By Andrea Wenger, Chapter President

December is a busy month. End-of-year work projects demand our attention. In our personal lives, we devote time to holiday shopping, baking, decorating, and traveling. So we may decide to postpone less pressing business until after the new year. But one thing you won't want to postpone is renewing your STC membership.

If you join or renew by January 15, you can save $30 on basic membership. If your company employs at least five members, you can save even more through the Corporate Value Plan. And through the Member Get A Member program, when you recruit new members, you get a $25 credit per recruit toward your 2013 membership dues.

But wait, there's more! If you've let your membership lapse, now is a great time to rejoin. You may qualify to have your reinstatement fee waived. For more information, call 703-522-4114 or email membership at stc dot org.

STC Benefits

STC is offering some exciting new features for 2013:

• Free 2013 Salary Database (nonmember price: $49)
• Free sponsored live webinars, not available to nonmembers
• More than 70 free archived webinars, not available to nonmembers

For more information about the benefits of membership, visit the STC website.

Carolina Chapter Benefits

The STC Carolina Chapter is dedicated to providing members with valuable programs at little or no cost. Our monthly programs are free, and our special events are available to members at a reduced rate. Thanks to the help of our sponsors, we're able to keep our costs low. Our programs this year included the following:

User Assistance Workshop: Joe Welinske of Writers UA traveled across the country to present Mobile UA and Write More, Write Less. We're grateful to Adobe for helping sponsor Joe's travel.

Managing the Pace With Grace®: Author and professional speaker Jeff Davidson gave this inspiring presentation on time management. If you're feeling stressed this holiday season, be sure to listen to the recording.

Increasing Interactivity in Training: Dr. Joel Gendelman offered ten techniques for increasing audience engagement, whether in training or in the presentations technical communicators are sometimes called on to make at work. The recording is available on the chapter website.

Making Mobile Apps: Chapter webmaster and director-at-large Rick Sapir showed us how to create a mobile website app using free tools. A recording of the program is available.

Building and Managing Successful Teams: Paul Mueller of UserAid presented this half-day workshop exploring team leadership, interviewing, coaching, and why people choose to stay. The workshop also covered decision types, personality types, and common dysfunctions of a team.

Textbook Editing: In this joint meeting with the STC Technical Editing SIG, local editing guru Laura Poole gave an overview of the opportunities and challenges involved with textbook editing. The recording is available at the chapter website.

Competitions: The chapter's annual technical communication competitions were held this fall. You'll have the opportunity to honor the winners and see some of their entries at the Awards Banquet in March.

Writing and Editing Scripts for Video Tutorials: This webinar with Tom Johnson, who was named as MindTouch's most influential technical communicator in 2011, was offered jointly with the Technical Editing SIG.

SpeedCon Unconference: The chapter helped sponsor the SpeedCon Unconference on Communication, held at NC State and offered for free to attendees.

We have more exciting programs planned for 2013. We hope you'll join us!

Andrea can be reached at president at stc-carolina dot org.