It's lonely at the top—not!

By Geoff Hart

Previously published as: Hart, G.J. 2004. It's lonely at the top—not! (On se sent seul au sommet—non!). Connections, the newsletter of STC Montreal 20(4):1, 5.

The 2003–2004 season was busy for STC Montreal. We held 10 well-attended monthly meetings, including two that were wholly new to the chapter: a storytelling event hosted by raconteur extraordinaire Dave Hickey, and a four-speaker mélange for our West Island meeting. Most exciting of all to me, we made a strong effort to make STC Montreal more welcoming to our French members.

For one thing, we translated our entire Web site apart from presentations supplied by English presenters. Henceforth, we'll ensure that the English and French sections remain wholly in synch. Doesn't sound like much? Pay a visit to STC's chapter search (http://www.stc.org/chapter_search.asp) and you'll find that we're the only chapter other than Japan to have a fully bilingual site. We've also begun sending out chapter announcements bilingually, and translate most of the content of the newsletter. Congratulations to our coordonnatrice française, Karine Besson, for her heroic translation efforts; to Ed Hawco, for more than doubling his workload as Webmaster; and to David Loveday, for coping with twice the volume of newsletter material and twice the deadline hassles.

We've also increased the bilingual presence at our monthly chapter meetings. Apart from my own fractured French (hélas!), we've held or will hold two bilingual meetings: the first with France Gauthier and Philippe Sillon, joined by Manny Gordon, and the upcoming May 18th meeting (see the article later in this issue) with Deb Folaron and Nancy Locke. We hope to hold more bilingual meetings next year, and we're talking to la Société Québecoise de la Rédaction Professionnelle in the hope that we can work together in the new year. Des idées additionnelles? Veuillez me contacter!

Something to be proud of: Despite losing 25% of our operating budget to STC cutbacks and the strengthening Canadian dollar, we ended the year with a balanced budget and money in the bank for next year. Congratulations to treasurer Janet Warne for keeping us honest and helping us live within our means. Thanks also to Pat Kack, who organized two training seminars on Framemaker with her usual panache, and thereby helped keep the chapter in the black. Pat is also working hard on the Region 1 STC conference, to be held in September 2005 in Montreal. Stay tuned for details! [A look back from 2005: The conference never happened. Too much work and not enough volunteers.—GH]

On the negative side, e-mail has been problematic. Meeting announcements have been devoured by spam filters, overwhelmed service providers, and mysterious Internet black holes. We apologize to anyone who missed a meeting because they never saw the announcements. We now announce meetings well in advance via the newsletter and Web site, so everyone can now learn about monthly meetings whether or not they have e-mail problems.

We couldn't have accomplished this without the efforts of those acknowledged above, but other board members made this year a success and gave me an easy time at the helm. Lydia Shuster and Marielle Carpenter learned the program coordinator job on the fly, and made our meetings run smooth as silk. Dave Hickey kept the membership announcements going—if you didn't receive them, don't blame Dave—and kept us well fed at the banquets. Marta Cepek kept the job bank postings going out weekly, despite the additional burden of her wedding plans. (Congratulations, Marta!) Kandis Weiner kept the Board minutes current and available on our Web site for your inspection despite the impending addition to her family—STC Montreal's youngest-ever board member. (Best wishes for a trouble-free pregnancy!) Mary Maler's been busy building a web of contacts with other professional societies in the Montreal area and discussing how to pool our efforts; watch for the fruits of these efforts this September (a networking event to gather members of these societies together). Last but by no means least, thanks to my able lieutenant Jim Royal, who went above and beyond the duties of V-P by giving us not one but two presentations this year.

They say "it's lonely at the top", but in my experience this past year, it's been anything but. STC is all about community, and we've had a great one this year.