Mel's Final Flight

by Mel Haughton, Immediate Past President

When I look back at our laundry list of accomplishments this year, I’m quite speechless. I’m going to list as many as I can in this article. Remember that I didn’t do this alone. I had a wonderful council of amazing people behind me. Without all these wonderful people, the LSC would not be what it is today.

Received International Recognition

• Distinguished Chapter Achievement Award. Every year, STC provides an opportunity for geographic and virtual (like the special interest groups, or SIGs) communities to apply for the Community Achievement Award (CAA). The CAA recognizes both communities for their accomplishments in that specific program year. The Distinguished honor is given to only one community per size category. This year we directly competed against Atlanta, Orlando, and Phoenix. And we won for our category, which is between 150 and 300 members. Why should you care? Because you belong to the best community in this category! That means we’ve been internationally recognized for our outstanding programs, volunteer effort, and educational opportunities. YOU get to reap all the rewards for being a member of the LSC!
  
  
• Honor of Becoming a Fellow. Elizabeth Bailey became a Fellow of STC at the May 15 Awards Banquet in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The rank of fellow is conferred only upon associate fellows who have attained such eminence in the field of technical communication that the board, by a two-thirds vote of all members, deems them worthy of being singled out as one of the select few who have distinguished the Society and the profession.
  
  
• Honor of Becoming an Associate Fellow. Kathryn Poe and Doug Dow became Associate Fellows of STC at the May 15 Awards Banquet in Minneapolis. The rank of associate fellow is conferred only upon a senior member who has attained distinction in the field of technical communication. Senior members may not apply for the rank of associate fellow; they must be nominated by a committee composed of fellows and associate fellows.
  
  
• Best of Show Newsletter. Technically Write received the Best of Show award this year. Newsletters play an integral role in communicating news and information between STC communities, SIGs, and their members. They also help members and non-members develop an interest in Society goals and activities at both the community and Society levels. The STC newsletter competition honors community and SIG newsletter producers who strive to achieve these goals and excel in newsletter publication. Thanks to Doug Dow for his hard work on the newsletter the past five years, and thanks to Jackie Damrau for taking over the duty as Newsletter Manager.
  
  
• Distinguished Public Relations Award. The STC public relations competition recognizes the effectiveness of communities and SIGs in sustained or special-event public relations efforts. Good public relations programs enhance the image of STC and our profession in the view of employers and the general public. This year, our community received an award of distinction for its efforts. Thanks to Lauren Womack for her outstanding work.
  
  
• LCR Volunteer of the Year. The STC Leadership Community Resource (LCR) committee provides sponsorship to communities, mentoring and training to community and Society leaders, and help for communities in crisis. At STC’s Leadership Day on May 13, 2007, this Committee awarded our own Jackie Damrau the LCR Volunteer of the Year Award. Congratulations, Jackie!
  
  
• Distinguished Chapter Service Awards. The Distinguished Chapter Service Awards acknowledge the work of community members who provide exemplary service to the Society through their dedication to the local community and its activities. STC awarded three Distinguished Chapter Service Awards this program year. Jackie Damrau, Jeanne Foster, and Paul Holland.
  

Organized a Successful Region 5 Conference
We successfully organized the Region 5 Conference held in November 2006. We had 118 attendees, and we made $2411.77. During the Conference, we held a silent auction to raise scholarship funds. Several vendors donated products, and we raised $1300 in scholarship money.

Provided Educational, Scholarship, and Mentoring Opportunities

• Scholarship Opportunities. We awarded five $1000 traditional education scholarships to area students in the fall semester. In the spring semester, we awarded one $500 continuing education scholarship—a brand new scholarship we’re now offering—and two $1000 traditional education scholarships. This means we awarded $7500 in scholarship money this program year.
  
  
• Mentoring Opportunities. We also revived our mentoring program and worked in conjunction with University of North Texas (UNT) students to create a new mentoring brochure.
  
