By Jim Lidington
Welcome to the STC Boston Chapter for 2003-2004! As your new chapter president, I want to take this opportunity to talk a little about where we've been as a chapter and where we're going.
We're now over 900 members, and growing. We're coming from two years of many exciting developments, especially in our monthly program meetings, competitions, SIGs, newsletter, and on our Web site.
As many of you know, our monthly meetings and programs have found a home on Route 128 at the Sheraton Colonial Inn in Lexington. We've developed a valuable relationship with the Sheraton that provides us with a convenient location, great rooms, and good food and drink at a reasonable cost—everything busy technical communicators need to plug into career-enriching programs, support, and networking.
Our annual competitions continue to provide an important vehicle for receiving peer feedback, and possibly awards, for the professional work that we produce every day. We've seen a reinvigorated Technical Art Competition complement our well-established hard-copy and online technical publications competitions. The Technical Art Competition provides an opportunity for technical artists and designers to participate; many folks are not aware that you can enter a single publication in more than one competition. By the way, the submission deadline is coming up, so get your entries ready.
We've also seen our special interest groups (SIGs) grow from zero to five in just two years. We now sponsor SIGs for Consulting and Independent Contracting, Online Information, Special Needs, Internationalization, and the new Idea Watch SIG. The SIGs organize their own programs at the Sheraton in a format that is conducive to in-depth discussion. They are a great complement to the regular, monthly chapter programs.
The award-winning Boston Broadside has always been a favorite way for members to keep up with what's going on in the chapter and to access the experience and know-how of our contributors.
In recognition of these and many other exciting developments at the Boston Chapter, we have won the Chapter of Distinction award for large chapters, for two years running. Only one chapter in each size category wins this award, so it's not a stretch to say that we've got the best STC chapter in the world right here in Boston. While many criteria must be met to win this award, I think the real reason for our success can be boiled down quite simply: This chapter has a lot of stuff going on!
Besides the SIGs, competitions, monthly programs, and newsletter, we also have an excellent Web site that includes information about all the aforementioned activities, an event calendar, a job bank, and the 2002 salary survey results. Not to be overlooked is my hands-down favorite part of the entire Web site: the volunteer opportunities page.
This is where all the good stuff that goes on at the Boston chapter starts: with the huge talent pool that is our membership. If you've ever been to the annual International STC conference, then you'll see Boston Chapter members presenting papers, running workshops, and even running the conference. While I strongly recommend attending the international conference to anyone who is able, you should realize that a tremendous amount of the expertise found at the conference is actually available to you right here in the Boston Chapter. The best way to get plugged into what's going on in the Boston-area technical communication scene is by volunteering alongside world-class consultants, authors, managers, and innovators at the many activities that the chapter sponsors.
So click the "Get Involved" link on the Web site. The volunteer opportunities page is your gateway to avenues of professional development that cannot be matched anywhere else. And it doesn't cost a penny to volunteer!
I look forward to working with you.
Jim Lidington is the president of the STC Boston Chapter. He can be reached at James.Lidington@S1.com.