27 Comments on “Should STC-Montreal Become an Independent Entity? How Independent?”

1. March 13th, 2010 at 7:07 pm  

   Posted by Ahmed Ibrahim.

   To me, this sounds like the Quebec Independence issue.

   In general, I think STC-Montreal is in a better state when affiliated to STC, even though some benefits of independence could be foreseen.

2. March 13th, 2010 at 7:24 pm  

   Posted by Geoff Hart.

   I see no benefit whatsoever from “separating” from STC’s international organization. We would end up in essentially the same situation we are currently in, but with no international organization to handle the details of membership for us, no access to STC’s SIGs or publications, and no reduced rates on any of STC’s conferences or workshops. Also, none of the intangibles that result from membership in an international organization.

   All of the advantages of being independent can be obtained while working within the existing STC regulations (or bending them slightly). For example, the biggest criticism of STC seems to be that they’re slow sending us the chapter payment, and will now only send us money we specifically request. We can solve that problem simply by asking members to not join the chapter when they renew STC membership, and to instead pay the same $10 membership fee directly to the chapter treasurer. Problem solved. If we want more money to fund chapter activities, do what we did while I was president (and beforehand): offer workshops or even mini-conferences that earn a profit that goes directly into our bank account.

   Note that if we present a compelling case to STC, they will provide money beyond what our chapter membership merits (e.g., to host a regional conference). We have not taken advantage of that in the past; if we separate, we lose that option in the future.

   I have yet to hear any major problem that we’re trying to solve through separation, or any compelling advantage that would result from separation. In the absence of either a major problem or major advantage, why are we even raising this question? There are much easier solutions.

3. March 13th, 2010 at 11:11 pm  

   Posted by Usha Thakur.

   If we take a historical view then individual chapters draw a great deal of strength from the fact that STC is an international organization. Members have the freedom to affiliate to any chapter they wish and yet stay in touch with the wider community. Separation may be appealing to those who have never sort (or are seeking or will never seek) jobs outside of their local chapters. In todays mobile world we all are looking for ways to stay connected beyond where we stay.

4. March 14th, 2010 at 8:19 am  

   Posted by Michel Di Stefano.

   I have a question. What percentage of the $395.00 US membership fee goes to headquarters and what percentage of that money stays within the Montréal chapter?
   Also, do any members of the and supporters know any candidates of the upcoming elections at the international level? And what exactly are they offering the Canadian chapters?
   And, do any members of the Montréal chapter go to the international conference every single year? If not, the cost difference is minimal for non-member, if they are not already paid for by the enployers.
   Does anyone read the boring and repetitive STC magazines?
   Will STC international be around in five or ten years?
   In this mobile world, quality international job posting are everywhere including Linkedin, and you don’t have to send you money to STC International.
   With a little imagination and creativity, the Montréal chapter can offer the same services as the international level at a lessor cost, and remain connected with the rest of the world.
   Going out on our own does not equate to isolation.

5. March 14th, 2010 at 8:21 am  

   Posted by Michel Di Stefano.

   oops…a few grammatical errors. Mia culpa.

6. March 14th, 2010 at 10:11 am  

   Posted by Jim Royal.

   @Ahmed
   @Geoff
   @Usha

   I appreciate that STC membership still has value for people. Unfortunately, those people who are still members are a very small percentage of the technical writers in Montreal. STC’s membership numbers are now about 40% of what they were a year ago, and a tiny fraction of what they were five years ago.

   The vital question we’re facing is: Where will the money come from to pay for services?

   Almost certainly, the money will not come from STC. There has been almost no money for STC-Montreal from head office for years, and now there is none at all.

   @Michel: What part of the $395 USD membership fee goes to the local chapter? None. Zip. Rein. Nada.

   So, STC-Montreal has to become 100% self-supporting if it is going to continue providing services to the Montreal community. That means a new business plan, new products and services to offer, and a new fee structure for access to those new services.

   To me, this sounds exactly like launching a new business. The alternative is for STC-Montreal to eventually run out of money and close up shop.

