Popular STC Summit presentation brought to the STC-PMC!

About the Speaker:
Stephanie Saylor morphs between a technical writer and usability engineer at Yellow Duck Technologies, Inc., a software company in Central Maryland. With more than 18 years professional writing experience, she has worked as a reporter, technical writer/editor, usability writer, and outreach coordinator for various government customers. She holds a master’s degree in Digital Communication from Johns Hopkins University. Stephanie lives outside Ellicott City, Md., with her husband and three young sons.

Off to a Smashing Start!

We already had a great kickoff event with Beth Anne Ashley’s presentation on September 23rd of STCPMC September 2021 Webinar: From Meh to Memorable! Create IMPACT in Your Virtual Presentations, and we’re already gearing up for our next webinar on October 20th, given by chapter member Anukware Selase Adzima and his colleague, Evan Schapiro from CETRA who will be giving a webinar presentation, We have some other events coming up for the year, including STCPMC’s 50th Birthday Party Open House in November, and our second virtual holiday party, a raffle for a free Amazon card, CONDUIT 2022, and much more!

As we mentioned in the summer, we were unable to get any volunteers to run for elected officer positions, and since the president at the time was unable to continue her duties going forward, the STC Community Affairs Chair asked me, as the chapter’s Immediate Past President, to step in as Acting President, so I have.  So here I am again! I put together a provisional committee of mostly veteran chapter members who have served in the council in the past to help me rebuild the chapter from the ground up while keeping things going as best as possible. With a skeleton crew, we’ve already accomplished a lot behind the scenes, and we are dedicated in rebuilding this chapter to continue the strong history that we’ve had for the past 50 years.  So, if there are times that it doesn’t seem like things are happening quickly enough, a) let me know at president@stcpmc.org, and b) have patience! There’s just a handful of us trying to get the bare minimum done with less than a handful of dedicated volunteers!

We do need more volunteers to help us with membership, programming, and communications tasks. We want to help create the next generation of leaders, as so many of our council members have gone on to STC Board positions and STC Board Committee positions.  We don’t want to let the traditions die, and at the same time, we need to continue to bring this chapter through the next 50 years!  If you are interested in taking an active role with the chapter, contact me at president@stcpmc.org, and let’s talk.

We need YOUR input, as this is YOUR chapter.  The provisional committee can keep things running for a little longer, but not much longer. We depend on YOU to step up and help out. We can start you out with a task aligned with your interests, and as you gain skills, you’ll be ready to help take over in no time. (Yes, you do want those leadership skills, and this is the best place to gain them–as a volunteer, where you can make mistakes and get free guidance!)

2021-2022 might be a barebones program year, but we’re going to do our best–within our limitations–to keep things moving so that the chapter can continue to build and thrive.

I look forward to seeing you at our educational and social events in this next year, whether in person or virtually–depending on how this pandemic continues!

Danielle M. Villegas
Acting President, STC-PMC