President’s Message

by Joseph Humbert
EBSTC President

Hello. As we come out of Winter and head into Spring, we in leadership are working on many fronts.

East Bay STC Network

After a long delay, we will invite all members of the East Bay chapter to participate in our new network. One of the great reasons to belong to an STC chapter is to be able to connect with like-minded professionals. Two of the best ways to do this is to come to the monthly meetings or to volunteer for positions in the leadership of the chapter. That way you are in face to face contact with your peers where the best networking is done.

We realize of course that this is not always possible for many of our members. But by paying your dues, you must want something out of the chapter. Shortly you will receive an invitation to do so and we urge you to say, ‘Yes, Joe, sign me up.’ We have over 120 members who are very talented and very knowledgeable. By joining the group, you are immediately connected to all East Bay members who want to network and possibly contribute.

• For example, say you are out of work. You could let our members know. Someone in our group may give you a lead on a position in their company. Conversely, say you are working and know of a new job opening. You could shoot a message to all your fellow members who may be looking for work.

• Say you have having with a software application. You can ask for help from your fellow East Bay members. There is probably someone out there who could help you, faster and easier than Tech Support.

• Say you are not fascinated by the programs we schedule. Let us know what programs or speakers would bring you to a meeting. You know, to hear the speaker only will set you back only $7 – about the cost of couple of lattes.

• This is a forum where you can air your feelings about how your chapter is run. If there is something you would like to see changed, let us know. If there is something about the chapter that you like, let us know too. We only see or hear from about 25% of our members, so we would love to hear from the rest of you.

• Thanks, and we hope to have 100% participation. The greater the number who join, the better our network will be.

Podcasting

We have re-thought our podcast policy and presentation. In the future, we will offer our podcasts to all visitors to our website and we will eliminate the password step. We will also build in new copyright protections to protect the speaker’s work. We are in uncharted territory here. Even the National Society does not yet have an official podcast copyright policy. If you have legal expertise, maybe you can advise us in our podcast contract. Thanks, and keep listening.

O’Reilly Books

We have reconnected with the O’Reilly Group, publisher of many technical publications. As an official partner, you can:

• Buy books from their catalog at a 35% discount. The discount code is DSUG. Orders can be placed online at www.oreilly.com/store/ or by calling 800-998-9938. You are also entitled to a discount on O'Reilly conferences and tutorials.

• Better yet, how about a FREE book? All you have to do is write a book review to be published in our newsletter. Look over their catalog, find a book to review, contact me about your choice, and we’ll get the book to you.

• They also have authors who can speak at our meetings.

Meetings

If you are coming to one of monthly meetings, we urge you to reserve by the dates specified in the meetings page of the website. If we can get the at least 15 reservations either by PayPal (preferred) or by mailing in a check in a timely fashion, we can order a buffet instead of getting a plated entrée. Also, if we have at least 20 reservations, we can get our favorite space, the spacious O’Neill room. So, reserve early and come often.

We are sending our Meetings reminders by postcard. Let us know if you are not receiving them. Note: We just got an updated list from National of our current members. We will be updating our postcard database as well.

Upcoming Events

Look for details about the following events on our website:

• March 24: Saturday Ice Cream Social. Can’t make it to meetings? Come and have FREE ice cream on a hopefully sunny Spring afternoon in Central Park in San Ramon. Open to all STC members and their families, including kids. Watch the website for details.

• April 5 Meeting: Jack Molisani, “The Top 10 Mistakes Professionals Make When Looking for Work.” Also, our Technical Literacy leader, T.R. Girill, will give a brief update on his work with high school students.

• April 21: The College Connection will make an appearance at Los Positas College to attract college students to technical communication. Contact May McKoon (maymckoon@comcast.net) if you would like to help in this effort.

• April 21 : We are scheduling a beginning FrameMaker Workshop on a Saturday morning. Enrollment will be limited to 12. Watch the website for details.

• May 3 meeting: We are working to secure a speaker.

• May 12-16: National Conference in Minneapolis Minnesota. Hope to see you there.

• June 7 meeting: Susan Becker on ‘A Simple Approach to Writing Clearly,’ and we will have our gala Changing of the Guard meeting.

• As we mentioned, we hope to see you at these get-togethers.

Finally, work continues on our Strategic Plan and Re-chartering. See you next time.

Joe