STC Board to Honor Bay Area with Important Visit

by Patrick Lufkin

Patrick is a longtime member of STC. He is currently Membership Manager of the Management SIG and Chair of the Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship.

As part of an exciting multi-day visit, Bay Area STC members will soon get a chance to meet and celebrate with the members of the STC Board of Directors. Mark your calendars for August 18.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Board, it is the body that provides the leadership needed to address both the internal and external issues facing the Society and the profession.

Internally, the board makes financial and organizational decisions, determines the structure of the Society, sets fees and membership categories, charters new chapters and SIGs, picks the location for the annual conference, makes awards for service to the Society, and so on. Externally, the Board represents the Society and the profession to the world.

In recent years, especially since the transformation, the external aspects of the Board’s role have very much moved to the fore. STC president, Paula Berger, recently wrote that the Board will soon be spending 70 to 80 percent of its time on external issues important to the membership—such matters as “managing and marketing perceptions of the technical communication profession, improving how technical communicators are valued and how their compensation is determined; and developing a body of knowledge for the profession.”

The Board meets four times a year, once at the annual conference, and then in different cities where the STC has a strong presence. Because of the Society’s huge geographic scope, meetings in any particular area are relatively rare events that those interested in Society governance or issues facing the profession will want to attend. The Board met in the Bay Area twice in the 1990s, once in San Francisco and once in San Jose.

It won’t all be business though. The multi-day visits are usually accompanied by other events, including a party, so we should all have lots of opportunities to get to know each other.

At the time of writing, planning is still underway, but here is what is known so far. The affair will take place August 16-19 at the Double Tree hotel at the Berkeley Marina. It will include the Board’s business sessions, as well as a celebratory party on Saturday evening, the details of which are yet to be determined. The Saturday board meeting will be open to all—with the exception of a short period to discuss awards and such. The Board hopes as many as possible will take advantage of this chance to see the Board in action, and also to attend other events.

The hosting chapters (East Bay, Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco) have organized a committee to work out the details under the leadership of Gwaltney Mountford, Society Associate Fellow, and past-president of the East Bay chapter. Other members of the committee include: Richard Mateosian (Berkeley), Helen Cheung (East Bay), Susan Becker (San Francisco), and D.J. Cline (Silicon Valley). After the event is planned, the committee will focus on publicizing the event and creating handouts for the board identifying what to see and do in the area. Anyone wishing to help out in these activities should contact Gwaltney Mountford, mgm@mountfordgroup.com.

Meanwhile, we will be updating chapter Web sites as more information becomes available.