At least one presidential election is over. Text stolen from DJCline.com.

After one of the wildest years of in my long membership of the Society for Technical Communication, a new Silicon Valley council was elected last week. It is a diverse group and I will write more about it as time goes by.

There is no typical volunteer. All sorts of people have stepped forward offering some of the most esoteric skill sets imaginable. They work for startups, IBM, Google or on their own. They are just out of their teens and long past retirement. According to STC HQ, this chapter retains more members than even the Boston chapter.

We are also attracting new members from around the world. One of the first questions I ask on the phone is “Where are you?” We do move around. At one point we had volunteers in Poland, Pakistan, North Carolina, Nevada, San Francisco, North Bay and down in Monterrey.

We’ve held council meetings with one person on the cell phone, others on Skype and the rest in person or online. We’ve had monthly speakers on the cutting edge of emerging technology and the carbon-based need to network. We had one speaker talk remotely, the first time that ever happened and a hint of what is to come.

The major overhaul of our website is entering a new beta phase. Visit the site, see what you think, and offer your solutions. Our goal is to reach out to all members and help them in their careers as technical communicators.

Copyright 2008 DJ Cline All rights reserved.

Posted by dj in Blumbers, Commentary [1,283 Views]