Networking

Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC January/February 2003	NorCal STC Chapter Leadership Day: A Saturday to Remember

	by Becky Rude EBSTC Senior Member
Back: Becky Rude, Janet Bran, Orlando Turrietta, Susan Harlan, Peggy Shepherd Front: Gwaltney Mountford, Jacquelyn Lee, Melody Brumis, Bill Ardis	Would you willingly devote a beautiful, sunny, winter Saturday to your STC chapter? That’s what nine of your chapter colleagues did on December 7, 2002 at Mills College in Oakland. At a history-making event, all six Northern California chapters met for the first time to exchange ideas on achieving success and meeting challenges. It was a community-building event that generated ideas and gave us motivation to implement them. The chapter presidents shared challenges as well as success stories, of which we hear too little in this economic downturn. Here are notes on the event and some things that may be coming to EBSTC soon. You can view more photos on the chapter web site.
The NorCal Chapters	Who are the six Northern California chapters? Berkeley: Founded in 1987 as an offshoot of the East Bay Chapter to serve the membership west of the hills. Approximately 200 members. East Bay: Founded in 1962. More than 200 members. Serves Pleasanton, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Stockton, and other towns in the corridor of Highways 580 and 680. NorthBay: Founded in 1994. Approximately 100 members. Serves Sonoma, Marin, Napa, and other counties in Northern California. Sacramento: Founded in 1985. Approximately 230 members in the Sacramento area. May be starting a satellite chapter in Nevada. San Francisco: Founded in 1980. Approximately 260 members in San Francisco. The most interesting meeting place—the London Wine Bar! Silicon Valley: Over 1000 members. Serves the Silicon Valley and is the largest chapter in the Society! Will be starting a satellite chapter in Santa Cruz.
Aces High	Lance Gelein (Sacramento Chapter), STC Past President, and a very dynamic speaker, opened the day with a facilitated discussion of “what we do” as technical communicators. On a humorous note, one person offered a definition that we “seek the truth and write about it.” Lance commented that the speaker obviously does not work in the software industry. This discussion, as well as an interactive group exercise, prepped us for the intense discussions that followed throughout the day. In the photo at left, Melody Brumis, EBSTC President, and Susan Harlan, EBSTC President Elect, were both in "power positions" as aces (neither one knew they were an ace until later).
Roundtable Topics	There were six table topics from which participants chose four topics to join. The topics and the facilitators were: How to reduce volunteer burnout, Chris Muntzer, North Bay Making STC value-added: recruiting and motivating members, Jeff Simon, Sacramento Technical writer skills and alternative jobs, Susan Harlan, East Bay The business of newsletters, Marc Smircich, San Francisco Mentoring, Viki Maki, Berkeley Collaborating on programs in Northern California, Beau Cain, Silicon Valley Personally, I was thrilled to meet other newsletter editors and designers. One of the most interesting discussions was the issue of paper versus online format. East Bay was the first Northern California chapter to go completely online with its newsletter in November 2001. Everyone was interested in this change and what members think about it. To this end, I hope that we can complete a chapter survey in the near future to share the results with other chapters. Other discussions for EBSTC Chapter projects included: Recruiting more members for volunteer activities Getting new members involved Creating job tickets that describe volunteer jobs Documenting chapter procedures and job descriptions Sharing our success stories when members get jobs—especially through the new Networking SIG Developing a mentor program Creating a chapter project manager position Offering door prizes at chapter meetings (for example, printing our new logo on T-shirts)
Great Things in Store	There are great things coming for the Northern California chapters with this new sense of community. People are interested in collaborating on projects to better serve our members, to increase visibility for our profession, and to secure our professional future. Watch for these new ideas and projects in the future! And, when the opportunity presents itself, volunteer to serve your chapter. All conference members are pictured below. For a surprise, move your mouse over the photo.
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