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By Terry Smith, President, Carolina Chapter
STC Carolina is a geographical chapter, but we are taking a leading role in promoting what STC as a whole has to offer.
At our August meeting, we hosted a presentation on the new certification program. Steve Jong traveled from Boston to present live to our members. For those who couldn't attend in person, we simultaneously broadcast the presentation over GoToWebinar. Although I had been talking to Steve about certification, I was surprised at how much research he had to support the idea that this is something STC should do. We have a recording of both the presentation and the pointed questions that followed. (Cross your fingers: the current plan is to have the new certification program go live by next spring's STC Summit.)
Speaking of webcasting, STC Carolina has offered other chapters the chance to share our GoToWebinar subscription for a small fee. We paid for the subscription to benefit our members, but we also want to share. (A different option, Genesys, is available from STC headquarters, but its expensive and variable fee structure make it a poor choice for us.)
Our local competitions this year are using STC's new competition categories that are based on function instead of format. (For more information, see the Competitions area of the stc-carolina.org web site.) This year's competition manager, Heath Sides, and his committee decided to go ahead and move forward with the new categories, although we weren't required to change. The society is offering to help us train our judges so we judge using the same criteria as the International Competitions. Again, the line between STC Carolina as a geographic chapter and STC as a whole is blurring.
Currently, our once-active local SIGs are gone, and new ones are in the process of forming. SIGs form and disband naturally as interests change. The same is true at the society level, but most members don't know which are active and which aren't. How does a member know which SIGs to join when it's time to renew membership? (Okay, this one is personal for me. I once joined a SIG that sounded like it would be a society-level version of a terrific local SIG we had. After paying to join, I learned the SIG was completely inactive. I was unfamiliar with the SIGs and didn't have the information I needed to make an informed choice.) To help everyone in STC know about what the SIGs are doing, STC Carolina has invited all of the society SIGs to share with us for our November meeting. Like our other meetings, we will broadcast the meeting over the Internet and record the presentations.
STC Carolina is a local chapter, but we are also part of a larger whole. STC is a group of volunteers. There is no huge staff at the society level that is paid to do everything. By working together with all of STC, we make our chapter stronger and we make our entire professional society better.
That can only be good for us.
What do you think?
Website stc-carolina.org.
Terry can be reached at president at stc-carolina dot org.
Terry Smith
STC Carolina is a geographical chapter, but we are taking a leading role in promoting what STC as a whole has to offer.
At our August meeting, we hosted a presentation on the new certification program. Steve Jong traveled from Boston to present live to our members. For those who couldn't attend in person, we simultaneously broadcast the presentation over GoToWebinar. Although I had been talking to Steve about certification, I was surprised at how much research he had to support the idea that this is something STC should do. We have a recording of both the presentation and the pointed questions that followed. (Cross your fingers: the current plan is to have the new certification program go live by next spring's STC Summit.)
Speaking of webcasting, STC Carolina has offered other chapters the chance to share our GoToWebinar subscription for a small fee. We paid for the subscription to benefit our members, but we also want to share. (A different option, Genesys, is available from STC headquarters, but its expensive and variable fee structure make it a poor choice for us.)
Our local competitions this year are using STC's new competition categories that are based on function instead of format. (For more information, see the Competitions area of the stc-carolina.org web site.) This year's competition manager, Heath Sides, and his committee decided to go ahead and move forward with the new categories, although we weren't required to change. The society is offering to help us train our judges so we judge using the same criteria as the International Competitions. Again, the line between STC Carolina as a geographic chapter and STC as a whole is blurring.
Currently, our once-active local SIGs are gone, and new ones are in the process of forming. SIGs form and disband naturally as interests change. The same is true at the society level, but most members don't know which are active and which aren't. How does a member know which SIGs to join when it's time to renew membership? (Okay, this one is personal for me. I once joined a SIG that sounded like it would be a society-level version of a terrific local SIG we had. After paying to join, I learned the SIG was completely inactive. I was unfamiliar with the SIGs and didn't have the information I needed to make an informed choice.) To help everyone in STC know about what the SIGs are doing, STC Carolina has invited all of the society SIGs to share with us for our November meeting. Like our other meetings, we will broadcast the meeting over the Internet and record the presentations.
STC Carolina is a local chapter, but we are also part of a larger whole. STC is a group of volunteers. There is no huge staff at the society level that is paid to do everything. By working together with all of STC, we make our chapter stronger and we make our entire professional society better.
That can only be good for us.
What do you think?
Website stc-carolina.org.
Terry can be reached at president at stc-carolina dot org.
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