STC-Phila. Metro Chapter

Society for Technical Communication

Meet the Candidates – 2020 STC-PMC Leadership Election

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2020 has presented us with a lot of challenges this year, and yet we continue to push through them! This includes our reorganization of our chapter leadership structure and operational model.

The current president, Danielle Villegas, automatically assumes the position of immediate past-president. After several weeks of keeping the nominations open, we are proud to introduce our candidates for officer election. We are fortunate that all our candidates are veterans of our STC-PMC councils from the past, and have stepped up to take the chapter through our next steps!  Here are the candidates:

President:

Jen Heller Meservey

Jen MeserveyJen Heller Meservey has been a professional technical writer for eight years. She started out freelancing and more recently has been working as an independent contractor for a variety of companies. Her main focus is end user software documentation, but she is also interested in chat bot writing and conversation design. She has a master’s in Technical Communication from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s in Communication from Southern New Hampshire University. Jen was the STC-PMC secretary and membership chair from 2018 to 2019. She was also on the Board of Directors and served as the secretary for the Circadian Sleep Disorders Network, a nonprofit organization that works to raise awareness of circadian rhythm sleep disorders, from 2017 until earlier this year. Currently, Jen is building online knowledge bases for two software fintech companies while returning to Northeastern to earn a graduate certificate in usability online.

Lori Corbett

Lori CorbettLori Corbett has been a technical communicator for more than 30 years, during which time, STC has played a pivotal role. Having lived in several east coast states, Lori has been active member in four local chapters and during the years when she worked as an independent contractor was also active with the Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG. After moving to the Philadelphia suburbs in 2002, she quickly found the Philadelphia Metro chapter and started volunteering in many capacities, including newsletter and our local annual conferences. After serving as chapter president, 2007-2009, Lori was awarded the STC honor of Associate Fellow, and was the conference support manager when the STC Summit was held in Philadelphia and was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the 2010-2012 term. Last year, when the elected secretary for our chapter could not fulfill those duties, as the election runner-up, Lori was asked to fill in, which she happily did. Having served at the chapter level in most positions, Lori has said that she sees serving as president for the coming year as an opportunity to help chapter members find their strengths and learn the best things they can do to begin the path of building our chapter back up.

Treasurer/Secretary

Donn DeBoard

Donn DeBoardDonn DeBoard is an experienced technical content developer in the software and financial services industries. He has over 30 years of continuous learning in the evolving art and science of technical communications.  He is an STC Fellow who has been recognized for creating award-winning customer- centered content. Donn is also a long-time member of the STC-PMC chapter.  Donn is an experienced speaker and has presented on a variety of topics on technical communications and user experience. He is a Technical Writer III at Vertex, Inc, a provider of integrated tax technology solutions for corporations world-wide that is based in King of Prussia, PA. Donn is extremely curious and asks way too many questions.

Chapter elections will start on Wednesday, July 8th, 2020, and will end at noon on Friday, July 17th.  Only STC-PMC members who were registered members as of July 1 will be allowed to vote. Those members will be sent an email with voting instructions.  Please be sure to vote! It will only take moments to do, and it’s critical to the continuation of our chapter.  If you are a chapter member and you don’t receive your election email, please contact president@stcpmc.org.

As the Directors are volunteers and do not need to be elected in, the new Directors will be announced along with the winners of the election on July 18th.

Good luck to our candidates, and we appreciate all who have stepped up to help the chapter!

Cocktails & Coffee – Virtual Social Event

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images of a latte being poured, and a cocktail being pouredSeveral STC chapters around the world wanted to get together for a virtual social. Since we will be in different time zones, hence the social will be “Cocktails and Coffee”, depending on where you are in the world.

If you’d like to connect with other STC members around the world while sipping on your beverage of choice, here’s the Zoom information:

Date and Time: Jul 2, 2020 @15:00 UTC (That’s 11:00 AM in Philadelphia)
Link to register on Zoom: https://bit.ly/202007-cocktails-and-coffee

We’re almost there–an Election Nomination update–Last Chance!

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After I put out my further plea for candidates last week, a couple more people stepped up. Hooray! Thanks to those who are willing to step up so far!

While this is good news, it’s still in the best interests of the chapter to ensure that we have a full slate of candidates who are up to the challenge of dealing with a transitional year.  Because we finally have some people stepping up, we can end our nomination process this week instead of extending until July 15.

