By Anjela Dukes, Chapter President

Three times a year STC asks all community presidents to complete a Community Status Report. The report is used to gauge the overall health of individual communities. STC uses the information in the report to:

• Assess how communities are working and contributing to the Society’s strategic objectives;
• Collect information that communities can share regarding strategy, programming and successes; and
• Inform the Board about community condition and concerns.

Completing this report gives me the opportunity to slow down and take inventory of chapter activities, identify areas that need more support, and think about ways to move forward on chapter initiatives.

Symptoms of Success

Submitting the report to the Society also gives me the opportunity to call attention to the great successes and innovations achieved by the hard work of our volunteers. I’d like to give a special thanks to all of the volunteers that make being a member of the Carolina Chapter so rewarding. Here are some highlights of the many accomplishments made this quarter.

• Newsletter advertising is in place. Our chapter business manager, Anneliese Kellner, established size and pricing options for the ads and began marketing the initiative. Take a look at our current sponsors.
• Our newsletter editor, Meredith Blackwelder, recently entered the Society’s newsletter competition. Thanks to all of the volunteers who continuously contribute articles that communicate news about and develop interest in technical communication and STC.
• The chapter has increased its membership and demonstrated the value of STC to members and potential members. Each month our membership manager, Cindy Richardson-Decker, attends the membership meetings armed with information about the services provided by our chapter. She welcomes newcomers, answers membership questions, and gives attendees the opportunity to complete STC membership applications on the spot. Those who join at a chapter event receive a free gift.
• Year in and year out, the Carolina chapter conducts one of the best local online, art, and technical publications competitions in the country, and this year is no exception! Carolina Competitions Manager, Ann-Marie Grissino, along with her numerous volunteers, gathered and judged outstanding entries that will be show-cased at our annual awards banquet in March.
• The chapter salary and employment survey is underway, due to the efforts of John Balchunas, who is collecting the information from our online survey, designed to capture employment, required skills, and salary information.
• We participated in a joint-social with the NCSU student chapter. Taking advantage of the option to gather multiple chapters, Heather Brautman organized a meeting at the “fire pit” at Bahama Breeze in Raleigh that gave Carolina and NCSU members the chance to get to know each other a little better.

Therapy Required…

Although it’s easy to get caught up in all of the good things going on in the chapter, to keep our community strong we need to continuously look for improvements. Here are some volunteer opportunities that will enable you to build management and leadership skills while contributing to our chapter.

• We need a training facility. Our training committee has some great workshops planned and is seeking a spot to hold them, especially the computer workshops. If your company has a computer training lab available one Saturday a month, I’d like to encourage you to suggest that they become a Silver or Gold Carolina chapter sponsor. Please contact the Training Manager, Frances Wirth, at training at stc-carolina dot org with any suggestions.
• Serving as Hospitality Coordinator will give you the opportunity to work with chapter leaders and meet other chapter members. Our Programs Manager, Terry Smith, has her hands full doing the footwork required to organize innovative and creative programs for our membership. We’re looking for someone to help out by bringing refreshments to the monthly membership meetings (of course, we will reimburse you for expenses).
• We need PR Committee Members. Our Public Relations Manager, Jenna Moore, has done a great job of identifying PR goals for the chapter, defining the necessary activities, and explaining why PR is important to the health of our chapter. Now we need to beef up our PR staff to help promote chapter events and increase awareness.
• Interested in building your web design skills and knowing more about local companies who hire technical writers? We are looking for volunteers to help update our online directory of local employers and employment and job agencies (http://stc-carolina.org/jobs/). If you would be interested in helping, please contact our Employment Manager, Marie Dexter (jobs at stc-carolina dot org).

If you have comments on chapter goals, would like to volunteer, or if you have great ideas that you’d like to share, please contact Anjela at president at stc-carolina dot org.