By Kirsty Taylor | STC President
One topic I’ve thought about a lot over the past 18 months is community, and all the forms in which community takes in our lives — coaching a cricket team, being on a basketball team, participating in a spiritual community, family or friends, local historical groups, games groups, gyms, hobby groups, and of course, professional organizations. How the global pandemic has changed where and perhaps when we work, how we spend our time, and how we keep, create, and deepen our professional networks.
For the last 15 years, my primary physical experience of the STC community has been attending the STC Summit. I suspect many of you would be surprised to discover I’ve never been to an in-person STC chapter meeting — because there were none for my country-wide chapter 20 years ago! (If you’d like to invite me your chapter’s virtual meeting, where I can join you remotely, please do.) As a consequence, I feel a strong urge to connect with other members online — it’s the easiest way to connect across time zones and locales.
For many of you, your local chapters are likely where you experience the community of STC. As physical gatherings continue to be tricky to negotiate, virtual connections with your STC communities are a way to stay connected with your STC colleagues and friends. In the past year, STC launched a Slack workspace, where members can interact with one another without needing to travel, at a time convenient to you, while tapping into global STC connections across time zones and locales. I’ve found the Slack a great way to connect, ask questions about Git, share links that I know are interesting primarily to other technical communicators, and share the occasional recipe, knitting project, or pet photo.
I invite you to join us on the STC Slack, if you’re not there already. Share your info, tell us what you’re working on, ask questions, and get the insights of the STC brains, share chapter events that other members may be able to join remotely, and perhaps even share a picture of your pets!
Do you have any ideas for other ways to virtually connect to STC members, current, past, and future? Or different ways of creating communities in 2021 and beyond? I’d love to hear your ideas! Send me an email or Slack message.
For information on how to join Slack, visit https://www.stc.org/membership/slack/
KIRSTY TAYLOR (ktaylor.stc@gmail.com) is the 2021-2022 president of STC. Her recurring column will provide updates and insights on Board activities and solicit member feedback to guide ongoing decision-making.
