AGM - General Assembly, May 19, 2008

The STC France Chapter Annual General Meeting was held on Monday 19 May 2008 at FIAP Jean Monnet, 30 rue Cabanis, 75014 Paris.

We began with a champagne cocktail to celebrate our successful year. This was followed by a review of the year and presentation of the results of our recent leadership elections. We ended the evening with a short presentation from our guest speaker Alison Reynolds, followed by an open discussion.

Board attendees:

• Jennifer O Neill - outgoing president
• Theresa Cameron - outgoing membership manager, current newsletter editor
• Stuart Culshaw - outgoing vice president, incoming president
• Ellen Lebelle - outgoing secretary and treasurer, incoming vice-president
• Janet Richards - incoming secretary
• Robert Adlington - incoming treasurer

Unable to attend:

• Fiona Parker-Kennett - incoming communications and public relations manager
• Cindy Skhirit - incoming "special projects" volunteer
• Destry Wion - incoming webmaster

Agenda

1. Eat, drink and be merry - 7-8pm
2. Review of the 2007-8 year -

• President's report - Jennifer O Neill
• Membership report - Theresa Cameron
• Conference report - Theresa Cameron
• Financial report - Ellen Lebelle

3. Election results - Stuart Culshaw

• Welcome and congratulate incoming board members
• Thank and recognize outgoing board members
• Welcome new volunteers

4. Guest Speaker - Alison Reynolds
5. Looking to the future - Stuart Culshaw

• Objectives
• Brainstorming
• Volunteer forum

Minutes

We did indeed start the meeting off with a champagne cocktail. It has become somewhat of a tradition to start our evening meetings with a social hour. This allows attendees to come in from work without the stress of being late and not getting anything for dinner. We have drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and a bite to eat before the meeting room becomes available at 8:00 p.m. The board decided to treat us to champagne to celebrate the excellent year we have had.

The meeting itself started at 8:00 p.m.

Review of the Year

President's Report

Jennifer O Neill's report started with congratulations to our chapter on receiving the award for excellence. The award will be delivered at the STC Summit in Philadelphia. Both Jennifer and Stuart are attending the conference this year, so they will receive the award in person. Here is the text of the e-mail announcing the award:

Dear Jennifer,

As a member of the Community Achievement Award Evaluation Committee, it is my honor to inform you that the France Community has earned the Excellence award for 2007-2008. The citation on your certificate will read:

"For your successful annual conference and your ability to attract corporate sponsorship to fund the conference"

Your community will be recognized during the Leadership Day event on Sunday, June 1, at the summit in Philadelphia. At that time you will receive the certificate and the feedback comments from the CAAEC judge. If you are not able to attend personally, try to designate a France community member to accept the certificate/feedback on behalf of the community.

Congratulations to all members of the France Community.

Rachel Houghton, Member Community Achievement Award Evaluation Committee

The report continued with the success of our conference, especially our success with finding sponsors and satisfying them. We have an ever-growing list of speakers who are happy to come to Paris to present at our meetings.

Membership Report

Theresa Cameron reported that our chapter has grown to 82 members, up from 70 the previous year. Members of the France chapter are currently based in 17 countries, although the majority (63%) reside in France. Initiatives in 2007 included a membership pack for new members and the brochure was updated and published in English and French. For 2008 and beyond, one challenge is to find out more about our members as STC does not demand a CV as part of the membership application. Another challenge is to find ways to retain senior members.

Member Mike Smith, who is the head of technical communications at Schlumberger worldwide, has several suggestions as to what corporations would like to see from the STC and how we might encourage more membership from large companies. More on that in the brainstorming section.

Conference Report

Theresa gave a brief recap of the conference and a breakdown of the feedback. From the feedback forms, we can say it was a successful conference, with an overall appreciation of over 4 out of 5 points.

Financial Report

Ellen Lebelle reported that the chapter is in good shape, with over €7000 in the bank. The objective is not to accumulate funds, but rather to have the funds needed to cover the upcoming year's schedule of meetings and conference. The board decided three years ago to make regular meetings as inexpensive as possible or free for members in an effort to return to members as much of their fees as possible. Your fees, which you pay to the STC, are, in part, rebated to the chapter, while the rest is used to run the STC main office and publish the monthly magazine and quarterly journal that we receive as part of our membership. Unfortunately, a little less is rebated to the chapter than in the past and, because of the decline of the US dollar and the decline of our chapter membership from the peak of 98 a few years ago, the chapter received just over €800 for the current year. For reference, two years ago, with the higher membership and higher dollar, we received €1600. This has made us more business-like and we have found sponsors for our conference, for example. The surplus from the conference allows us to offset some of the cost of our regular meetings.

Using Eventbrite and Paypal, although they are not free services, has simplified meeting registration and payments received from or remitted to speakers, sponsors and attendees not in France.

