A Community Affair: Thanks for an Exciting Year!

Guest post by the Community Affairs Committee.

Over the 2011-2012 STC year, the Community Affairs Committee (CAC) achieved many goals and provided excellent services to our community leaders. It has been my privilege and pleasure to work with such dedicated and passionate leaders. This team worked very hard to provide the assistance and guidance that STC community leaders need. I want to thank each of the CAC Leads and teams for their efforts (in no particular order).

Vici Koster-Lenhardt served as co-chair for the CAC from May through January 2012. Her strategic vision and passion about developing community leaders provided the direction for the CAC over this last year. Without her dedication, vision, and support, the CAC would not be as focused and successful as it has been this past year.

Ben Woelk provided the vision and organization of our successful Outreach team for professional communities. This team proactively contacted (or attempted to contact) each of our existing communities to offer mentorship, a helping hand, and a sympathetic ear. I also wish to thank our fabulous Outreach Team: Ray Gallon, Anna Parker-Richards, Rhyne Armstrong, Fei Min Lorente, Paul Pehrson, Malu Schloss, Richard Mateosian, Jeanette Rogers, Lori Meyer, Judy Glick-Smith, Mollye Barrett, Donn DeBoard, and MaryKay Grueneberg.

If your community needs help, or if you’d like to help, contact us at cac@stc.org!

Dan Voss and Bethany Bowles led the Student Outreach initiative and Board-mandated Task Force, intended to increase student participation and retention in STC. This team had many successes this year and extremely high interest in mentoring programs at the 2012 Summit! A huge thank-you to the Task Force members: Aiessa Moyna, Steve Skojec, Lloyd Tucker, Greg Larsen, Sally Henshel, Elizabeth Pass, Christy Chilton, and Ray Gallon.

Ray Gallon led the Communications initiative. He coordinated our committee blog posts such as this one (A Community Affair), started a Twitter account, and monitored various social media sites. Ray’s team included: all other CAC Leads, Malu Schloss, and Kevin Cuddihy.

Richard Mateosian provided his experienced view to community leaders through the Communities in Transition initiative. Richard helped communities to put things into perspective.

Sarah Baca led the Leadership Resources and Handbook initiative. While this is an ongoing task, Sarah oversaw an updated STC Leadership Calendar, a Chapter Leaders Getting Started Guide, and many updates to the STC Leadership Resources web page. Sarah recently enlisted the help of Cindy Pao to continue updating more resources.

Anna Parker-Richards led the development and execution of the highly successful STC Summit Leadership Program for 2012. Her energy and enthusiasm helped the team deliver practical and immediately useful resources to community leaders. Anna’s team included: Paul Mueller, Steve Skojec, Lloyd Tucker, Elaine Gilliam, David McLennon, Dan Voss, Ben Woelk, Ray Gallon, Viqui Dill, Andrew Brooke, Mollye Barrett, Richard Lippincott, Carolyn Kelley Klinger, Taryn Light, Lori Meyer, Greg Larsen, Aiessa Moyna, and MaryKay Grueneberg.

Steve Skojec and Megan Fraser, working extremely hard in the STC office, provided the CAC with the much-needed link to STC information. They helped many communities with assistance in mergers, IRS issues, and numerous other issues. They also provided registration and hosting of the CAC Leaders’ Resource Webinar Series.

I would also like to thank the speakers of our Leaders’ Resource Webinar Series this past year. These generous folks include:  Ben Woelk, Kathryn Burton, Steve Skojec, Amy Vogt, Lori Meyer, Ann Wiley, Lloyd Tucker, Aiessa Moyna, Greg Larsen, Nicky Bleiel, Tom Barnett, Dale Erickson, Jeanette Rogers, MaryKay Grueneberg, Ray Gallon, Cindy Pao, and Timothy Esposito.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank all our community leaders and everyone else that helped the CAC this year! Your dedication and hard work deserves high praise and acknowledgement. Know that you are giving of yourself to improve the technical communicators in your communities, and as a result, the world at large!

What’s next?

• The CAC’s initiatives and organization are being tweaked for the 2012-2013 year. Keep an eye out for more information this summer. Some members are moving on to other projects, and we’re gathering new CAC members. As you can see from this article, MANY people contribute to MANY successes! Are you an experienced STC leader? We could use your help – contact cac@stc.org.
• Leadership Resources continue to be updated. Check out the Summit 2012 Leadership Program and all the information that was distributed there. (login required)
• The CAC is interested in input from community leaders. Send an email to cac@stc.org or post a discussion in the All Community Leaders Group in My STC.
• Follow us on Twitter: @STCCAC
• Like us on Facebook: STC Community Affairs Committee