President’s Message

by Helen Cheung
EBSTC President

Fellow East Bay STC Chapter members:

I’m Helen Cheung, your President for the upcoming year. For those new to the chapter, I have served as Vice President of Programs and recently as President-Elect.

First of all, I want to thank Joe Humbert for leading the chapter last year. He has done an outstanding job as President of our chapter, and under his leadership we have accomplished so much. Joe was instrumental in getting our chapter acknowledged with the Community of Merit Achievement Award. He has also done the following during his presidency:

• Set up a Yahoogroups discussion board. I encourage you to participate. This is a forum for you to share your thoughts, ideas, and concerns. To sign up, go to EBSTC Yahoo groups.

• Implemented an ice cream social based on the vision of past-President, Linda Shaltz. We had two successful ice cream socials last year.

• Implemented a podcasting idea. We have several podcasts of our programs last year. To hear some of our podcasts, visit http://www.ebstc.org/podcasts.html.

• Revitalized our chapter newsletter, Devil Mountain Views.

With the support of Joe, and under Dave Eicher’s guidance and leadership, our newsletter is going strong. As proof of how well the newsletter is going, we won a Merit award at the recent STC Newsletter Competition. Many thanks to Dave Eicher and his staff for making this happen. Dave is now President-Elect and he is currently transitioning his editorial duties to Elaine Pendergrast. If you have any articles to contribute, not only on technical writing, but even short stories or a book review, contact Elaine. I encourage you to read our newsletter. As an incentive, we’ll have a drawing for those that read the newsletter and take a mini quiz. Read our upcoming issue to learn more.

New for this year, we are exploring an idea of a Webinar for one of our programs. Because we all have busy lives and many do not have time to come to a meeting, a Webinar could be a convenient way for you to participate. Watch our web site for more details. If anyone has experience conducting a Webinar, let me know. We are also working on putting together a training class on a weekend. If you have any suggestions on a topic you would like to see offered, please let me know.

Finally, I’d like to welcome our new leadership team for the year:

• Dave Eicher, our newsletter editor last year, is now our President-Elect.

• Ann Adams, our Hospitality Manager last year, is now our Vice President of Programs.

• Jeanie Egbert has graciously stayed on as Vice President of Arrangements.

• Joe Humbert, our immediate Past-President, is now serving multiple duties! He is now our Treasurer, web weaver, Network Moderator, and temporary Membership Manager.

• Kevin Evert is our Secretary.

• Also new this year is our Nominating Committee, Elaine Pendergrast. She will serve double-duties as the Nominating Committee and newsletter editor.

• Gwaltney Mountford returns to Hospitality after a stint as Treasurer.

• Toni Thompson is also our web weaver.

The following individuals are staying on from last year:

• Joy Montgomery, Resume Counselor. I encourage you to come to our meeting where she can help you with your resume.

• June Shaefer, archivist

• Sue Phelan, chapter photographer

• T.R. Girill, Community Outreach

• Ken Evans, jobs manager

• Melody Brumis and Ashwini Tharval, publicists

• Members of the Kenneth Gordon Scholarship Committee: Patrick Lufkin, Richard Mateosian, and Joy Montgomery. The purpose of this committee is to recognize and reward up-and-coming technical writing students.

• Members of the College Connection: Gwaltney Mountford, Janet Gray, Patrick Lufkin, T.R. Girill, Joy Montgomery, and Rosalind Rogoff, under the leadership of May McKoon.

We are always seeking new volunteers. To read about open positions, visit our Volunteers page at http://www.ebstc.org/volunteers.html. We have an opening for a Database Manager. If you are Microsoft Access savvy, we’d love to hear from you.

I’d like to encourage you all to take an active role in our chapter whether as a volunteer or coming to meetings. This chapter is for you and you help make it successful. I hope to see new faces at future meetings, and I also encourage you to bring a friend or colleague. For new chapter members, you will receive a welcome packet in the mail. In this packet, you will find a wealth of information about our chapter as well as a ticket to a free entrance to a meeting which also includes a dinner.

We have a great team in place and it will be an exciting year! To find out more about the leadership team, visit our Leadership page at http://www.ebstc.org/leadership.html. I look forward to a successful year serving as President of the chapter. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note at helen_ews@yahoo.com.

See you at the next meeting!

Warm Regards,
Helen