   You may be asking, why couldn’t STC-Montreal launch this news business plan while still remaining part of STC?

   That might very well be feasible, and that possibility is what this discussion is about. I see a few potential obstacles, however:

   First is whether STC would allow it. If I were running STC, and I saw that local chapters were selling their own memberships at the expense of STC memberships, and not remitting that money to STC, I’d put a stop to it. Any local chapter that was selling their own memberships would be, by definition, eating STC’s lunch. It would be using the STC brand to sell a competing service.

   Second, if STC allowed it, would that money legally belong to STC-Montreal? This goes to the point that Geoff made above. The goal of launching such an initiative would be to keep the money in Montreal and invest it in better services and better marketing in order to grow the local community. However, STC has insisted that the chapters remit not just membership dues, but all money earned from STC-related events, too.

   Third, I’m thinking of the morale of the volunteers. Part of the problem with STC and STC-Montreal is that the current structure of fee and service is inhibiting creative thinking and growth. You all know from your own work experience that organizational change cannot be piecemeal. A bad corporate structure inhibits enthusiasm and the willingness to try new things.

   Please correct me if I’m wrong about any of the above.

   And if you have suggestions about how to work around these obstacles, please contribute.

7. March 14th, 2010 at 1:30 pm  

   Posted by Ev Larsen.

   Thanks for your comments, everyone. This question is being asked now, in this format, because now is when it changes for everyone in STC – like it or not.

   The major problem that Geoff refers to is the funding hiatus now in place across the entire Society. The STC has been slow to fund this chapter in past years, and did not fund this group in 2009 and 2010. To answer Michel’s post, all member dues money (Society and chapter fees) goes to the STC.

   Society membership has been declining for several years, and has just taken a big plunge. Jim’s 40% reduction figure may actually be optimistic. The Society’s financial commitments, however, have not taken a similar dramatic plunge. That is why their leadership asked chapters to return surplus funds, why they are reviewing all local chapter and SIG budgeting, and why our group needs to consider – right now – what we need to do to continue serving our local community. What is desirable, and what is even possible right now?

   STC’s leaders are working hard, and in good faith, to stabilize their financial situation but in the meantime if Montreal members want continued chapter services then we in chapter leadership must decide what services (and how many) we can provide for ourselves. That’s why these responses are important, and why I hope more members (and potential members) will join in the discussion here. STC Montreal has always been focused on providing support and services to the area technical communications community. Please let us know what level of support and programming you’d like to see from your local chapter.

   Thanks for all the comments so far!

8. March 15th, 2010 at 9:31 am  

   Posted by Gordon Graham.

   To me the unanswered question is this: Why is STC membership dropping?

   I submit that it’s because the industry has changed. There is less need for user-level “click OK” software documentation, so there is less need for technical writers in general; the recession has meant many layoffs so people have not renewed their membership; and to some extent the STC leadership has not dealt effectively with these changes.

   What makes STC-Montreal immune to these challenges? Why re-invent the wheel?

   I agree with Geoff’s suggestion: charge an independent chapter fee, and run fund-raising events.

   And here’s another one: have a non-STC membership rate for people who ONLY want to belong to STC-Montreal and NOT the international STC. That fee could easily be $50 or $95, and a couple dozen of those memberships would add up quickly.

   That would enable the chapter to retain its international links for those who want those, and to have some independent operations at the same time.

9. March 15th, 2010 at 4:15 pm  

   Posted by Marta Cepek.

   STC used to publish society and chapter membership numbers on its website. These numbers stopped being posted in 2007, so the numbers I have for 2008-2010 are extracted from STC-Montreal member rosters.

