Welcome to STC Houston 2016-2017

We have a fantastic Admin Council; Meenakshi Venkat, Lara Tellis, and Katherine Kim are returning from last year, and Zachary Bohannan is now the immediate Past President. We have new additions to the Council: Noel Atzmiller as Treasurer (taking over from George Slaughter), and Erika Frensley as President. Noel has a wealth of experience in the technical writing field, and he has been with STC for quite some time.

Erika Frensley (myself) has been with STC Houston for nearly 20 years. In that time I’ve served on the Admin Council, served as Newsletter Editor, Competitions Manager, webmaster, and Competitions Judge. This is, however, my first term as President.

The STC Houston chapter has been through some trying times lately. With the oil and gas downturn, many companies can no longer subsidize or pay for membership to STC. In addition, as time goes on, many members are leaving the field and the workforce. Given these conditions, this year will be spent regrouping to build a solid groundwork for growth for STC Houston.

This year’s theme will be Mentoring and Sharing Knowledge. We will mentor new members so that they can fully benefit from membership in STC and the STC Houston community. STC has much to offer; sometimes too much! We’ll spend some time presenting what STC has to offer, and how members have benefited from STC.

Sharing knowledge goes hand in hand with mentoring. Many older members in STC Houston have been in the field in various capacities and have had to deal with many different problems that new writers are just encountering. I encourage all members to share their experiences and their knowledge with new members and beginning communicators.

Our first program meeting on September 13 will focus on the different benefits that STC offers. The Admin Council will talk about what STC has to offer, and which ones we found most beneficial to our careers. You might even find something you didn’t know about before!

Erika Frensley