Welcome to the Toolkit where you can find information on various aspects of our chapter! We’re glad that you are interested in our community.
Values/Vision/Mission Statements
The above links will take you to our chapter’s values, vision, and mission statements.
About members/About Officers/Official Elected Officers
As an official STC Florida Chapter member, you are invited to cast your vote for the Nominating Committee. Thank you to all who voted in the most recent 2022-2023 election! A list of the latest elected STC Florida officers can be found in “Info about members.”
STC hosts an annual Leadership Retreat, welcoming all chapter members and leaders alike. To learn more about our current and past officers, click on the “Officers aka Who are we?” link above.
Memo to Members and Chapter Communications
The Florida chapter’s newsletter is called Memo to Members or MtM and gets published on a rolling basis. Posts include articles, meeting invitations, and announcements. If you want to write for MtM, email the communications chair Julia Southwick at newsletter@stc-orlando.org. If you want to write something, but don’t know what to write, please see our ideas page.
Mentoring Program
Every year, the Florida Chapter of STC and the Future Technical Communicators club at UCF co-host a mentoring program. It is our most practical way of helping members learn directly from leaders in the Tech Comm field. Some of the many benefits to this program include learning specialized skills, networking with Tech Comm professionals, and gaining helpful career guidance/jobs tips. If you have any inquiries about the program, please contact the program coordinators at mentorship@stcflorida.org.
Leadership Development Program
To further cultivate our mission towards leadership and responsibility, our chapter has established Passing the Torch, an LDP which directly extends from our mentoring program. Since its first 2018-2019 program year, we have continued to match coaches to mentor Rising Stars within our community. Individuals from these pairings range from chapter officers to veteran STC community leaders. For more information on eligibility and applications, please visit our website.
Explanation of Adco & meeting schedule/invitation
AdCo is our chapter’s administrative council. The council members are the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, immediate past president, and director(s)-at-large.
Our meetings tend to be on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 6:30 PM EST for networking with the program starting at 7:00 and ending at 8:30 on a variety of topics related to technical communication. Most meetings are recorded and posted to our chapter youtube channel- here’s a playlist of previous meetings as a preview of what kinds of meetings we have. To see what our next meeting is about and the specific date, click above. If you’d like to attend a meeting, click the invitation link above.
Active Membership
Every chapter year, STC FL awards a prized Active Member shirt for those who participate in various club activities. To receive initiative awards points, members can attend monthly chapter meetings, serve in a chapter office or committee manager slot, and publish their original articles in our Memo to Members newsletter.
Resources and Employment page
The resources page lists local links and professional society links for your convenience.
The employment page lists the employment committee manager’s email, employment@stc-orlando.org, and companies using technical communicators in the Central Florida area.
Policies and Procedures
Click the link above to access our chapter’s policies and procedures. This 32-page packet includes vital information on governance, finances, meetings, committees, elections, and amendments. Additionally, a suggested timeline which is featured at the very end highlights the activities that take place within the Chapter year.
Chapter History
Our chapter history starts in 1977 when the Society granted a charter to the Greater Orlando Chapter in response to a petition from 23 Orlando-area technical communicators. Over time, we merged with other Florida chapters and became known as the Florida Chapter. You can read our history in depth at the link above.
STC/FTC Annual Joint Meeting
Alongside our mentoring program with the Future Technical Communicators (FTC) club at UCF, we also collaborate on a yearly meeting that is completely hosted by the university. We take special care to pick a topic that is accessible to Technical Communicators of all experience levels, especially those who are students and early-career professionals. The meeting is offered in a hybrid setting and is free for all who are interested to attend.
Leadership Retreat
To kick off the new chapter year, STC FL hosts an annual summer Leadership Retreat. During this event, our members come together to reflect on the past year’s activities and plan ahead for upcoming projects and events. Our main goals in this meeting are to get to know one another, clarify requirements, and set expectations as a team.
“Washlines” Presentations
“Washlines” presentations is a series of mini-presentations in one chapter meeting. Each presentation is about 5-20 minutes long about a topic in technical communications. If the event is in person, a line of string is taped across a room with presentation topics on paper clothespinned to the line. By each paper, a presenter would explain the topic to whoever was there for a few minutes. We’ve done this online by giving each person a time limit to explain their topic with questions and answers at the end.