This is your last chance to step up to start a new era at STC-PMC. Be the change. It’ll look good on your resume–but step up THIS WEEK! 

As a reminder, we will always need volunteers, and this is your chance to shape STC-PMC the way you think it should be. We’ve set things up for the new program year so that time and obligations will be significantly lighter than in the past, so you will only dedicate a couple hours per month to the chapter, and we all benefit. It’s my job, in my new role as immediate past president, to help train and continually advise you to help run the chapter.

Here are our needs one last time:

  • President: A “project manager” or “moderator” to oversee things.
  • Treasurer: If you can balance a check book, you can be a community treasurer.
  • Directors: A small group that supports the President and Treasurer to plan and manage a few activities/events through job sharing.

The President and Treasurer/Secretary roles are the only elected roles; the others are volunteer, and you get out what you put in.

Please note: You need to be minimally an STC member to join the council, and be am STC-PMC chapter member to be an elected leader. 

Step up and be a leader! The effort is minimal, and a new team will breathe new life into the chapter. Be part of that!

When you are ready to take that step to being a PMC leader, complete the nomination form.  Because have a minimum for an election, the nomination form will be closing on JULY 4 instead of July 15.

I look forward to seeing YOUR name on the nomination form!

If you have questions, you can email me at president@stcpmc.org, and I will be happy to answer them or set up a call or video chat to address your questions.


Danielle M. Villegas
STC-PMC President

 

STC Virtual Meeting Streamlining…Quick Survey

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The multiple STC chapters are looking at streamlining virtual meetups and webinars to provide more value for all STC members. In other words, you would have access to other STC chapter events around the world!

The STC has put out a survey to determine what time frames work best for most of the various chapter members.  The survey takes less than a few minutes as it’s only 5 questions, but it helps us better serve you in conjunction with the other chapters.

Please take a few minutes to answer this survey. No personal information is required.

Timing Preferences for Virtual Events

Thanks!

Chapter (Still) at a Crossroads

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Last week, I told you about the situation our chapter is in if members don’t step in.

We still need a president candidate, or else our chapter is going to be inactive. Seriously.

While we got some responses, it wasn’t enough. Disappointingly, we have no candidates for President, while we have several candidates for the Treasurer/Secretary and volunteers to be Directors for the next program year. Thanks to those who are willing to step up so far!

The position of Chapter President is not difficult. While ultimate leadership would rest on your shoulders, your job would be to moderate and help to direct the management of the chapter’s activities. You will have a team of directors to delegate to and help you with the few activities that the chapter will be doing in the next year. Your job is essentially to keep track of what’s going on, and keep things moving.

This is now your chance to lead. If you step up, you can show your boss how you can lead, make a name for yourself, and take the reins.

Because of the way that we’ve set things up for the new program year, time and obligations will be significantly lighter than in the past, so you will only dedicate a couple hours per month to the chapter, and we all benefit. It’s my job, in my new role as immediate past president, to help train and continually advise you to help run the chapter.

Our needs boil down to this:

  • President: A “project manager” or “moderator” to oversee things.
  • Treasurer: If you can balance a check book, you can be a community treasurer.
  • Directors: A small group that supports the President and Treasurer to plan and manage a few activities/events.

The President and Treasurer/Secretary roles are the only elected roles; the others are volunteer, and you get out what you put in.

If we don’t get a President candidate to help lead the future Treasurer/Secretary candidates and Director volunteers, we will either need to merge with another chapter or worse yet, go inactive (essentially fold). We need YOUR help! If you are still interested in the other roles as well, you can still nominate yourself as a candidate or a volunteer.

Please note: You need to be minimally an STC member to join the council, and a chapter member to be an elected leader. 

Step up and be a leader! The effort is minimal, and a new team will breathe new life into the chapter. Be part of that!

When you are ready to take that step to being a PMC leader, complete the nomination form. The nomination form will stay open until July 15, or until we can see that we have enough nominees to hold an election.

I look forward to seeing YOUR name on the nomination form!

If you have questions, you can email me at president@stcpmc.org, and I will be happy to answer them or set up a call or video chat to address your questions.


Danielle M. Villegas
STC-PMC President

 

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