephone seminars).

Public Relations Manager – Lori Jankowski

Lori spent most of her time organizing and putting together the popular webinars each month. She was also the point person for publicity for special events, like the publication of the Education Seminars. Lori had many ideas for increasing the visibility of our chapter, and we have not implemented them all yet.

Competition Manager – Ruth Haworth

Ruth started a little late on the council to run a competition this past year, but she is already pumped and ready to run a competition during the next council year. She judged at the international level this year, so she has been “in training” to run a competition at our chapter level.

Volunteer Manager – Fei Min Lorente

Fei Min made inroads into making volunteer organizations aware that we are available to help them with their projects. Now that the employment and volunteer positions are combined on the job bank, this visibility will be increased from the other perspective—those looking for work. Like many of us, I think Fei Min wishes there were more hours in the day.

Email List Manager – Paul Kostiuk

Paul made sure that emails went out on schedule. If there is a constant in life, it is Paul. You tell him what has to be done and when it has to be done, and it happens. There may not be a lot of flash to this portfolio, but it is consistent, and that is what is important.

Student Liaison (University of Waterloo) – Sarah-Beth Doner

No matter what was going on around her, Sarah-Beth always tried to do whatever she could to help out with the STC. At school, she promoted the STC to fellow students. Her positive attitude, in everything she has done, has been an inspiration to those who know her.

Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG Coordinator - Elaine Garnet

Elaine has been the strong and silent type this year. While the SIG itself was relatively quiet, and Elaine's activity was limited to responding to requests for information, her strength was in being there for me when I needed it. Everyone needs someone like Elaine, and, although it was not part of her job description, her help was very much appreciated.

About Debbie Kerr

In the 20 years that Debbie has been writing documentation, she has worked in a variety of industries: government, retail, software, and insurance. She is currently employed at The Economical Insurance Group in Waterloo, where she has stepped out of her traditional role of writing user guides and help files, and now writes a variety of specifications.

Debbie has been a member of the STC since 1994 and has been a council member for many years. Most recently she was The Quill editor for two years.