by Meredith Blackwelder

The end of June marks the end of the 2001-2002 STC year. Wow, what a great year it's been! It was my pleasure to serve as the Carolina Chapter president. Working with enthusiastic members and dedicated board leaders has been a treat. It has renewed my enthusiasm for technical communication. It has strengthened my friendships with people and created new networking opportunities. And most importantly, it has given me the education I need to be organized, committed, and focused on leadership.

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions in helping our chapter flourish. Your volunteering has made our chapter excellent.

Below I have outlined some of the many events our chapter held and accomplishments we achieved. I hope you are as proud of our chapter as I am. There's not enough room in this newsletter to list everything we accomplished this past year, so please consider this a "highlight film."

Initiatives

Our chapter took many new initiatives during the year:

• We revamped our chapter website based on input from our members. Please see http://www.stc-carolina.org.
• We formally recognized 10 members who were published in Technical Communication and Intercom.
• We entered a substantially redesigned and freshened newsletter in the national competition. This was the first time we entered our newsletter in national competition.
• Two members, Diane Feldman and Carla Merrill, hosted the international "Managing Software Interface Design Team Telephone Seminar" held on January 8.
• We held numerous training workshops, collaborating with local companies as well as instructors from other parts of the country.
• We began a formal Mentoring Program. On our website at http://www.stc-carolina.org/about/mentoring.shtml we describe the program and provide a link to a list of members who have volunteered to be mentors. Those interested in seeking advice can browse that list and find someone who shares their interests and experiences, contact that person, and establish a relationship.
  Members who are interested in serving as mentors can fill out an online form to add their names to the list.
• We held a new member orientation for the first time in many years. It gave new members an opportunity to network with current members, meet the leadership board, and learn about volunteer opportunities.
• We published a new chapter brochure. We gave the old, outdated one a facelift, modified its information, and distributed it at the membership drive and the new member reception.
• We conducted a salary survey for the year 2001-2002. The URL to our chapter salary survey is http://www.stc-carolina.org/salary survey/ssurvey_2001.pdf.
• In a year when many technical communicators were laid off and most other chapters drastically lost members, our chapter has retained its membership numbers. On April 1, 2002, we had 336 members. April 1, 2003, we had 303 members.

Communications

Our chapter does a great job of communicating with its members. Last year, we continued the tradition of sending out monthly announcements using both e-mail (we call this the "announce listserv") and regular mail (we send out monthly postcards).

Additionally, we have a chapter "discussion listerv" that members can subscribe to in order to post questions and comments related to STC and technical communication. (For details, see www.stc-carolina.org/about/lists.shtml.)

We continue to supply a directory of technical communication services available in our area (http://www.stc-carolina.org/jobs/agency.shtml). We also continue to supply a directory of businesses and organizations in our area that hire technical communicators (http://www.stccarolina.org/jobs/companies.shtml).

Competitions

Our chapter once again sponsored technical publications, online, and technical art competitions. Details on winners and judges can be found at: http://www.stc-carolina.org/competitions/award_winners.shtml#2002_02

Members in Society Leadership Positions

• Chris Benz served as the Region 2 Director-Sponsor.
• Diane Feldman is the manager of the Technical Editing SIG and has been for three years.
• Larry Kunz serves as the manager of the Nominating Committee.
• Lottie Applewhite serves as the manager of the Journal Editor Fellowship Committee.

Thank you for supporting our chapter and being a part of an extremely active, diverse, and enthusiastic group! I encourage you to continue to volunteer your time and attend our events in the 2003-2004 year.