   2001 231 total, 64 srm, 151 mem, 16 stm
   2002 198 total, 83 srm, 104 mem, 11 stm
   2003 190 total, 91 srm, 84 mem, 15 stm
   2004 183 total, 92 srm, 83 mem, 8 stm
   2005 153 total, 78 srm, 70 mem, 5 stm
   2006 131 total, 75 srm, 55 mem, 1 stm
   2007 146 total, 87 srm, 57 mem, 2 stm
   2008 121 total, 75 srm, 42 mem, 4 stm
   2009 107 total, 72 srm, 32 mem, 2 stm
   Today 56 total, 38 srm, 17 mem, 1 stm

   srm = senior member (count includes Fellows and Associate Fellows)
   mem = member (>5 years paying dues)
   stm = student

   The above numbers are specific to the Montreal chapter but not unique to it. The other chapters have seen the same trend of steady decline for the last 10 years, until the sudden 50% drop this year as a result of the dues increase. The 2005 drop in Student membership is most likely due to Concordia’s closing its Continuing Education Certificate in Technical Writing program that year.

   I don’t think all lapsed members have been laid off, left the field, moved away, retired, or otherwise vanished. I think the majority of them are still in technical writing or a related field, but that the value proposition of being an STC member is just not worth the US$210+ annual price tag ($0 of which subsidizes local chapter services).

   My theory is that membership has declined over the years because STC has not responded to the changing needs of its membership, the employment marketplace and economy, or the emerging tools and technologies that enable our work and communication in general. The annual Conference / Summit serves a minority of members that have the means to attend, yet a disproportionately large percentage of the STC’s operating budget is tied up in it. Initiatives that could have met the needs of more members have been overlooked or under-developed.

   For example, STC, as a worldwide association of working professionals, was uniquely poised to define and administer technical writing standards and criteria for various specialized TW skill sets. STC could have developed and controlled an international technical writing certification system, but for these many years, it has done little to advance accreditation, even back when it had the resources of a 16,000+ worldwide membership.

   So now that STC has lost roughly half of its members, being volunteer-driven, it has taken a giant hit and has a great deal of work to do to recover. One upside of this near-collapse is that it has stimulated a grassroots movement of active and vibrant communities like ours. While STC works to reinvent itself over the next few years, Montreal (and the other Canadian chapters) will not be receiving any support from the society. We are basically on our own.

   I think the leaders of the Montreal chapter should focus on local networking opportunities, information sessions, workshops, and employment services, and offer some new services, too. As the number of contracting opportunities overtakes the number of permanent job postings, I’d like to see a fee-based public registry of technical writers, similar to what the Editors Association of Canada (EAC) or Indexing Society of Canada (ISC) have for their members. I’d like to see more talks, tips, and perspectives on working as a contractor compared to working as an employee. I’d like to see more senior Montreal technical writers give presentations related to their area of expertise, their best practices, or working in their industry/sector. I’d like to see the Tech Pubs competition every couple of years, to get constructive feedback on my work, and to have a chance to see what kind of of work my peers are producing. I’d like to see more inter-association events that allow us to expand our contacts and skill sets to overlapping fields. I’d like to see affordable, well-attended workshops that are pertinent to the Montreal technical writing market, and that generate revenue for the chapter, so that we can continue to have all of these services with OR without membership in the international STC.

   When and if the STC recovers enough to offer international services worth paying for, Montreal technical writers will be in the fortunate position of having even more choices.

   Marta Cepek
   2005-2006 STC-Montreal Past President

10. March 15th, 2010 at 9:31 pm  

    Posted by Michel Di Stefano.

    Very well written Marta. This is what I meant by creativity and imagination. I am not thrilled by what is happening to STC International and I do hope that they will recover. There is, however, an upside to all this.
    I think that the vibrant and dynamic chapters, like Montréal, will pull out all the stops to redefine themselves in this changing world of technical communications.
    It is an opportunity to show what we can do, and not be dependent on STC International to “take care” of us.
    This situation is forcing us to remove the rose-coloured glasses.
    Bravo.

11. March 16th, 2010 at 1:09 pm  

    Posted by Jim Royal.

    Good stuff, Marta. Let me float another specific idea following up on Geoff and Gordon’s suggestions.

