Stimulus Online - President's Message

September/October 1998

Welcome to a new year!

by Lynda Simons

STCEO President

If you're looking forward to a fall and winter of finding out where your career in technical communication is likely to take you, then you'll be glad to know that your local STC chapter has plans that make this easy for you—easy, convenient, and fun.
We have a new, regular meeting place and time, and a closer programming relationship with the Institute of Technical Editors (ITE). Together we will be bringing you monthly meetings covering the programming events you've asked for: events covering the Web, online help, and editing.
We will be jointly hosting our first event of the season, our annual Wine & Cheese party. The following monthly meetings will be hosted alternately by STC and ITE.
(see the events calendar).

New meeting place: RA Centre

    Our new, regular meeting location is the RA Centre. We will be holding our meetings at the same time, in the same place, throughout the year so you can easily get into the good habit of attending regularly. The RA Centre is located centrally, just south of the Billings Bridge shopping centre, on Riverside near Bronson. There's tons of free parking and it's easy to reach by bus.

New time: 4th Thursday at 6 p.m.

    Another change to our usual program is our meeting time. We will meet every month on the fourth Thursday at 6 p.m. The meeting room (Courtside A) will be open from 5:30 p.m. The entry price ($8 for members, $5 for students and $15 for non-members) will include refreshments so you can come to meetings straight from work and still be home at a reasonable time, having eaten. Typically, presentations will run from 6:30 p.m. and be over by 8 p.m. However, we will have the meeting room until 11 p.m. so you will be able stay and mingle after the presentation if you want.

The program

    We have designed this year's program content in response to the survey Past President Sharon Morgan sent out at the end of last year. Sharon will be reporting on the survey findings in more detail in the next Stimulus. To summarize here briefly, the top three program topics of choice were online help, the Web, and editing. Accordingly, our first program event covers HTML/XML/SGML, followed in January by a panel discussion on online help. The ITE events on alternate months will have a strong focus on technical editing issues.
    Looking forward is exciting, but we mustn't forget to look back and recognize that much of what we have now is the result of what went before. All the work done by the executive and committee members is volunteer work. Actually, we enjoy doing it very much, and benefit greatly by the experience. But the work isn't easy and there's lots of it. As members, we mustn't take it for granted.
    Thanks to our past and present Webmaster, Rick Lorenz, we enjoy the benefits and convenience of a great Web site that always carries the latest job opportunities and interesting news and links. Thanks to Lorraine Cannuli, who looked after

our telephone last year, we had up-to-date information on our chapter voicemail service and callers received a timely response. Thanks to past and present Online Competition Manager Simonne Soulière, we were able last year to enter our online work into a local competition and can again this year. Thanks to Bob Stanley, an active STC member for many years, and regular contributor to and past Editor of the newsletter, we also have a print competition this year. Thanks to Sharon Morgan and Angela Williams (retired, temporarily I hope), we have, for the past two years, enjoyed the convenience of an up-to-date, printed membership directory. I use mine all the time. Thanks to past and present Newsletter Editor Tim Scapillato, and his team, we receive a prize-winning local chapter newsletter regularly in the mail. And all of this is quite apart from the meetings and workshops that the executive and committee members work hard to bring us.
    The chapter is in good financial shape this year due to excellent work by Lorna McCrea, our Treasurer last year. We received our rebate cheque from STC international at the end of July this year, the earliest ever, I think (when, by the way, the Canadian dollar was at it's lowest ever, an added bonus as the STC rebate is in US dollars). Also, we ended last year with some of our formerly depleted reserves built back up again. Your new executive was able to plan a program based on your wishes because Past President Sharon Morgan thoughtfully ended last year with a membership survey. Also, instead of resting on her well-earned laurels, Sharon has taken on the demanding duties of Membership Manager this year. This year we can look forward, once again, to the publication of a current membership directory in September because of Sharon's tireless efforts over the summer. Thanks also to Mark Boyle for the layout and production of this valuable publication. (Collect yours at the Wine & Cheese.)
    Bob Morrissey, past and present PR manager, signed on last year to provide much needed publicity for the chapter at a time when it wasn't easy for him to take on added responsibilities as he was finishing his Technical Writer Diploma at Algonquin College. This year he's taken on the duties of Vice President as well.
    Last year's mini-conference was a very ambitious undertaking that couldn't have taken place without last year's Program Manager, (a very pregnant) Brenda Fay, and help from the rest of the executive and many committee members, including Sarah Vallières and Hilary Hawkins.

Each individual counts

    The efforts of each individual really make a difference. We had a great Community Service program going while Richard Short was around to manage it a couple of years back. Since he's gone, the service is gone. I no longer believe in the old adage that nobody is indispensable. Every person makes a difference and brings something unique to the job he or she does.
    By mentioning people by name, I know I run the risk of missing someone. If I have done this, please forgive me. I know you would find it hard to call me and say, hey, what about me, so please do it for your co-volunteer. If you notice that I've missed someone, please let me know.

Season Opener

    I look forward to meeting friends old and new at the Wine & Cheese at the RA Centre, Thursday, September 24, 1998 at 6 p.m. Bob Morrissey and his team have a great evening planned. See you there.