Chapter News

April Program Meeting

Industries Panel: Jacks of All Trades

April's STC Houston Program Meeting will show you that technical communicators write more products than user documentation for computer hardware and software. We truly are Jacks of All Trades, so join us in April as we explore some of the many fields where we reign supreme!

The following topics will be presented:

Proposal Support—Who, What, When, Where, and Why by Evalyn Shea
Grant Writing by Cathy Bettoney
Creating and Managing Documentation in the Oil and Gas Industry by Brian Hayes
Building a New Web Site: The Writer's Role by Lori Buffum
Creating Effective Business Process Documentation by Tracee Herring
Writing and Analysis in the Law by Patricia Golemon

Chapter Elections

We will be holding chapter elections, so be sure to cast your vote! See the candidate bios and a sample ballot in this newsletter.

Students Attend Free!

To encourage student members to attend, we are waiving the registration fee. Hope to see you there!

Send your questions to Cindy Pao at cindypao@earthlink.net.

Place:

Hilton Houston Westchase and Towers
9999 Westheimer Road

Date:

Tuesday, April 8

Time:

5:30 p.m. networking (hors d’oeuvres)
6:20 p.m. announcements
6:30 p.m. program

Cost:

$10 (members)
$13 (nonmembers)
$3 (student and unemployed members)
$6 (student non-members)

Drawing:

A drawing for various prizes is held at the end of each general meeting. Proceeds benefit the Marx Isaacs Student Scholarship Fund.

STC Houston Wins Public Relations Award

by Rebecca Taylor, Product Marketing Analyst, Hewlett-Packard Company

For the third year in a row, STC Houston has received an award in the STC public relations competition! This year, we received a merit award in the promotional communications category. Among the items submitted in the entry were chapter news releases, newsletter articles, and Web pages promoting the chapter competitions.

I'd like to recognize several people who played direct roles in our award-winning chapter communications:

Deborah Crockett—director of competitions
Deborah Silvi—competitions general manger
Stephanie Donovan—chapter publicity
Jeff Staples—competitions webmaster
Gail Bergan, Cathy Bettoney, Melanie Boston, Jamie Diamandopoulos, Erika Frensley, Jim Hunt, George Slaughter, and Leann Wagerle—newsletter committee

Several judges mentioned how impressed they were by how we use several communication tools to promote activities. Judges were also pleased with the consistent use of STC and chapter brand elements.

Although we received many compliments, it is clear to me that we have room to improve. The judges provided a few tips for improvement, but I would also like to hear from you about what we can do to make chapter communications work better. If you have any suggestions, please contact me at beccataylor@spamcop.net.

Volunteer Honor Roll

"Ninety percent of success in life is just showing up." It's a simple philosophy, but one that continues to drive the success of our chapter.

Thank you to the following members who've "showed up" over the past month.

Lori Buffum
Phaedra Cook
Deborah Crockett
Jaleh Fiers
Melanie G. Flanders
Mary Gwynne
Tanya Handy
Terry Lambert
Julia Land
Ann Liggio
Melody Locke
Deborah Long
Errol Mayer
Paul Mueller
Dorothy Murray
Melinda Patrick
Janette Sexton
Deborah Silvi
Jennifer Smith
Jeff Staples
Ann Sumanth
Rebecca Taylor
Jocelyn Williams

Did we miss you? Please e-mail Rene Gedaly at rene.gedaly@clearwriting.biz or contact your committee manager.