    The chapter almost certainly needs to offer a local-only membership at a lower price in order to remain solvent (although I have a caveat about that, see below). In order to justify a local-only membership fee, the chapter would have to produce more content than it does now, and broadened its audience.

    With the close of the STC Ottawa chapter, and the absence of any STC presence in Quebec City, STC-Montreal could move the bulk of its presentations online, and welcome subscriptions from more far-flung locations. Evening lectures would transform into daytime webinars, and podcasts. The monthly evening events, which are vital for local writers to meet and socialize, could become more focused on networking.

    My guesstimate would be that the chapter would have to double its educational output to make a local membership fee attractive. This would require the chapter to secure commitments from speakers further in advance and in greater numbers. That won’t be easy. However, the logistical effort for each presentation would be somewhat reduced, as most of these would be online presentations.

    I feel that a dramatic change in how STC-Montreal services the community would be necessary in order for the community to sit up and take notice. People won’t pay much attention to the same old thing.

    Here’s my caveat: As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am not certain if the Society will allow all this. From the Society’s point of view, the chapter would have a split focus and a conflict of interest. They may insist that the money earned be sent to the Society rather than be reinvested in the chapter.

    Another thought: With the number of paying STC members now a fraction of what they once were, has the pool of eligible volunteers become too small? As long as STC-Montreal represents the Society, the officers must be STC members.

12. March 16th, 2010 at 1:58 pm  

    Posted by Patrick Bayne.

    @Jim

    Would it not be possible to have volunteers who are not “officers” of STC Montreal? This could get us past the requirement that “officers” must be STC members.

    Pat

13. March 16th, 2010 at 2:19 pm  

    Posted by Patrick Bayne.

    @Marta

    Every time my membership has come up for renewal over the last few years, I’ve asked myself whether it was worth it to remain an STC member. I too have found that the STC seemed to be losing their relevance. On the other hand the STC Montreal has made the effort to remain relevant and vibrant over the last few years and it is because of this that I have continued to be a member of the STC.

    Pat

14. March 17th, 2010 at 10:06 am  

    Posted by Jim Royal.

    @Pat: It is certainly possible for some of the chapter’s volunteers to be non-members. However, anyone who has to deal with the chapter’s money must be an STC member in good standing. That is both a requirement from the Society and a legal requirement.

15. March 19th, 2010 at 2:17 pm  

    Posted by David Hickey.

    The STC is *only* relevant to me at the local level, so knowing that my local chapter receives nothing of my $400 US membership fee does not make me want to be an STC member. To my way of thinking, my membership benefits people who have decided to cut us loose. Bushwah on them, I say.

    I do, however, want to support my local community of technical writers. Forming our own society or allowing people to belong to STC-Montreal and NOT the international STC are both ideas I could support.

    The Montreal chapter of the STC has consistently remained vibrant and relevant because of the dedication and efforts of its *local* members, not because of the STC Mothership in the far-flung US of eh.

    If the ROI from a $400 membership is minimal, then why pay it? In these difficult economic times, maybe it’s time for the Montreal community to refocus, reorganize, and re-invent itself into something that responds to OUR needs and not THEIR needs.

16. March 21st, 2010 at 1:59 pm  

    Posted by Ev Larsen.

    @Marta
    Thanks so much for publishing those historic membership levels. STC Montreal is large and diverse enough to have consistently tracked membership trends across the larger Society. From my informal contacts with other chapter leaders our renewal trend this year matches theirs quite closely. Published numbers on the STC.org website also agree.

    Draw your own trend line for this data, folks. If you do so you’ll see the high probability of a deep crater out about two or three years where the Society used to be.

17. April 1st, 2010 at 1:09 am  

    Posted by Chris in Ottawa.

    The Ottawa/newbie perspective:

    As an Ottawan, I’m disappointed, if not dumbfounded, that STC Eastern Ontario is moribund when the capital, the self-described “Silicon Valley North,” boasts thousands of workers in government and high tech. As someone who is new to the STC, having only joined as a student last year and become a full member this year, I found it disheartening not to have any local support from my professional association when I needed it the most — when I was trying to get started in the profession. This is why, when I upgraded to the full membership, I didn’t join a chapter. Why would I? Mine is defunct and the nearest Canadian chapters are either five hours or another province away.

