Administrative Council - Volunteer Opportunities

The vitality of STC Alberta depends on the contributions from its volunteer team. Why volunteer?

Develop or improve valuable skills that you might not have the opportunity to use at your current job. Examples include leadership, project management, writing, digital photography, and HTML/CSS. All are excellent additions to a technical communicator’s resume!

Expand your network of technical communication professionals. Many of us work as lone writers – networking with other fellow technical communicators improves your skills and can help identify future opportunities for your career.

Demonstrate your commitment to STC Alberta’s future. Our chapter’s continued existence depends on new volunteers coming on board each year. 

The Executive is made up of elected and appointed positions. This is a summary of all positions and a brief description of their contributions to STC Alberta.

Elected Positions

We will be accepting nominations and elect nominees for these positions before or at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in January. Members nominated for elected positions must have full member status. An overview of the Executive positions is as follows:

President – The President supervises the affairs of the Alberta Chapter and the Administrative Council, and presides at general and administrative meetings.

Secretary – The Secretary distributes the agenda and records the minutes of the administrative meetings, and writes any required external correspondence.

Treasurer – The Treasurer handles the organization’s finances.

Past President – This position is automatically filled by the outgoing President.

To nominate someone or to volunteer to run for one of the open positions, please contact president@stc-alberta.org.

Appointed Positions

In addition to the elected positions, we are also looking for people to fill appointed positions. Below is a brief summary of these positions. Keep in mind that with the changes taking place in our organization, we are always open to new ideas and ways to organize responsibilities. If you have an idea for a new role, contact president@stc-alberta.org. Appointed positions can be filled by members or student members.

Programs/Workshops/Webinar Coordinators (Calgary and Edmonton) – These positions require members who are responsible for organizing professional development events. The Programs Coordinator identifies, contacts, and schedules speakers for one- to two-hour long evening presentations. Our workshops are one-day (usually hands-on) seminars that are offered once or twice a year. The Webinar coordinator is responsible for advertising the daytime webinars offered by STC, and finding a venue for the seminar. We are looking for more than one person to fill these two dynamic positions, so if you are only able to provide a partial commitment, please let us know. These positions will appeal to organized and self-motivated members!

Registration and Hospitality – The Registration Coordinator is responsible for member registration at events and activities and for handling the hospitality aspect for the event.

Special Events – This is a fairly new position that has been added to help organize such events as the Wine and Cheese, Coffee Night and AGM.

University of Calgary Liaison – The university liaisons are appointed by the president at the beginning of each chapter year. Currently, there are two undergraduate degree programs that include studies in technical communication in Alberta:

• Bachelor of Communication in Information Design, Mount Royal University, Calgary
• Bachelor of Applied Communications in Professional Writing, Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton

Liaisons from these programs sit on the Administrative Council. (In the past, liaisons with other programs and institutions have also sat on the Administrative Council.) A liaison must be a faculty member. The liaison's role is to inform the Administrative Council of the news and events of his or her program and to encourage students enrolled in the program to participate in STC.

Competitions Manager – The competitions manager is appointed by the president during years in which STC Alberta holds competitions. (The STC and its chapters hold competitions to encourage excellence in technical communication. STC Alberta has held its own competitions in conjunction with the Society’s for several years.) The competition manager's responsibilities include:

• Informing the STC head office in Fairfax of our intent to hold a competition
• Determining categories for submissions
• Finding another chapter with which to exchange entries for judging purposes
• Setting the deadline date for entries
• Creating competition entry forms and post them on the website for members’ access
• Advertising the competition in SuperScript and on the website
• Recruiting a judging committee

SuperScript and Website – SuperScript’s recent evolution to an e-mail format newsletter has streamlined its publishing process, and created new opportunities for volunteers. The Content Manager has overall responsibility for gathering, organizing, editing, and publishing the HTML newsletter. We are looking for at least two Content Managers who will take turns producing SuperScript editions. If you have a knack for organizing and like working with web content, this position will appeal to you. The SuperScript team also needs contributors to write reviews of STC programs and events, and photographers. If you would like to help out with any aspect of publishing our newsletter, please consider joining the SuperScript team.

If you are interested in filling any one or sharing one of these roles with another member, please contact president@stc-alberta.org.