Renew My STC Membership Again? Why Should I?

The following post is by Lisa Pietrangeli, candidate for Director in the 2015 STC elections.

Why did you renew your STC membership this year? Did you pay for your membership habitually or feel obligated to do so?

Do you ever question the value that membership provides your life, career, and company? Do you feel like you offer value as a member to other STC members? (‘Cuz it goes both ways, you know.)

Do you need to be a member of STC?

I was recently chatting with a friend and peer who has been a member of STC for over 25 years. She told me that she seriously questioned renewing her membership this year. That she was really unsure what value STC offers her or what value she brings STC. You would think that she is the perfect composite of an STC member – She’s successful, intelligent, and accomplished; operating as her own business for nearly 3 decades.

In short, STC needs her and she needs STC. But it seems that both may have lost sight as to why.

When I learned that I had been nominated for a Board of Director position with STC, I was unsure what value I could provide to the society. It is now clear to me. My vision is to help revitalize STC’s value proposition to our membership, to our companies, and to our industry as a whole.

Remember when your company used to pay for your membership and to attend Summit? For some of you, that’s still a perk. But for most, it is not. We need to remind companies why they should encourage and support STC membership for their writers. What’s in it for them, you ask? Access. Access to:

• Relevant, current, industry-driving information
• Certified, highly skilled technical communicators
• State-of-the-art technology developed to improve productivity and quality
• Improved methods for writing, working with remote teams, and impacting the bottom line
• And on and on and on…

STC has so much to offer…we just keep forgetting to tell anyone.

As a member of the Board of Directors, I would love the opportunity to help STC regain what we’ve lost and mend where we have disconnected. We can bring all of the powerful tools, information, and people that STC has at its fingertips back into the limelight. Let’s shout it from the rooftops together!

Our mission? To make STC membership renewal an exciting milestone. A career boosting decision. And, an unquestionable, valuable means for access to everything we need as technical communicators.

For the record, my friend did renew. Let’s hold up our end of the bargain…I have no doubt she’ll uphold hers.

Voting for STC elections starts 16 March and ends 6 April. Check out more about election candidates on the STC election site, or ask a question on the election forum.