    That being said, I do intend to join STC-Montreal. The president has already made me feel welcome by encouraging me to attend meetings and participate online. If Montreal were to officially reach out to Ottawa, I suspect that others left forlorn by the STC will want to join and get involved, even if the chapter “separates.” (If it helps, think of it as reaching out to Ottawa-Gatineau, instead of to Eastern Ontario; after all, a portion of the National Capital Region’s government offices and high-tech companies are located across the river in Gatineau.)

    Thanks for letting me have a say!

18. April 5th, 2010 at 10:13 am  

    Posted by Geoff Hart.

    Michel Di Stefano wondered: “What percentage of the $395.00 US membership fee goes to headquarters and what percentage of that money stays within the Montréal chapter?”

    First, a quick correction: STC has several different levels of membership, and the basic membership is “only” $222.50, not the $400 several people have been mentioning. As technical communicators, we need to remember to get the facts right.

    The answer to your question is more complicated than several respondents have suggested. Although none of this basic membership fee goes directly to the chapter, you have to remember that much of it goes to employing the staffers who process membership renewals, send out mailings, organize conferences and workshops, and do other bureaucratic functions such as filing tax returns that benefit all members. This work also ensures that STC is a registered educational charity so that you can deduct your membership fee from your taxes.

    It’s important to remember that if STC isn’t doing this administrivia for us, someone local needs to be doing it. Are you willing to volunteer, Michel? It’ll take far more time than you might think. (I say this as past-president of STC Montreal.) STC Montreal has always had the problem of having more great ideas than we have people to implement them. The few volunteers we do have tend to burn out from the workload after a couple years, except for a few marathoners like Marta and Ev.

    It’s also important to correct a huge misconception about the $25 chapter membership fee. In theory, a chapter that submits a plan to STC for $25 worth of budgeted activities per member will receive 100% of this $25 from STC. (Probably more slowly than we’d like, but the money will eventually arrive, and will arrive faster if you nag them politely. Janet Warne used to get us our money reasonably quickly when I was president; she was polite but tenacious.) This budgeting approach represents sound fiscal management for STC or any other organization, but it’s not so great for the chapters: if we don’t budget for $25 per member of activities, any unbudgeted amount remains in STC’s hands. That’s great for STC, but it reduces our available funds.

    The obvious solution for STC Montreal and other chapters is to ask members to not pay the chapter fee to STC, and to instead pay that fee directly to their chapter. That puts the funds immediately in chapter hands, without having to ask anyone for permission about how to spend those funds. The downside is that this increases work for the chapter treasurer, and not all treasurers will have time to take on this additional work. As well, local chapters may not be able to issue tax receipts. Ev, will this become possible once the chapters incorporate under Canadian law?

    Michel: “Also, do any members of the and supporters know any candidates of the upcoming elections at the international level?”

    I know most of the Board members and elected officials, and I know some of them quite well. People like Char James-Tanny, Rich Maggiani, and Mak Pandit are near-friends who would be real friends if I saw them more often. I have complete confidence in their expertise and that of the others I know less well, such as Mike Hughes. I think I’ve talked to everyone on the board and all the election candidates at some point or another during conferences. (Frankly, some of the main value I get from conferences comes from picking the brains of people like this.)

    <>

    Access to the resources of an international organization that includes some of the smartest people in our profession. Whether you take advantage of these resources is up to you; I do so quite regularly, as in my example (above) for conferences. Some of this access could be had without being a member; STC members are famous for being willing to offer good advice at no cost, and if you’re willing to do the research, you can hunt them down yourself and contact them privately. I’ve found this easier as a member, particularly at conferences, but it’s not impossible to get to know these people as a non-member.

    Michel: “do any members of the Montréal chapter go to the international conference every single year? If not, the cost difference is minimal for non-member, if they are not already paid for by the enployers.”"

