President's Message

by Helen Cheung

EBSTC president

Greetings East Bay STC Chapter members!

I hope everyone had a great summer. It's time to roll up our sleeves and once again get involved with our chapter. Thanks to our newsletter's managing editor, Alliene Turner, and our other newsletter volunteers for putting together another issue. I hope you will find the articles in this issue useful.

As a reminder, all of the current East Bay Chapter officers remain in office until the end of December 2008, so that we can align ourselves with STC's new fiscal year cycle (January to December). A new chapter president will be installed in January 2009. Chapter elections will occur in October. When you receive the email ballot, please be sure to vote.

Being part of the leadership team is a great way to get involved with the chapter. If you are interested in running for any of the following elected positions, let me know. Check out Gwaltney Mountford's description of the positions in this issue under "Get in the Running":

• President
• President-Elect
• Treasurer
• Vice President of Programs
• Vice President of Arrangements
• Secretary
• Nominating Committee

For those who missed the June program, we honored our volunteers for all of their hard work during the year. A few of us who attended the 55th Annual STC Technical Communication Summit in Philadelphia did short presentations on what we learned at the conference. It was a great way to hear all the different experiences and perspectives.

If you missed any of our programs during the year, you can check out those that were recorded on our Podcast page at http://www.ebstc.org/podcasts.html.

East Bay Chapter Receives STC Community of Excellence Award  

As I mentioned, several of our chapter members attended the 55th Annual STC Technical Communication Summit in Philadelphia. I attended Leadership Day and brought back our STC Community of Excellence award given to us "for ongoing improvement in activities and programs offered to your members; for conducting outstanding literacy projects; and for continuing interaction with the academic community." Below is a picture of me accepting the award.

Thanks again to all of our volunteers for making this happen. We were very close to getting the Community of Distinction award!

Updates   

The following are some updates on what's been going on with our chapter:

• The leadership team met on August 18th for our final council meeting of this calendar year. Council meeting minutes are posted on our website at http://www.ebstc.org/administration.html.
  
  
• The Webinar Committee is still working out the details for a possible webinar in the months to come. I will keep you posted on the status.
  
  
• The Writing Boot Camp back in January was such a success that we are looking into scheduling another workshop. If you have ideas on a workshop you would like to attend, email me a note.
  
  
• Our chapter is co-sponsoring the Northern California Technical Communication Competition under the revitalized Touchstone brand. See Patrick's articles in this issue, "Call for Entries," and "Call for Judges." Deadline for entries is September 27.
  
  
• We are still considering a partnership with the Berkeley STC Chapter (and possibly other local chapters) for events, newsletter, and website. I'll keep you posted on this endeavor.
  

A Few Reminders  

Just don't want you to forget:

• If you have any articles that you would like to contribute to our next newsletter, contact our managing editor, Alliene Turner (hairston.turner@gmail.com). Deadline is October 2, 2008.

• If you haven't renewed your STC membership with East Bay, we encourage you to do so. http://www.stc.org/membership/join01.asp
  
  
• The Yahoo! Groups discussion board is available to our members. This is a forum for you to share your ideas and concerns. To sign up, click the East Bay STC Network link in the upper right corner on the home page of the website.
  
  
• We are always looking for volunteers. Check out the openings by clicking on the Volunteers link in the left sidebar of the website's home page.

Upcoming Programs   

The following programs are coming up:

• Oct 2 — "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the PMP" with Vic Passion
  
  
• Nov 6 — TBD
  
  
• Dec 4 — "User Assistance" with Joe Welinske, President of WritersUA

We are busy planning programs for November and next year, so do visit our website for updated program information.

See You Soon  

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, I'd love to hear from yo you. You can drop me a note at helen_ews@yahoo.com.

Let's keep the momentum going. See you at the next meeting!

Warm regards,
Helen