Chapter History

The East Bay Chapter was originally called the Pacifica Chapter and was founded in 1962. The chapter served people from both sides of the Caldecott tunnel. (Other names considered were San Francisco Bay, Pacific Coast, California, Berkeley–Bay, Sierra–Bay, and Far West.)
The first organizational meeting was held in February 1962, and the chapter became official in June of that year. The Society, then nine years old, was called the Society for Technical Writers and Publishers (STWP).
Other chapters present in these parts were the Golden Gate Chapter (now San Francisco) and the El Camino Chapter (now Silicon Valley).
In November 1982, under President T. R. Girill, Pacifica became the East Bay Chapter. The name was changed since Pacifica did not best describe the chapter’s location.
In the earlier days, the chapter meetings were held all over the East Bay: Hayward, Castro Valley, Newark, Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, Livermore, Dublin, Lafayette, and Concord.
In 1987, the chapter president, Dr. C. J. Wallia, started a separate Berkeley Chapter to better serve the membership living west of the hills.
Our chapter had a newsletter right from the early days. It was called the Pacifica News and was first published in the fall of 1962.
In 1994, the newsletter name was changed to East Bay Log.
In 1996 the newsletter was again renamed to Devil Mountain Views. The name was suggested by Susan Moxely in a contest held for renaming the newsletter.
Devil Mountain Views has won several awards, but in 2002–2003 it won the Best of Show, Most Improved, and Distinguished Technical Communication award in the STC international newsletter competition. Ashwini Tharval was the managing editor at that time.
In 1999 chapter bylaws were written by Rick Roberts, June Schaefer, and Gwaltney Mountford.
Our chapter sponsored the Region 8 Conference in 1999 under the direction of chair Gwaltney Mountford.
Our chapter had 35 members in 1962, 165 members in 1995. We now have approximately 130 members.

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Last updated: Monday, October 17, 2005 2:43 PM