Who will lead us into the year 2000?

   If you care about your local STC chapter, now is the time to show it. We've had a great year; we have an excellent executive; we have solid systems in place; the foundation is there. However, we are a chapter in search of leaders. We have plenty of willing workers, but no one willing to pick up the reins and drive this buggy into the next century. Don't look at me. This is my third term as president. It's time I handed over to someone else.

A great year, so far

Our new meeting time and location and our collaboration with the Institute of Technical Editors (ITE) seem to be a success. Record attendance at all three monthly meetings this season and a steady increase in membership suggest that we are doing something right.

Here's a quick look at what we've achieved in 1998:

• We published our third annual membership directory in September.
• We've run two competitions, one for print and one for online publications, with nearly 60 entries. (See Bob Stanley's article.)
• We've established good relationships with a number of generous sponsors (see page 8) who have provided us with an extra scholarship, other cash donations, and door prizes for our meetings.
• We're reinstating the Wiley book offer with this issue of the newsletter.
• The newsletter is now printed on better paper and includes spot colour.
• Our Web site (www.stceo.org) continues to improve: it's always up-to-date with program news, two online versions of the newsletter (HTML and PDF), and new job ads almost daily!

Upcoming highlights

Competition Awards Evening

We've added an event to the calendar for February. Instead of missing out on a meeting on the fourth Thursday of February (the 25th) as was scheduled, we are holding our competition awards event on that evening.

Elections

March brings us the key event of the spring: the elections for next year's executive. The nominating committee will be getting in touch with members during January, February, and March, so start thinking now about what you would like to do for the chapter next year. If you think someone would be perfect for a particular position on the executive, start discussing with that person now the possibility of your nominating him or her.

Don't take the chapter for granted

It takes a lot of work to bring you all the chapter services you enjoy. Don't take them for granted. If you want to see us keep them, please find some time to contribute. Even with the great team and many volunteers we have this year, we are having problems delivering everything we would like.

Great opportunities or missed opportunities?

Seminars and workshops

We have the opportunity to bring good seminars to Ottawa, but because we have no one to organize them, we may have to pass on these offers. Specifically, Gordon & Gordon and JoAnn Hackos are interested in bringing their technical writing workshops here this spring. We have plenty of willing, hard-working volunteers, so these managers don't have to do all the work alone: they just need some management skills (or an interest in developing some).

Another book offer

I'm also currently negotiating an arrangement with another major book publisher similar to the one we have with John Wiley & Sons. If anyone is interested in helping, please let me know. These special offers can save us 20% to 40% on our book purchases.

Some successful streamlining

Despite being a little short-handed in the program management area, the chapter is doing well because we have made a number of changes over the last couple of years to streamline our activities. These changes include the following:

• By sharing the program events with ITE we have reduced our program management workload.
• By choosing a meeting venue that provides refreshments, we have eliminated the need to find volunteers to make coffee and provide food.
• By choosing a venue with no security restrictions, we've eliminated the need to provide escorts for people entering and leaving the meeting location.
• For the past couple of years, Sharon Morgan has been developing an MS Access application for maintaining membership records. This allows us to capture information that has been virtually irretrievable. It also automates many previously labour-intensive activities such as generating lists of members' email addresses and volunteers, or producing the membership directory.
• Last year, we added the position of Volunteer Co-ordinator to the executive so that we don't miss out on offers of help. Kerry Meyer currently holds this position. She has done a great job organizing the many people who are happy to help out on an occasional basis.

Other members of the executive have developed efficient systems. Sarah Vallieres has the accounting set up in QuickBooks, and Rick Lorenz and Tim Scapillato have solid procedures in place for maintaining the Web site and publishing the newsletter respectively.

Great learning opportunities