    Because I pay my own costs, I only go every couple years. But again, get your facts straight about costs. The cost difference between member and non-member is US$350 for early-bird registration, versus $250 now–that is, it’s significantly more than the basic membership cost, particularly if you book early. So if you do plan to attend, joining STC will save you more money than you spend on membership. Workshop costs at the conference have a similar price differential, so if a particular workshop is particularly important to your education, that alone may justify the membership cost.

    <>

    I skim Intercom and a couple SIG newsletters. I agree there’s a lot of repetition, and that much of the material is fairly basic. I hope that you find my articles more useful than most; if not, drop me a line privately saying why. I’m a sucker for good constructive criticism. Many of my articles are now being used as teaching aids in university courses, but if (for example) you find them too basic, I could start thinking about writing more advanced and challenging articles.

    It’s also worth noting that Technical Communication (the journal) is worth skimming. Most of the articles aren’t directly relevant to most of us non-academics, but I regularly find articles with direct relevance to my work. Many articles either teach me something new, or give me confidence that I’m on the right track when I recommend or use a specific technique. Rarely, something comes along that convinces me to change what I’ve been doing because I’ve been doing it wrong. It’s worth keeping up with the state of the art in this way so we can learn new things and correct old bad habits, but most people don’t make the time to do so.

    Michel: “Will STC international be around in five or ten years?”

    I’m betting they will be, and that in 10 years, they’ll be much more useful to members than they have been in the past. Right now, they’re in survival mode, but now that the society has been pruned back to its smallest size in decades, I expect fairly vigorous regrowth. In particular, all the board members I’ve talked to are keenly aware that STC has lost relevance to many members over the years, and they’re hoping to solve that problem in coming years… and now that STC has survived its crisis, they’ll have time to do so.

    If you want them to succeed, write to each of them and tell them how to make STC relevant to you. My experience has been that they’re eager to make changes of this sort; remember, most of them are working technical communicators too, and will empathize with your concerns. For example, a couple years ago, I persuaded them (with help from then-Board member John Hedtke) to radically revise their copyright policy to leave copyright for articles in the hands of the authors. (STC is one of the few publishers that now does this.) This took less than a month to ram through once John and I worked out details of the proposal. More complicated changes take correspondingly longer, but if you’re patient, you can have a direct effect on how STC works: present a compelling proposal, help to implement it, and you’ll see the desired changes.

19. April 6th, 2010 at 7:09 am  

    Posted by Michel Di Stefano.

    Geoff,
    As a technical writer, I pride myself on getting the facts straight. The figures I put forward come from the STC site. So far, everyone seems to have a different number for STC membership and conference costs.
    As technical writers, it is also important to be clear and concise. Perhaps the STC should rewrite part of their site to make it clear and concise.
    As far as the rest of your arguments, they seem to apply only to you – which is commendable. However, the rest of us do not seem to share many of your points.
    I too was a senior member of STC for many years, more than I care to remember. However, as long as I have to send $200, “only” $222.50, $395.00, or $400.00 to an organization that has lost its relevance through its own fault, you will not see me reviving my membership anytime soon.
    I am also past president of the Instrument Society of America; I have a very good idea the amount of work that is required to run a chapter.
    I will however remain a faithful supporter of this dynamic and wonderful chapter (I know that wonderful is an empty word, but it just seems to fit here).
    P.S. I would be very interested in reading some of your articles, not to critique them but to learn from them. Send them along; I will read them.

20. April 9th, 2010 at 5:24 pm  

    Posted by Geoff Hart.

    The value of $215 for basic membership can be seen towards the bottom of the page, under the heading “Dues Information”. Whether you get enough value to justify that cost is, of course, a personal decision. The conference costs are at , and as I noted, the cost differential for non-members is more than the cost of this basic membership.

    I too support STC Montreal, and paid the $25 chapter membership fee to do so. (Sorry, Ev! )

    You can see my complete list of publications at . A majority (though by no means all) have appeared in STC publications.

