by Cindy Currie, STC Fellow and Region 1 Director

It's a brand new STC year! Our new President, Paula Berger, has chosen the slogan "The New World of STC" for this year. And a new world it is!

We have a brand new Executive Director! She is Susan Allen Burton. Susan accepted the position just days before our Annual Conference earlier this month and was able to be in Las Vegas. She was introduced to attendees during the conference opening program on Monday, May 8. She is dynamic and engaging, with a wealth of association management experience. Susan is the new "face of STC" we've been hoping to find! She will officially join STC by early August. Visit http://www.stc.org/membership/initiatives01.asp for more information.

The new Board of Directors is now in place, effective Monday, May 8, 2006 during the annual Business Meeting, held at the Annual Conference. The Board is smaller and includes: President, First Vice President (1VP), Second Vice President (2VP), Secretary, Treasurer, Immediate Past President (IPP), and eight Directors: six Regional Directors (Regions 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8) and two Directors At Large. Visit http://www.stc.org/about/board01.asp for details on who's who.

The Executive Director and the STC Office Management team (Maurice Martin, Merrick Bechini, and Peg Cottrell) all regularly attend board meetings to ensure tight alignment between the board (that sets strategy) and the office (that executes strategy). The Office Management team has a wealth of experience to add to the mix, so we're all happy to have working so closely with us. We're all the better for it.

STC has a new Interim Strategic Plan for the 2006-07 year. This newly updated plan is available at http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/StrategicPlan.pdf. I highly encourage you to read it to fully understand where STC is going. (And going there, we are!) The graphic below shows our strategic priorities for this year and the specific strategies associated with them. You will see this graphic a lot! Get to know it!

STC Strategy Map: The Circle of Strategic Priorities for 2006-07 (See http://www.stc.org/PDF_Files/StrategicPlan.pdf for a clear view of the map).

Your community strategic plan should reflect the priorities and strategies in the Society document. A good exercise will be to review your plan against the Society plan to ensure you're in alignment and working to help fulfill this year's STC goals.

All major initiatives have an overseer at the Board level (I'm overseeing Communications with new Director At Large, Jeff Staples), and an STC office liaison (Maurice Martin for Communications) to ensure that there is a firm link between the board and the committees and how strategy is being driven through to execution and desired outcomes.

Visit http://www.stc.org/ppt/orgChart0506.ppt to view a presentation that shows how STC is organized this year and who's leading each committee. It's a very different model from previous years.

STC is now well positioned to meet our strategic goals for the year. We have a great team in place and a great plan to execute, so I'm excited for get to work on this year's priorities.

Don't miss this one! STC Region 2 will host Making Cents of Making Sense: Technical Communication and Business in London, England, 1314 October 2006. This regional conference is aimed at companies in need of technical communication and the people who produce it. The program is going to include speakers who can show the business value of quality technical communication. Visit http://www.stcuk.org/R2conf for more information. (The next Board meeting will be held on 1213 October in London, so the full board will be in attendance at this conference.)

Cindy Currie Cindy can be reached at dir1 at stc dot org.