Prez Here - Notes from the Chapter President

by Fei Min Lorente, President

It’s official! That is, we are a legal entity (a non-profit organization) that is registered as a corporation with the Ontario government. The official birth date of our corporation is December 8, 2009, and its registered directors are Jim Bousquet (Treasurer), Carol Lawless (Secretary), and me (President).

Now that we are officially a corporation, we have to complete some official activities. Most of these we already do. For example, we have always kept a record of our council members and now we simply have to identify who is on the board of directors. We have always had access to a list of the members as required by corporate law. We will continue to have council meetings (now called administrative meetings), and commence having an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for you, our members. This meeting will enable you to have a formal say about how our chapter runs, including voting on who you want to be on next year’s board of directors. At this meeting, we will provide a financial report, ask for two auditors, and vote on matters that require consent from the membership. If this all sounds dry and boring, remember that there’s no harm in mixing some fun with business. We’ll have an interesting and engaging speaker at the AGM, and of course, refreshments.

A matter that will require your vote at our first AGM is to approve the bylaws. We completed them in October of last year and sent them to Head Office for approval. After some discussions with Susan Burton (Executive Director/CEO), we have mutually agreed-upon version. You can read them on our website: http://www.stc-soc.org/about/Bylaws_STC_SOC.pdf.

Now that we have written bylaws and incorporated, the final step in formalizing our relationship with Head Office is to create and sign an affiliation agreement. In consultation with the president of the Toronto chapter and a lawyer, our chapter modified the template that Head Office sent us. We have passed our proposal to Head Office and they are reviewing it. We have also given a copy to the other Canadian chapter presidents for discussion.

As you can imagine, working out the bylaws, registering for non-profit organization status, and creating a legal affiliation agreement has been a long and arduous process. I must thank the bylaw committee for their dedication and extra effort: Jim Bousquet, Carol Lawless, Gord Varney and Debbie Kerr. I also have to thank the affiliation agreement committee of Debbie Kerr and Anna Parker-Richards (president, Toronto chapter). I was lucky to have such a knowledgeable team to work with me. Extra kudos go to Debbie for finding a lawyer who would provide some advice for free.

Many changes began in 2009, and 2010 promises to continue to be an exciting and active year for our chapter! We will continue to host Education Evenings and webinars, and this year’s Education Day workshops are scheduled for April 19 and 20. Other fun events, such as the wine and cheese and the AGM are being organized, too. At the same time, we’re reaching out to our far-flung members with a blog, a discussion list, and broadcasting our own webinar during some Education Evenings. The rest of the articles in this newsletter will tell you much more about what’s coming up.

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.