STC Montreal

The 2005-2006 STC season is drawing to a close and I’m amazed it’s already over. Every year, the all-volunteer STC-Montreal Executive Board plans a 10-month season of banquets, talks, activities, and seminars, for our members. This year we set very ambitious goals, and with hard work and perseverance, we have met or surpassed all of them.

What were some of this year’s highlights? STC-Montreal usually holds three banquets and seven talks during the season. The annual Wine & Cheese season kick-off at the charming Java U in Old Montreal had excellent ambiance, food, service, and turnout. At the end of the night, one of the staff said that we were one of the most “Zen” groups they’ve ever had. Was it therefore a coincidence to have the Christmas Banquet at the elegant ZEN Chinese restaurant? We broke with the tradition of an all-inclusive meal and drink package price, and simply let you handle your own tab and tip with the restaurant. Response to that was very positive, as was the response to everyone going home with a gift. I am really looking forward to the Spring banquet on June 15th at La Sala Rosa. Kudos to Marielle Carpenter, Poppy Quintal, and Paul Giovannetti, for finding and booking these great events, with all the considerations that need to be made for a group like ours.

We moved our meetings out of the Atwater Library and into the Ruby Foo’s hotel on Decarie. Your response to the more upscale location has been positive, and attendance at the talks has increased. Our speaker/topic line-up offered something for nearly everyone. Talks included Michael Samotis on Tax Issues for the Self-Employed, Maggie Kathwaroon on Connecting with End Users, Jane Smith on Performance Technology, Manny Gordon on Researching While you Write, Geoff Hart on Personas and the 5 W’s, David Deskin on Principles of Aesthetic Design, and I closed off the season with Falling into Technical Writing. Thanks go to Marielle Carpenter for organizing everything so flawlessly.

The 2005-2006 year also offered the most ambitious educational program in years. Our contagiously energetic and enthusiastic Education Coordinator, Linda Aikens, brought Jim Taylor from BC for a one-day seminar on 8-Step Editing. Then she imported STC Instructional Design SIG owner Jane Smith from Arizona to lead two one-day seminars on E-Learning and Instructional Design, respectively. Our incoming President, France Baril gave a two-day Introductory XML hands-on seminar. All the seminars were well attended and well received, and Linda is already working on ways to out-do herself next year. Such skill-updating workshops can really infuse you with energy and motivation, and this is what makes Technical Writing more than just a job.

The year couldn’t have been such a success without the continued dedication and hard work of all the Executive Board members. Our Treasurer, Lydia Shuster, kept the books balanced again this year. Past President, Jim Royal, kept you informed of all the STC-Montreal happenings by sending you our announcements. Ed Hawco, who has been keeping our web site updated for the past five years, is moving to a newly created STC-Montreal Archives Keeper position; so if you are in possession of any pieces of STC-Montreal lore or history, please pass them along to Ed for posterity. Karine Besson continued in the role of French Coordinator. Andy Gural, as Secretary, took minutes at the Executive meetings and kept them amusing (the meetings, I mean). Paul Giovannetti continued as Membership coordinator, and has taken on the new role of Hospitality Coordinator. The Board was also joined by Saul Carliner, as Senior Advisor (and the Voice of Experience). David Loveday, editor of Connections, oversaw the successful transition of our STC-Montreal newsletter from a paper mass-mailing to an e-newsletter this year.

I’d also like to introduce and welcome some new Executives to the STC-Montreal Board, who have already started to plan for next season. Diane Proulx is taking on the role of Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator. Mary Perchanok is our new Competitions Coordinator, so start planning for that! Mireille Ayotte is taking over the STC-Montreal website from Ed, and has big ideas for revamping our website during the summer hiatus.

France Baril got the ice broken at our banquets, coordinated our volunteers, and will shortly be introducing a very cool new service for STC-Montreal members. Please welcome her as our Incoming President. I have deep confidence that she will lead the STC-Montreal chapter to greater successes next year.

It is my tremendous pleasure to welcome Louis Beauregard as our new VP. Louis will be leading the rechartering of the Montreal Chapter with the STC in the coming months.

We have a very motivated and capable Executive Board going into next year. We also have a few open positions on the Board. The position of Newsletter Editor will be open after this issue of Connections. This is an excellent opportunity to learn and apply many technical writing skills with and for your peers. We have also created a new position for an Awards and Recognition Coordinator, whose responsibility is to seek out, nominate, and reward members of the Montreal Technical Writing community for their efforts and achievements. We will be needing judges for the Tech Pubs competition. If you can speak on a topic of interest to other Technical Writers, get in touch with us. If you would simply like to get more involved with the STC-Montreal community, let us know. And even if you don’t feel yourself moved to volunteer, I hope you will continue to come out to the banquets, evening talks, seminars and workshops, and continue to make the Montreal Technical Writing scene such an active and vibrant one.

I was trying to find a good way of saying that I’m sad to be leaving, but I’m not. Leaving, I mean. I am continuing to run the STC-Montreal Job Bank, which, by the way, has already posted 41 jobs so far in 2006, and I continue to be the contact person for the O’Reilly User Group, which gives us promotional copies of their books for review.

Many thanks for an awesome and rewarding year.