Volunteers needed for the 2007-08 term

The vitality of STC Alberta depends on the contributions from its volunteer team. Why volunteer?

Develop or improve valuable skills that you might not have the opportunity to use at your current job. Examples include leadership, project management, writing, digital photography, and HTML/CSS. All are excellent additions to a technical communicator’s resume!

Expand your network of technical communication professionals. Many of us work as lone writers – networking with other fellow technical communicators improves your skills and can help identify future opportunities for your career.
Demonstrate your commitment STC Alberta’s future. Our chapter’s continued existence depends on new volunteers coming on board each year. 

The Executive is made up of elected and appointed positions. This is a summary of all positions and a brief description of their contributions to STC Alberta.

Elected Positions

We will be accepting nominations and elect nominees for these positions before or at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 14. Members nominated for elected positions must have full member status. An overview of the Executive positions is as follows:

President – Presides over the regular monthly meetings. The President sets the meeting agendas, initiates and helps organize the year’s events and activities.

Vice-President – Presides over meetings in the President’s absence. The VP is also responsible for assisting with meeting agendas and organizing events and activities.

Secretary - The Secretary distributes the agenda and records the minutes of the administrative meetings, and writes any required external correspondence.

Treasurer – The Treasurer handles the organization’s finances.

Past President – This position is automatically filled by the outgoing President.

To nominate someone or to volunteer to run for one of the open positions, please contact me at president@stc-alberta.org. I will be accepting nominations up until the AGM elections.

Appointed Positions

In addition to the elected positions, we are also looking for people to fill appointed positions. Below is a brief summary of these positions. Keep in mind that with the changes taking place in our organization, we are always open to new ideas and ways to organize responsibilities. If you have an idea for a new role, contact president@stc-alberta.org. Appointed positions can be filled by members or student members.

Programs/Workshops/Webinar Coordinators (Calgary and Edmonton) – These positions require members who are responsible for organizing professional development events. The Programs Coordinator identifies, contacts, and schedules speakers for 1 - 2 hour long evening presentations. Our workshops are one-day (usually hands-on) seminars that are offered once or twice a year. The Webinar coordinator is responsible for advertising the daytime webinars offered by STC, and finding a venue for the seminar. We are looking for more than one person to fill these two dynamic positions, so if you are only able to provide a partial commitment, please let us know. These positions will appeal to organized and self-motivated members!

Registration and Hospitality – The Registration Coordinator is responsible for member registration at events and activities and for handling the hospitality aspect for the event.

Special Events – This is a fairly new position that has been added to help organize such events as the Wine and Cheese, Coffee Night and AGM.

Membership – The Membership Coordinator manages the organization’s membership and e-mail lists. The Membership Coordinator has an important role in welcoming new members into our chapter. While the database and lists are updated each month, there is some flexibility in fitting this into your schedule.

Jobline – The Jobline Coordinator is responsible for receiving job listings and posting them to the web site as soon as possible. There is not a huge time commitment to this position, but the postings are time-sensitive, and need to be up on the website very soon after they are received.

SuperScript and Website –SuperScript’s recent evolution to an e-mail format newsletter has streamlined its publishing process, and created new opportunities for volunteers. The Content Manager has overall responsibility for gathering, organizing, editing and publishing the HTML newsletter. We are looking for at least two Content Managers who will take turns producing SuperScript editions. If you have a knack for organizing and like working with web content, this position will appeal to you. The SuperScript team also needs contributors to write reviews of STC programs and events, and photographers. If you would like to help out with any aspect of publishing our newsletter, please consider joining the SuperScript team.

HTML and Web – This is a special call for volunteers to help with the STC Alberta website “facelift.” We are looking for volunteers who are comfortable with HTML/CSS to help migrate our existing content into a new web design. The redesign will be completed between June to September 2007. This position will interest members who would like to use (and potentially improve) their basic HTML/CSS skills to contribute to a high-impact project with a definitive timeframe.

If you are interested in filling any one or sharing one of these roles with another member, please contact me at president@stc-alberta.org.