  
• Educational Opportunities.
• On January 31, we sponsored a brown bag session on e-portfolios at the University of North Texas (UNT). Past President Louellen S. Coker taught UNT technical writing students how to put together a portfolio. This event also allowed us to advertise our mentoring program. Fifteen students attended the event.
  
  
• Our council members worked closely with Mr. Donny West, Technical Writing lecturer at the University of Texas at Dallas. His students interviewed our council members to find out what we do every day as technical communicators.
  
  
• The LSC served as a corporate sponsor for the Dallas BEST competition. We provided judges for the competition's’ technical binder evaluation and gave monetary awards for first, second, and third places to three area schools.

Held Successful Competitions and Award Banquet
We held successful competitions and Jackie Damrau did a great job as Competitions Manager. Our Awards Banquet in January had more than 60 attendees. It was a lively night.

Organized Fun Events
We organized several networking luncheons and other social events. On July 13, 2006, we also had our first ever Meet ‘n’ Greet, where Clare Davis, Vice President of MLink Technologies, shared with the audience the four critical success factors of eLearning. A free meeting for everyone that was held at La Madeleine (where we usually hold our council meetings). We were impressed by the number of people who came! We were expecting about 15, and 31 people showed up.  

Heather Steele, incoming Second VP, also organized a mixer in Denton on March 21, 2007 for UNT students to meet technical writing professionals. This was a great opportunity for students to ask questions and network with people in our profession.

Recognized our Wonderful Volunteers

During the previous program year, we created the Binion Amerson Leadership Award (BALA), which recognizes enthusiastic dedication, willingness to accept challenging goals, and inspiring leadership in service to the Lone Star Community. LSC members may nominate a community member through a written description of his or her achievements relative to the Award criteria, after which a panel of judges identifies the BALA recipient. In May 2006, we awarded this honor to Binon Amerson himself. This year, during the Region 5 Conference, the BALA was awarded to Jackie Damrau for her outstanding contributions to the LSC.

We also developed the LSC SuperStar program. We worked with the Orlando Chapter to create a point system and to praise our volunteers. From August 1, 2006 to June 1, 2007, members received points each time they participated in LSC activities. Points are based upon the activity and its point value. A member needs a total of 20 points to be an LSC SuperStar. We've totalled up points, and those who have reached 20 will be awarded a very special LSC shirt at the September 2007 meeting. Members may not purchase or order this unique shirt. IT can only be earned.

Provided Member Value
We had nine successful monthly programs in 2006-2007. From return on investment to usability and presentation techniques, all of our meetings were well attended, with an average of 50 attendees per meeting.

We also created the LSC Help Desk, which is located at http://www.stc-dfw.org/HelpDesk/index.php. The Lone Star Community is blessed with many senior members who have broad and varied backgrounds. The Help Desk is a new way to leverage all that knowledge and help us solve problems. It’s like a forum, where ONLY LSC members can join to share information. Kathryn Poe is currently moderating the site. The LSC is a rich resource, and this is a great way to share our knowledge.

Our Job Bank continues to hop. We’ve had 167 job postings from April 2006 through February 2007, which is a 13.6% increase over last year. We also developed an e-postcard that we send quarterly to recruiters who have posted jobs at our site. The e-postcard reminds recruiters of our free job posting service and asks them to visit our Web site. We’re hoping to increase traffic on our Web site with this tactic. Our PR, Job Bank, and Web committees worked hard to see this through.

Our Newsletter continues to receive awards and recognition nationwide. Every month, Jackie Damrau, who took over as newsletter editor in January, wows us with new technologies and resources. You can access the newsletter from our Web site at www.stc-dfw.org.

Conclusion
This was an outstanding year. We have a wonderful team of officers gearing up for a new program year, and I am positive that you’ll have more amazing experiences in the year to come.

It has been my pleasure to be your president this year. I learned a lot, and I met some amazing people. As LSC members, we have great resources at our fingertips. All we have to do is use them. Thanks for a wonderful year, and I can’t wait to see what Susie has in store for us next year!

Have a great summer!