21. April 9th, 2010 at 5:27 pm  

    Posted by Geoff Hart.

    Oops! The links appear to have disappeared. Here they are again (I hope):

    STC dues: http://www.stc.org/membership/renew-your-stc-membership.asp

    Conference fees: http://conference.stc.org/

    My publications: http://www.geoff-hart.com/articles/bibliography.html

22. April 10th, 2010 at 12:46 pm  

    Posted by Ev Larsen.

    Thanks to all for your active discussion in these comments. There’s a lot of good information here, and a lot of energy for continuing STC Montreal activities in some form. I see a consensus of opinion in favour of some kind of two-tiered dues structure, with a local membership option as well as the current STC International rate. This preference was also expressed in our recent mailing list survey.

    Anecdotally, I hear a similar drumbeat. I just started working on a contract at Bombardier Transport. Their docs group in St-Bruno is as large or larger than all of STC Montreal’s current membership. I met a couple of former chapter activists there, and when I them asked about rejoining, they were clear – the value received doesn’t match the price point, not even close. They were, however, quite interested in some sort of a local dues option.

    Consider this firm, plus the local Autodesk, Ericsson, SAP, Bell (telecom and helicopter), Bombardier Aerospace, IBM, Positron, Oracle, and SITA facilities – to name just a few off the top of my head, and the Montreal region could easily generate several hundred members for an energized STC Montreal chapter if membership price matched the value. Our next step as a chapter is to explore how (and when) to offer such a two-tiered membership option, and how to coordinate it with our chapter budgeting.

    Thanks again for the good comments, and stay tuned (and involved).

23. April 10th, 2010 at 2:23 pm  

    Posted by Geoff Hart.

    If you could get 100 members to join at $25 each, that would give us a really good starting budget for local activities. So I definitely encourage you to bounce this proposal off Bombardier’s staff to see what they think. If they like the idea, then we can ask locals to contact any non-member colleagues and ask them if they’d join at that price point too.

24. April 11th, 2010 at 2:22 pm  

    Posted by Chris in Ottawa.

    Would any local fee be in addition to the $25 chapter fee paid to the STC, or would it be replacing it? In other words, is it possible to be chapterless at the international level, but be a paying member at the local level? (I’d like to know whether I’m joining the Montreal chapter via the STC, or just locally.)

    Thanks again!

25. April 14th, 2010 at 6:45 pm  

    Posted by Ev Larsen.

    @Chris
    Good question, thanks! This is what we’re wrestling with at our Administrative Council level, and what we’re discussing among the leadership of the six Canadian chapters as well.

    Much of our constituency is asking for a local-only option ($25-100 or so) for access to local events, services and benefits only. At the same time, we’d like to continue to participate in the larger organization and also support the STC’s $200+ dues structure to give those who opt for it complete international access. Can we have it both ways? Are we wanting to eat our cake as we fight to preserve it? I don’t know, but I think we can do both if we’re careful to cross our consonants and dot our vowels as we proceed. It’s a learning process all around, and may ultimately come down to delivering only what a clear majority wants – that’s one theory of democracy.

    You should move down from Ottawa, Chris, and help us debate this in person. (Just kidding, but this is where the real fun lies as we keep moving ahead.)

26. April 17th, 2010 at 6:49 am  

    Posted by Jim Royal.

    Geoff’s comment above, in which he provides a handful of tech-writing links, got caught in the spam filter. I’ve restored the comment. Sorry it took so long, Geoff!

27. April 22nd, 2010 at 12:32 pm  

    Posted by Chris in Ottawa.

    @Ev
    Considering my girlfriend lives here, I may be changing my name to “Chris in Montreal.”

    People might find this interesting: http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2009/05/25/stc-torontos-new-five-and-five-chapter-model/ . It’s a May 2009 podcast from Tom Johnson’s I’d Rather Be Writing, titled “STC Toronto’s New Five-and-Five Chapter Model,” in which the then-incoming president discusses her chapter’s event-driven model.

Leave a Reply