The Presidential Point of View

by Fei Min Lorente, President

The financial crisis saga continues. Head Office has sent several emails; Cindy Currie, STC President, hosted several town hall meetings over the Internet; several Special Interest Groups have been talking about it on their discussion lists; and I’ve been blogging about it: http://stc-soc.blogspot.com/.

The Financial Crisis Impact on the Southwestern Ontario Chapter

The Canadian Factor

When STC Head Office first notified the chapters of their financial crisis, Head Office indicated that chapters were to send their surplus funds to Head Office. While we did discuss providing Head Office with some funds, we did not want to relinquish the reserves that we had kept in place over the years. The reserves were there because we wanted to make sure that we had funds available to us if needed. After some research, we discovered that no non-US chapter has a legal obligation to send any surplus funds to Head Office.

Although we were not required to send our surplus to Head Office, we wanted to find a compromise between their needs and our obligation to use the reserves for this chapter. We thought we could help Head Office out of their financial difficulties by providing a $5000 loan, interest-free for two years. This would still make the funds available to our chapter when we needed them, while providing some assistance. Unfortunately, Head Office has decided not to enter into loans with our or any other chapter.

Chapter Affiliation

Prior to the financial crisis, Head Office asked non-US chapters to write their own bylaws and register as non-profit organizations, partly for their own protection, and partly so that they could have a contractual affiliation with Head Office. We are in the process of registering as a non-profit organization, which will make us a legal entity; however, we are taking the necessary steps to determine the impact on our chapter, if any, of signing an affiliation agreement. We would like to protect our rights and assets. The funds we have are to provide value to our members, and we want to ensure that we can continue to do so.

Chapter Funding

The chapters have been asked to change to a zero-based budget. A zero-based budget means that you create a budget based on forecasted expenses and income, taking your bank balance into account. If you forecast that you have enough to cover expenses, Head Office will not send you any funding. If you forecast a shortfall, Head Office will assist you with creating a balanced budget, if possible. If your expenses are justifiable, Head Office will send you money based on your budget and the number of chapter members. If you have unexpected expenses during the course of the year, you can apply to Head Office for emergency funding. Depending on the urgency of the situation, a chapter can receive emergency funds anywhere from a day to a few weeks from the time of application.

The request to send surplus funds to Head Office is a one-time request. They plan to resolve this financial crisis before the end of 2010. However, they do not plan to resume pass-through funding for the chapters. That process, where a chapter received $25/year for each member of the chapter, was discontinued in April 2009. This means that a chapter’s surplus, if there is one, could be used up in the subsequent year if chapter events are not successful.

Membership Dues Structure

Head Office has published the dues structure for 2010. For details, see here: http://www.stc.org/membership/join-the-society-for-technical-communication.asp#dues-information.

Note that the basic membership no longer includes any chapter or SIG memberships; each chapter membership costs an additional $25USD, and each SIG membership costs another $10USD. Although you pay a separate fee to belong to a specific chapter, that money does not go directly to that chapter (as explained above); however, if the chapter requires funding from Head Office, the chapter’s membership number help to determine how much money the chapter can receive.

For our chapter’s various functions (for example, education days), the council traditionally has set one price for members and another price for non-members. We are currently discussing the effect that this dues structure and the funding formula will have on our pricing for events. Please check the blog (http://stc-soc.blogspot.com/) for more information.

Our Response to Head Office’s Actions

The Southwestern Ontario chapter council believes that it is important to have control over our funds to be able to provide the best services possible. In the current financial climate, and with the current funding formula, that means that we have to become as self-sufficient as we can. Here are the main activities that we are engaged in:

• We are working on registering with the government of Ontario as a non-profit corporation. This means that we have to operate according to a set of bylaws, have elected officers, and hold at least one general meeting that all chapter members are invited to attend. I’m pleased to announce that the bylaws have been written and submitted to Head Office for approval. In the meantime, we will begin the process of applying for non-profit status. The end-of-year social will be renamed the Annual General Meeting, thus fulfilling our obligation for a general meeting. Far from being a dull administrative meeting, we intend to make it attractive by having an interesting keynote speaker. There’s no harm in mixing business with pleasure.
• We are in touch with the other Canadian chapters to compare notes, strengthen our network across the country, and co-operate in mutually beneficial activities.
• We are working on a limited partnership agreement with Communitech (http://www.communitech.ca/en/) so that they can help us host and promote events, while we provide more activities that their members can attend. This partnership will also open up all Peer 2 Peer (P2P) activities to our members. This is a networking and information sharing group that allows people with common interests to meet monthly, share lessons learned, and form new relationships with people in the technology business.
• We are using more social media such as blogging, and web meetings to allow members to interact online and to enable members to be part of our community, even when they can’t physically be there.

Your Response

In addition to the quarterly issues of The Quill, our newsletter, you can keep abreast of chapter and STC news on the blog. We are currently investigating the use of discussion lists, so you can receive notifications of any educational session that might be of interest to you. Also, a discussion list would allow you to comment and provide feedback in a moderated environment.

If you are thinking about renewing your STC membership, or if you are thinking about joining the STC, here is a summary of where your money will go:

• STC membership goes to Head Office, which, by extension, supports this chapter with administrative tasks.
• Funding to chapters will be based on a formula that includes the number of chapter members. The amount of funding that will be available from Head Office will be related to the number of chapter members. Only people who pay $25USD to do so will be considered a member of our chapter.
• Non-membership participation in activities supports this chapter because the money goes directly to us.

The benefits of being an STC member are described here: http://www.stc.org/membership/index.asp. The services provided by our chapter are described on our website (http://www.stc-soc.org). In both cases, you might also consider the big picture—what our organization does for your profession, both at a local level and internationally.

The Future

Crystal-ball gazing has never been reliable, so you won’t find any predictions here. All I can say is that Head Office is changing their relationship with the chapters, and this will change the way we operate. We will continue to publish information as it becomes available, but feel free to get involved by providing your own thoughts and ideas.

About Fei Min Lorente

Fei Min Lorente (feimin.lorente@onsemi.com) is the president and senior member of STC, and a Senior Technical Communicator at the medical division of ON Semiconductor, where she has had the opportunity to learn and implement Eclipse user assistance as a lone writer. Her work experience encompasses technical communication in the database, banking, automated pipeline control, and defense industries. She maintains a fondness for software and considers herself a programming dilettante.