President's message, September 2003

by Geoff Hart

Previously published as: Hart, G.J. 2003. President's message, September 2003. Connections, the newsletter of STC Montreal 20(1):1, 6.

Welcome back! I hope your summer's been more relaxing than mine, and that you've had enough downtime away from work to face your fall workload with equanimity and perhaps even with some enthusiasm. In this article, I'd like to briefly bring you up to speed on some of the challenges we face this year, whet your appetite with a taste of some of the programs we'll be offering, and encourage you to get involved in STC Montreal.

Challenges

Recruitment: The fewer people who belong to the chapter, the fewer intellectual and other resources we have to share, and that sharing is what STC is really all about. If you know of someone who's let their membership lapse, or know someone who isn't a member but should be, please encourage them to attend a few of our meetings. At $5 for non-members, it's a bargain, particularly given the quality of the speakers we've identified for this year. If someone you know is considering membership, ask them to contact me if they have any questions.
Finances: With fewer than 200 members, STC Montreal is a relatively small chapter. Moreover, a drop in overall STC membership after the dotcom meltdown has forced STC to reduce the proportion of the annual membership fees that are transferred to chapters. Combined with a Canadian dollar that is steadily increasing in value, this has left us with roughly 20% less money than in previous years. That means we'll have to be a bit more frugal this year.
French services: Many potential members speak French as their first language, and don't see mch benefit from joining an English-language organization. Worse yet, many French members may feel their needs are underappreciated. That's a pity, because STC's value truly crosses language barriers. Past efforts to improve STC Montreal's offering of bilingual services haven't made much progress, largely because we're a volunteer organization and need French volunteers to provide these services. If you have services you want us to provide in French, and are willing to help us provide those services, please contact me to discuss how you can help us—and how we can help you.

Monthly meetings

Our monthly meetings are held on alternating Tuesday and Wednesday nights so people with night classes and parents involved in evening activities with their children won't have to miss all meetings. If you've been unable to attend because neither night works for you, let me know; if there's sufficient demand for another night (e.g., Thursday), we'll try to schedule at least an occasional meeting on that night.

Similarly, most of our meetings are held in the downtown core because historically this has proven convenient for the majority of members. But our annual West Island meeting is always well attended, and that suggests other locations outside the core area might be popular. If you'd like to propose alternative locations for our meetings, let me know. I'll try to determine whether there's enough demand to justify a few new meeting locations.

Because it's not always easy to reach meetings such as those held on the West Island, we're working to find a simple way of connecting people who plan to drive to a meeting with people who need a lift and are willing to share the costs. If you're willing to carpool to some meetings, let me know and we'll try to hook you up with compatible souls.

Upcoming speakers and programs

We're planning to present talks on accessibility and usability, writing for magazines, information design for tight spaces (e.g., PDA screens), on-disk videos and training, and running a small business or consultancy. Plus a few others. Stay tuned for more details! In addition, here are a few other things we're working on:

Conferences: Montreal will have an opportunity to host the 2004 Region 1 conference—like the STC annual conference, only smaller, more manageable, and more affordable. If you'd like to help with the organizing, drop me a line. Once the conference is confirmed, I'll let you know where your efforts would be most useful.
STC telephone seminars: Most people know that these seminars exist, but you may not have noticed that the cost (around US$160) is per location, not per attendee. We're hoping to set up a system that lets you reserve a seat at the table and share the cost with other attendees. If (for example) we can sign up 20 people, the entry cost becomes US$8—a much more attractive proposition.

Board members

I'd also like to take this opportunity to introduce you to the members of the STC Montreal Executive Board. These are the people (all unpaid and often underappreciated volunteers) who help us deliver the annual program:

Education Coordinator: Patricia Kack
Job Bank: Marta Cepek
Membership Coordinator / E-mail / Inter-society liaison: John David Hickey
Newsletter Editor: David Loveday
Programs Coordinators: Marielle Carpenter and Lydia Shuster
Publicity, Inter-society liaison: Mary Maler
Secretary: Kandis Weiner
Treasurer: Janet Warne
Vice-President: Jim Royal
Webmaster: Ed Hawco

Look us up at the monthly meetings and let us know how we're doing, and what we could be doing better.

Administrivia

Don't forget to update your contact information with STC's Head Office. If you don't tell them how to reach you, we can't reach you either. Keep an eye on our Web site (www.stc-montreal.org) to find out about coming events. If you're currently looking for work, investigate our job bank (www.stc-montreal.org/jobbank-e.shtml) and consider signing up for the free e-mail announcement of vacancies; you'll get an announcement at least a week before the ads appear on the Web site, which is a nice benefit from membership in STC. You'll also find many other goodies on the site, including archives of past presentations (www.stc-montreal.org/archives-e.shtml), so I encourage you to pay us a visit.

The coming year looks to be an exciting one, and I look forward to working with all of you to make it a memorable year.

Geoff Hart

President, STC Montreal (2003/04)