Council Meeting Recap: March/April

by Carol Lawless, Recorder

Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s April and we’re already looking towards the end of the year! Our March and April council meetings focused on planning for these last busy months.

General Meetings

In March, we finalized the March Wine and Cheese—you can read about that elsewhere in The Quill. Suffice it to say we organized the agenda as a committee, in lieu of a Program Manager, to make sure we could celebrate our many award winners, greet our visitors from head office, and keep our members excited and fed.

Webinars

From there we moved on to other member activities. We agreed to book two more webinars for this year, with one (already complete) in April and another in May. Online training? We’ve talked about it, and polled you about it (you did complete the poll, didn’t you?) and talked about it still more. While a very small number of members responded, we felt there might still be value and would like to give it a short “pilot” run. But we’re going to wait until fall when the new council can plan and budget for it more effectively.

New Equipment

Our chapter is now the proud owner of a new data projector! Thanks to Peter’s research, Pauline’s assistance and Deb’s eagle eye for sales, we were able to find a good deal. Our purchase will simplify the bookings for future webinars since we won’t have to ask “can we get a projector”. We also discussed using it to generate income (i.e. making it available to rent). For more details, read our article.

Assorted Portfolio Activities

• Leanne was busy promoting and planning the workshop. Not did we market it to the Toronto Chapter, but Frontrunner also did some promotion for us. For more information about the Spring workshop and how it went, read Leanne's article.
• You’ll notice that we’ve also agreed to add a disclaimer to the bottom of the email notices. We agree we’ll keep your information private.
  
  
• Martin has designed a stunning new chapter logo for us, and then topped it off by adding a “winner” so our competition winners can proudly display it on their websites:

Online Adventures

April's meeting logistics were challenging, to say the least. As Deb says “While we may be able to vote unanimously, we cannot agree on a meeting night.” Problem solved – for the second time this year, we invoked the gods of technology and held our meeting via MSN. We split the meeting into two nights. We managed to plan for the June BBQ. Mark Tuesday, June 5 on your calendar for this event. We are looking into booking the Wellington Brewery in Guelph again.

Call for Volunteers!

Recruiting was the other big topic. We're looking for new council members, so if you're interested in meeting new people and in planning a terrific year, get in touch with one of the current council.

Watch your Inbox

Finally, we discussed membership. We'll be conducting a membership survey so we can talk to you about your expectations for the Southwestern Ontario Chapter. You'll hear more about this soon—stay tuned!

About Carol Lawless

Carol has been a member of our profession since 1993 and is a senior STC member. She is a founding partner of KCA Consulting, specializing in web usability and usability testing. She's also an independent contractor, when a suitable project arises. She is our official recorder at council. Outside of the STC and work, Carol's special interest is Ancient Civilizations, and still does not tire of visiting ruins (her favourite is Delphi with Karnak a close second). In her spare time, she runs Mom's taxi and loves to read (while waiting for the next taxi run!).