Thank you to everyone who attended the Strategic Planning session on June 21st. We had 11 volunteers who came to help plan this year’s events and projects. I wanted to re-cap what we discussed for those who were unable to attend.
Volunteer Awards. This was an idea that I got from a former member of the Oklahoma chapter I met at Summit. The chapter used the awards to help engage members and provide an opportunity for them to build experience and put something tangible on their résumé. The new awards suggested are Business Affairs, Innovation, Community Engagement, Content Leadership and Volunteer of the Month.
The criteria for these have not been finalized and will be discussed at the next chapter council meeting on July 19th, 2014. These are in addition to the current Volunteer of the Year award given out at the end of each year. Once the criteria are finalized, they will be posted on the Volunteer page.
Educational events. For a number of reasons, we have decided to do events differently this year. Chapter council meetings will be monthly as well as have informal networking gatherings—essentially we are bring back the Contractors and Independent Consultants group but, broadening the scope. The first STC Tech Comm Café is July 9th, so come check it out!
Instead of monthly events, we will have three half to full day events in September, January and April (the AGM will take place during the April event). We decided to try this for two main reasons.
- So those who are not able to attend during the week or on specific nights have an opportunity to take advantage of the education and networking opportunities.
- To allocate more time to topics so we can gain more in depth knowledge and skills. Those who want to attend can either pay for a single session or the whole day.
A survey will be sent out to community members soon asking for input on topics of interest. If you do not receive the Coast Lines messages but, would like to provide input, please subscribe or send me a message at president [at] stcwestcoast.ca.
Projects. The projects we would like to work on this year are
1. Redefine the criteria for scholarships after deciding to award memberships instead of a cash scholarship.
2. Make the contractor’s directory searchable.
3. Continue efforts to connect with students, education institutions and industry. The ideas shared during the meeting were to
- Finalize the student and employer brochures
- Partner with education institutions and provide mentors to students while doing industry projects.
- Connect with industry to share what the STC CWC could do to help them and their employees.
4. Define a mentorship program for our chapter. At Summit I was able to connect with someone from the Orlando, Central Florida chapter about the Mentorship program in a box that their chapter created. In addition, the STC has a database set up where mentors and mentees can register. This has multiple benefits such as providing more seasoned community members a chance to give back regardless of their location and a chance for us to reach out to students and new professionals and help them grow as technical communicators.
If you are interested in finding out more about any of the volunteer opportunities or projects or would like to volunteer for something, please contact the volunteer coordinator.
