President’s Message: You can do anything with the right support!

by Debbie Kerr, President

While being president may sound like a powerful position, it is a position like any other position on council. You are only as good as the people that you are working with. Without their support, you can only do so much. I want to share my story about how I came to be in this position—even with some limitations.

Questions and Commitment

I still remember all the questions that I asked when I was first thinking about becoming president. I sent Heidi Marr, who was the president at the time, an email before I jumped into the political ring. I asked her what she liked best about the position. I asked her what she liked least. I asked her about the time commitment. I came across the email the other day, and there were a lot of questions. I was just like a technical writer on a project. Why would trying out a new position on a council be any different than any other project? It wasn’t like someone asked me to be president. What if I wasn’t any good at it? What if people didn’t like me?

Like everyone who volunteers to be on council, I had questions. I didn’t just confidently walk into the position. I had other concerns as well. I couldn’t drive when I started as president, and I still can’t for medical reasons. This issue alone would require some strong organizational skills for getting to general meetings and council meetings. Luckily, I have had great people whom I have always been able to rely on to get me from point A to point B.

Like many other people on council, I have children. Granted, my children are now 15 and 11, but sometimes they can be just as much work as younger children. They do allow me to sleep in on the weekend, but there are some down sides. They expect me to show up with any extra pizza that is left over from council meetings: they are growing boys after all.

Bad Head Days

I also have epilepsy, and my neurologist says my type is in the 10% that is the hardest to control. This is one of those cases where it is not great to be special. Most of the time I am fine, but it is that uncertainty about when the “specialness” will surface that can be a little daunting. When my head does not decide to join my body, I refer to it as a “bad head day”. Although I am on medication, it does not always control everything perfectly. Sometimes it even makes me feel sick. For example, at our annual wine and cheese, I was playing with my medication levels, and the urge to throw up was strong, but I knew that I had to do public speaking that night. Fortunately the nausea subsided, and everything cleared, but the panic was there for a little bit. I also knew that if I couldn’t do what I needed to do, I could count on my fellow council members to bail me out. I knew I was part of a team and that my team would not abandon me. The thing is, you can’t let fear control you, so you just leap in and you go with it. If you didn’t make the leap, you would never try anything new, and nothing would ever get done.

The Team

The other thing is that you have to learn to trust the people on your team. No one person on the council has so much power that no one can survive without that person. I demonstrated that when my appendix ruptured. I had to take it easy, and everyone else filled in seamlessly to do everything they needed to get done. They really didn’t need me to tell them what to do. They just did it. The other day, I was having a “bad head day” and I happened to check my home email, and there seemed to be a million emails flying back and forth amongst council members. Without any effort on my part, someone on council had raised a question, a few other members had proposed solutions, and those involved in the discussion had decided on a final solution — all without my interference. There is no micro management needed here. I have had a team of professionals this year, and I am very proud of each and every one of them.

To show no favouritism, I have listed members alphabetically by first name.

Aimee Gatbonton—Web Committee

Aimee has been working her magic on our website since around November last year, and thank goodness for that. Margie would have gone crazy doing both the website and the newsletter by herself. Aimee has been a great help.

Carol Lawless—Recorder

Never underestimate the power of a good recorder. Carol attends our council meetings and takes the minutes. She also has hosted many of our webinars. She was also one of our competition judges this year.

Fei Min Lorente—Volunteer Manager

While Fei Min’s role is to find organizations that need volunteers and match them to people who want to volunteer, she has been spending a lot of her time looking for rooms and resources that we can use for our webinars. Fei Min has been in this position for several years.

Karen Pogue—Membership Manager

This was Karen’s first year on the council, and she did a great job. She gets reports from Head Office, and tries to get new members to introduce themselves to us in The Quill.

Laura Zinn—Copy Editor

While Laura edited articles for the newsletter to make them sound even better, her commitment to the chapter didn’t stop there. She also attended many council meetings and general meetings. She certainly gets an A for effort.

Leanne Rollins—Education Manager

Leanne has been hosting most of our council meetings at her workplace, and has organized our education workshops this year. She also helped with the competition this year, as well as being one of the judges. She is a bundle of energy and efficiency rolled into one.

Lori Jankowski—Treasurer

She is one of the most popular people at council meetings, although it might have something to do with the fact that people want to be reimbursed for their expenses, and she has a chequebook. I got signing authority too this year, so I could be popular too. Last year Lori was our Public Relations Manager, and no one has attempted to fill her shoes since she left the position.

Margie Yundt—Webmaster and Newsletter Editor

With her great sense of humour, Margie has done a great job with the newsletter this year. She printed the news, and made sure it was fit to print. Of course she then gave it its own Margie flare, whether it was with graphics or some interesting comment. To ensure she didn’t get bored, she also took on the task of webmaster part way through the year when one of our members could not complete her term. She is my rock, whenever I need support.

Marisa Latin—Employment Manager

Marisa has spent the last year encouraging employers to use our job bank to post jobs for free. She has been working with Communitech to get the word out. She is always trying to come up with better ways of doing things.

Paul Kostiuk—Email List Manager

Paul has been part of the council for a long time. No communication gets to you without first going through Paul. Paul has been a judge in our chapter competitions, which is where I first met him.

Pauline Horn—Student Awards Manager

Pauline is one of the first people to say “yes” when something needs to be done. She has been the Student Awards Manager for many years and regularly attends our council meetings. The first year she did it, she was filling in for someone who couldn’t finish her commitment on council. We’re glad Pauline stayed on!

Peter Szabo—CIC SIG Co-ordinator

Peter joined the team part way through the year, but that doesn’t mean that he has contributed any less than anyone else. He has come to council meetings, and is always willing to throw his two cents into the mix. Part of his influence resulted in us purchasing a data projector that we can use instead of renting, which will save us money in the long run.

Ruth Haworth—Competition Manager

This was the first year that we have had a competition in a while, and Ruth was the person who ran it. It’s not too often that you get positive feedback from the entrants, but that is exactly what happened this year. Ruth also represented this chapter internationally by judging in the International Technical Publication Competition (ITPC).

Sarah Beth Doner—Student Liaison University of Waterloo

Just when you think that Sarah-Beth won’t be able to do anything on the council this year because of time constraints (work and school), an email comes out of the blue and she volunteers to help host a webinar, and it is one of the most well-attended. With Sarah-Beth, surprises should be expected and appreciated, because they are part of the fun on council.

Ursula McCloy—Hospitality Manager

Ursula has demonstrated that you can be on council even without the use of email, which is almost unheard of in today’s society. I call her before each general meeting to tell her where it is and how much food and drink to bring, and she shows up to greet the meeting attendees. Ursula is on maternity leave from her job, and these meetings enable her to get out of the house every couple of months to be with adults. She also took some time to do some judging in this year’s competition. This shows you that there is a position for all levels of commitment.

The Winners

This is only a small paragraph about each of these people. For many of them, I could have written pages about what they have done for this chapter. I just wanted you to know a little bit about what they have done and that it has been an honour to work with these people. I use the term “work” loosely, because they have made things fun.

As for mentioning my medical condition, driving, and kids, I have done this to highlight that they could be excuses in the wrong hands. Don’t let inconveniences deter you from being the best that you can be. Expand your horizons. Try something new. Don’t let fear limit you. Once you make the leap, you will wonder what the big deal was all about. You are part of a team. You are not alone. With the right people on your team, anything is possible.

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. For the second year in a row, Debbie has bravely taken on the role of Chapter President.