What a Great Year

by Yvonne Wade Sanchez, Managing Editor of Dateline Houston

Another program year is coming to a close. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term program year, it refers to the time in which the admin council manages the day-to-day business of our local chapter.  For example, in April, the STC Houston chapter holds elections to fill seven admin council positions. The newly elected admin council members attend a transition meeting in August to take over for the previous admin council members. The admin council members don’t offically take office until September, which is the beginning of the program year. The council members officially hold their elected office from September – September, but because of the summer break (June – August), the program year unofficially ends in May.  Don’t get this confused with the membership year, which corresponds to STC membership. You purchase STC membership on an annual basis, and membership lasts from January – December. Now you know the difference between the membership year and the program year.   

Since this is our last newsletter for the 2007-2008 program year, I want to thank some individuals and groups for their continued support.

Admin Council 

First, I would like to thank the STC Houston admin council. Without their support and encouragement, the newsletter in its current format as a Web blog wouldn’t exist.  If you would have told me a year ago that I would be the managing editor of a newsletter, I would have laughed hysterically.  I don’t have a journalism degree, and I had no prior experience with Web blogs, podcasts, or newsletters. However, the admin council had faith, and I made it with the support of the newsletter team. Furthermore, I not only made it, I enjoyed every minute of it. That’s one of the fantastic things about the STC. If you are willing to dedicate some time and enthusiasm, the opportunities are endless.  You can learn new skills, meet new people, and expand your knowledge.

Here’s my favorite picture of the admin council in action. They are enjoying dinner, but don’t be fooled, they are always working for you.

Starting from the left, we have Meredith Kramer, Cathy Bettoney and her husband, Rick Sanchez and his wife (that’s me). Unfortunately, Crystal Johnson is hidden behind my enormous head, but her husband is visible. If we cross the table, we have Debra Page and her husband, Linda King and her husband, and finally Alyssa Fox.

Article Contributors

I would like to thank all the article contributors. Without authors willing to share their experience and expertise, we wouldn’t have information to share with the community. 

Newsletter Committee

Of course, I need to send a GIGANTIC thank you to everyone on the newsletter team. Without their dedication and hard work, the production of the newsletter would not be possible.  The team is comprised of associate editors: Jan Brantley, Jamie Diamandopoulos, and Melanie Boston. In addition, Melanie Walker recently joined the team as our podcast reporter. So, the next time you see them at a program meeting, be sure to stop them and tell them that they are doing a great job.

Readers

I’d also like to thank our readers. If you exclude December and January, we’ve actually had a pretty steady number of visitors to our Web blog (newsletter).  Here are the visitation stats for the Web blog since its inception in August of 2007.

I hope you found the information we provided this year informative and entertaining.  I look forward to serving you again in September after our summer break.