Today we bring you another look “Inside the Board,” from members of the STC Board of Directors on various topics of interest. Today, Karen Baranich gives members an early notice that changes are being brought to the STC competitions in 2010. She also invites any interested parties to contact her if you'd like to volunteer.
Competitions
I’ve been an STC member for 11 years, and for every one of those years I’ve been a judge or manager of the STC competitions. Competitions are near and dear to my heart, and for me, they are the premier professional development opportunity offered by STC. So, you can imagine my distress when I realized that over the last few years the competitions were floundering. It’s harder to find volunteers and judges. Entries are declining too. Some of this may be due to the economy. Some of it may be due to busy lives. Some of it, though, may be related to the fact that the design of the competitions has not evolved and grown in response to changes in our industry.
In 2010, the competitions are changing.
I can’t give you all the details because we are still working on things—and probably will be up right up until the rollout at the Summit—but I can tell you a few things. First, we are moving from competitions focused on media—Art, Pubs, and Online—to a design focused on the audience and purpose of the entry. This allows for more flexibility in the types of entries that we receive. It also lets us recruit judges that are content experts. The management structure is changing as well. At the Society level, we will appoint a team of managers with functional responsibilities. These will probably include a general manager and managers of judging, entries, and publicity/communication. New entry and judging forms that reflect the changes are in the works.
The team working on the redesign recognizes that competitions can be a valuable source of income for chapters. We also realize that not all chapters conduct competitions the same way—one size doesn’t fit all. Based on this, we are working to create a system that provides resources to and supports local competitions while establishing a viable Society-level competition. Chapters will be able to change to the new design, keep what they are accustomed to using, or create something new. We hope that people will see value in the new design and transition, but if not, they don’t have to change.
There’s a lot more to come, but most details won’t be available until the rollout at the STC Summit. The team working on this is just great and very dedicated. We should have a great product for you, and I hope you will be as excited as I am. If you are interested in participating in the redesign process, there’s still lots to be done, so contact me if you would like to lend a hand. I know that after reading this you may have some questions. Please feel free to post to the blog, but be aware that this is a work in progress and we may not have answers for you right now. More to come!