Berkeley STC Chapter Minutes

October 9, 2006

Meeting Started 6:30 p.m. (Late Arrival of Dexter at 7:15)

In attendance:

Richard Mateosian, President

Mary Ann Campbell, VP Programs

Jim Dexter, VP Membership

Jessica Livingston, PR Manager, Recognition Manager

Minutes Approval:

A. Minutes provisionally approved for the September 11, 2006 Leadership Meeting, with a few changes suggested by Richard, to be implemented by the Secretary, who will release the final version for an email review and approval.

B. Minutes from the July 2006 Leadership Meeting are still not approved, awaiting edits from the Secretary. Once the edits are done, the minutes will be automatically approved.

Topic 1: Chapter Programs Report

A. All preparations for the October 11th meeting are going well.

· Speaker is ready.

· Handouts are on the web site? (Yes.)

· Mary Ann is not receiving copies of the registrations for the meetings.

ACTION ITEM: Webmaster will troubleshoot why Mary Ann is not receiving the email copies of the Meeting registrations automatically generated by Miva Merchant.

· Biographies of speakers and text descriptions of programs are needed for future meetings.

ACTION ITEM: VP Programs will distribute information for November, December, January (2007), February, and March meetings ASAP.
ACTION ITEM: Webmaster will create web pages for November, December, January (2007), February, and March meetings ASAP.

· Room reservations for future meetings need to be confirmed. At present the plans to sell the hotel are on hold.

ACTION ITEM: President to meet with the Manager of the Hotel to assess the near-term future for our meeting space.

· Chapter credit cards are under review, with re-assignments anticipated.

ACTION ITEM: President to resolve how the Chapter’s credit cards are issued to the Officers of our Chapter.

· Postcard meeting announcement sent on time.

Topic 2: Chapter Newsletter Report (presented by the President)

A. October 2006 Newsletter issued this month.

ACTION ITEM: President to send out email blast announcing the October 2006 newsletter.

B. Summer Newsletter almost done.

Topic 3: Chapter Treasurer Report (presented by the President)

A. Richard Mateosian is now Acting Treasurer.

B. Our checking account contains approximately $8,700. This compares with approximately $8,900 at this time last year. We have not yet received the first installment of our annual payment from STC.

C. Initial review of our account (spurred by comments last month by Dexter) reveals that the account is generally in order.

D. Charges for all previous meetings have been submitted to the credit card processors. The funds should be deposited into our account soon. The delayed charges led to a few chargebacks, but we were able to resolve them without paying fees.

ACTION ITEM: Acting Treasurer will review the written procedures for handling meeting charges and update/expand them.

Topic 4: Chapter Membership Report

A. 153 members in our Chapter, as of the latest report from STC.

B. Welcome packet is a necessary component of our bid for a STC Chapter Achievement Award.

ACTION ITEM: Membership Manager is to create a New Member process for approval by the Chapter Leadership by this month. This will include a Welcome Email and a new paper New Member Packet with a welcome letter and other materials.

Topic 5: Chapter Webmaster Report

A. The Webmaster is troubleshooting email aliases and scripts associated with Miva Merchant.

ACTION ITEM: Webmaster to continue troubleshooting the email aliases and Miva Merchant scripts to understand and resolve the problems.

Topic 6: Public Relations Manager Report

A. Jessica Livingston is continuing to drive the process for the STC Chapter Achievement Award.

· Newsletters are starting to come out again.

· New Membership packet needs to be done.

B. Jim Dexter asked for a bulleted list of to-do items for each Officer/Manager to address in support of the Chapter Achievement Award.

ACTION ITEM: Public Relations Manager is to create an initial to-do list including all items to be addressed in the effort to successfully apply for a Chapter Achievement Award, with estimated due dates assigned to each Chapter Officer. This is to be done ASAP.

Topic 7: Technical Communications Competition Report

A. Received 24 submissions.

B. The Technical Communications Competition has hosted a Judge’s meeting, and the judges are now judging the 24 submissions.

Topic 8: Recognition Manager Report

A. More recognition activities desired:

· Speaker recognition (STC coffee mug, etc.?)

· Chapter volunteers

· Associate Fellows

ACTION ITEM: Membership Manager will generate a list of all Chapter members who meet the minimum ten-year time-in-STC qualification for Associate Fellow.

Topic 9: Old Business

A. Chapter By-laws

· Joe Devney is still working on the chapter bylaws, but has put the project on temporary hold for other more pressing projects. The by-laws are not necessary until May of 2007 for our upcoming election.

· Jim Dexter has provided samples of other Chapter's by-laws to Joe Devney.

Topic 10: New Business

A. Jessica Livingston is the Recognition Manager for our Chapter.

B. There are reports of important information being posted to certain STC and Yahoo! Lists, and some of our Chapter’s Leadership are not members of the groups.

· Action Item: President will advise Chapter Leaders how to subscribe to the following STC lists:

a. Presidents list

b. SIG Leaders list

c. Region 8 Yahoo! List

C. Discussion of STC medical/dental/vision benefits, with the impression that STC does not provide a discount for these benefits.

Action Item: Membership Manager will discuss with the Region 8 Director Beau Cain, and advise on the plans by the STC Board of Directors.

D. General Policy: All speakers at meetings are comped for the meeting. On a case-by-case basis, others associated with the speaker may be comped for meetings as well.

E. Next Leadership Meeting Date: The early November timeframe is difficult for a number of our Officers/Managers. We will try to reschedule for late October.

Action Item: President will coordinate finding a time and location for the November Leadership Meeting via email.