Nicki Davis suggested this Presidents’ meeting because she believes all the Northern California chapters can benefit from reigniting the regional cooperation that has been largely missing since Region 8 was disbanded over 10 years ago*.

We are also facing a decision regarding the Touchstone competition because Richard Mateosian and Patrick Lufkin would like to retire. They agreed to chair the competition again, with help.

The following is a summary of the major topics discussed at the meeting.

Touchstone

The 2018-2019 plan is to update the website, publicize it, and see how many entries we get. Richard and Patrick will still be involved. We need more volunteers/judges. See information on the Touchstone website.

Gordon Scholarship

Patrick can continue to do the Gordon Scholarship. It’s not too much work. He’s got an InDesign template for certificates for winners. We might give 3 awards this time. ($3,000). Currently have around $10,000 in the bank?

Increasing membership

Berkeley is down to 25 members. Silicon Valley has 94. EBSTC has 36.

Nicki asked: Do students know we exist?

We need to get out the word that STC is an excellent way to network and find a job. We also need to educate students about the benefits of networking and how it works.

Ideas included:

• Panel discussion at the Berkeley Job Fair in September
• Holding Workshops
• Holding a regional conference geared toward younger members (or piggybacking on an existing conference, like Richard and Patrick did) to reach a new audience
• Writing articles about how being an STC member has benefitted your job search
• Contacting local colleges and extension programs… (And offering to talk to their classes?)
• Publishing a pamphlet with testimonials of how STC networking has provided jobs, and pass this out after speaking engagements
• College Job Fair participation? (Not mentioned at the meeting, but perhaps we could participate in college job fairs? –Gale)
• More regional activities outside of monthly meetings (e.g., Bay Model Excursion, tour John Muir’s house, go to the Tech Museum, etc.)

*What was Region 8? Before the early 2000’s, STC was organized into regions. Regions had director-sponsors who helped with chapter coordination, including helping chapters that were having trouble. These director-sponsors were on the STC board of directors. Regions had annual regional conferences in addition to the STC annual convention.

Region 8 was all the California chapters plus Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong.

When the economy crashed in 2000, STC had to reorganize. Because they reorganized in New York, they had to get rid of the director-sponsors. (According to NY laws, directors must represent the WHOLE membership.) Regional cooperation suffered. The economy crashed. Membership crashed. (In the 1990’s STC had 2,500 members in NorCal. Silicon Valley had 1800 members, with 300 people at their monthly meetings.)