Have any BIG ideas? STC-SWO needs them BIG time.
The Old State of STC-SWO
The chapter is at a crossroads. Here are a few facts:
- Chapter membership numbers are down.
- Chapter leadership positions are becoming and remaining vacant. (The Vice-President’s slot has been unoccupied for more than two years.)
- Current chapter volunteers are getting burned out. (The positions of Treasurer and Program Committee–typically filled by at least three people) are being performed by one hard-working volunteer.)
- The chapter currently has no one in line to become President for 2010-2011. (Our current president has served for two years already.)
Now, to live up to our publication name, let’s read between the lines of that list and articulate what is implied but not expressed on the surface.
Technical communicators in Cincinnati and Dayton are about to lose one of the potentially most powerful and seriously underused resources available to them in the Tristate area.
Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around. (Seth Godin)
A New State of Synergy
So here’s the deal.
- You’re an active technical communicator in a recovering economy. You need a vibrant network of local contacts, resources, and mentors to maintain your employment status and advance your career. You need a growing and doing professional society.
- STC-SWO is an active chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. SWO needs brilliant, innovative thinkers, channeled energy, and effective management. SWO needs you and your ideas.
So let us have them. What would you like to see happen in your professional society? What projects, what programs, what training, what perks would benefit you and your career? Send your ideas to us…and remember the story of the little red hen. The only sure way to implement any good idea is to do it yourself.
Can you say “I will?” Will you volunteer to help lead SWO into the new decade?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I thought I would share my STC experience to give you one person’s insight into your membership/leadership issues. After completing my master’s work in technical and scientific communication I joined STC as a student member, but I have let my membership lapse. I work for a hospital doing employee communication about technical subjects, and I felt STC had a very narrow definition of technical communication that did not include me. Most STC articles and speakers seemed to relate to DITA, translation, multi-use of documentation and other topics on the technical side. At first I signed up for sub-groups that I thought would deal with broader interests but this didn’t pan out. So after several years, I chose to join IABC instead. Though I don’t feel IABC’s writing expertise is as strong, I feel the organization understands that its membership is diverse and does a much better job addressing its diverse needs. I think if STC were more benefits-focused (as we’re trained to be as writers) then took a broader view of who might benefit from membership, it would be more successful attracting members. I hope this feedback is helpful to you.