Elections

The STC France Chapter had to elect a new board. Elections were held via Survey Monkey over the Internet. There was only one candidate for each open position. All members were notified by e-mail and via the STC France website. The e-mail contained a link to Survey Monkey. This allowed us to know who voted in order to verify that they were members but not to know their vote.

The outgoing and incoming boards will hold their planning meeting at the end of June. The new board becomes effective, then.

Results

26 members voted.

• Stuart Culshaw was elected president: 25 for, 1 abstention
• Ellen Lebelle was elected vice-president: 25 for, 1 abstention
• Janet Richards was elected secretary: 25 for, 1 abstention
• Robert Adlington was elected tresurer: 25 for, 1 abstention

Welcome the incoming board

The incoming board was congratulated by hearty applause and a group photograph.

Thank the outgoing board

Jennifer gave each outgoing board member a certificate of recognition and a box of chocolate (she does live in Belgium, after all!) and each board member also received a more personal gift, as well as a round of applause.

Volunteers

Stuart announced that the chapter has some new volunteers, too.

• Cindy Skhiri volunteered to spearhead special projects that she can manage from home, such as the chapter's salary survey and creating some necessary databases.
• Fiona Parker-Kennett, who lives in the Limousin region, has volunteered to manage chapter communications and public relations.
• Destry Wion, from Alsace, has undertaken the web-master responsibility, which includes modernizing our website.

The board welcomes all our volunteers. If you were not able to attend the meeting and wish to volunteer, please contact us.

Guest Speaker: Alison Reynolds

Alison, from New Zealand, was a speaker at our conference. She has been on sabbatical and was in Paris for this meeting. It was our pleasure to greet her again as our guest speaker. As a member and past president of her local STC chapter, she commented on the similarities between our chapters: membership, geographic distribution of members, distance (psychological and physical) from the STC main office, and more.

She also addressed the issue of how academia is training new technical communicators and what employers are looking for. Alison was also interested in our perceptions of "usability" from the point of view of technical communicators. The consensus seemed to be that usability is seen as an area that is very much interrelated to the work of technical communicators. Some suggested that gaining skills and training in usability testing and assessment would be a good career move, as it offers a way to "move up the value chain". Usability experts often get more say in the design and development of a product than technical writers who, despite their intimate understanding of users and the product, are rarely consulted about a product's design. Moving into usability testing could be a way to reduce that frustration that we often feel as technical communicators when we're asked to document a product that is poorly designed, without ever having an opportunity to improve it.

Alison's presentation quickly turned into a most interesting brainstorming exchange about the future of the profession, and what STC was doing to help members position themselves in the market. Mike Smith from Schlumberger shared some interesting thoughts about the need for a certification framework within the technical communication profession and the role that STC could/should be playing to make that happen.

Mike suggested that a competency and certification program would go a long way to improving corporate and academic perception of the STC as a credible independent body capable of delivering assessable and accredited professional standards - this would in turn benefit independent contractors, offering the possibility of certification in core knowledge and skills and specific specializations. Recognized certifications would also make recruiting easier for large companies (recruiting is based on standard profiles), and may make it easier for independent professionals to sell themselves.

Incoming chapter president, Stuart Culshaw, felt these issues were vital to the future of STC. He promised to bring these issues to the attention of the STC Board at the STC Technical Communication Summit in Philadelphia, and to conduct further discussions within the chapter to help initiate or facilitate some of these initiatives. There are ongoing initiatives within STC to define a "Body of Knowledge" for the profession and to define a certification program in relation to that. Stuart hopes to attend several sessions at the conference concerning these issues and will report back.

We didn't have enough time to discuss possible themes for the chapter's programs and conference next year, but this issue of industry/academic relations certainly seems to be a good candidate. We'll certainly be discussing these issues further at our strategic planning sessions which are planned for late June (to be confirmed).

Résultats des élections

La STC France devait tenir l'élection du nouveau bureau de direction. Les élections se sont déroulés via Survey Monkey sur l'Internet. Il n'y avait qu'un candidat pour chaque poste. Les 82 membres de l'association furent notifiés par courriel et par le site de la STC France. Le courriel contenait un lien vers le site de Survey Monkey. Cette méthode nous a permis de contrôler qui votait afin de confirmer qu'ils étaient membres, mais sans violer le secret de leur vote.

Une réunion de planification se tiendra vers la fin du mois de juin avec l'ancien et le nouveau bureau de direction. Le nouveau bureau prendra ses fonctions, alors.

Résultats

26 membres ont voté.

• Stuart Culshaw fut élu président: 25 pour, 1 abstention
• Ellen Lebelle fut élue vice-président: 25 pour, 1 abstention
• Janet Richards fut élue secretaire: 25 pour, 1 abstention
• Robert Adlington fut élu tresorier: 25 pour, 1 abstention

à Paris, le 19 mai 2008

Ellen Lebelle, secrétaire