FEATURE: The STC Team

by Paul Holland, 2006-2007 LSC Distinguished
Community Service Award Recipient

The Northeast Ohio Community of the STC recently hosted the Region 4 Conference, and I was given the opportunity to work with them on their PR/marketing team. Essentially, I composed and coded email broadcasts to the Region 4 members providing information relevant to the program.

I had worked with Jackie Damrau and her team on the Region 5 Conference and was able to provide information about what had worked well here in Dallas as well as what had been passed on to us from the conference held the previous year in Phoenix.

If you are a new member of the STC or even a more seasoned member, one of the most valuable assets the STC provides is the ability to call upon an array of resources in the greater STC team. None of us knows everything, although some of the members with whom I have spoken are truly awe inspiring in their breadth of experience and knowledge. However, I have learned over the years that when new challenges arise, the resources are rarely more than an email or phone call away.

The skills required to be a valuable member of a communications team, such as the Region 5 and Region 4 teams, have been diversifying at a dizzying rate over the last ten years. Whereas writing and editing skills used to be sufficient, now we are expected to be able to code, illustrate, lay out, and PhotoShop, and yes, PhotoShop is now a verb (go figure…). Many times tasks will require a new skill or a software tool with which we are unfamiliar, and the STC community is usually the perfect resource.

In our LSC community alone, we have not only gifted editors and writers, but also several coders who are proficient in HTML, CSS, and PHP; designers with sophisticated PhotoShop (ok, yes, it is also a noun), Illustrator, and InDesign skills; and publishers with FrameMaker skills. And if you must, we also have folks who can make Word jump through hoops.

Your membership fee is a modest investment that allows you access to a team with an incredible set of skills and an unfailing willingness to share.

Here’s to another year on the STC team!