To welcome in the New Year in style, we chose a classy Parisian café on the banks of the Seine for our "Meilleurs Voeux" social meeting on January 17. Located next to the former "La Samaritaine" department store, the cosy upstairs room at Le Café du Pont Neuf provided great views of the river and the Pont Neuf bridge.

Despite the low turnout, attendees enjoyed some great conversation, as we explored topics ranging from the state of the current job market for technical writers, to plans for the upcoming France Chapter Conference in March. Our secretary and treasurer Ellen Lebelle gave a brief summary of our chapter's financial situation and reiterated the need for more volunteers to step forward to help develop chapter programs and activities.

STC France's Monika Duvinage attended the 2007 Online Help Conference which took place on September 21-22 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The first event in STC France's new "Saveurs & Savoirs" series on Monday 24 September drew a crowd of about 25 technical communicators to the FIAP Jean Monnet in Paris. The evening event included a networking cocktail and a presentation by award-winning researcher and educator Karen Schriver entitled "If You're So Smart, Why Does Your Writing Suck?" Whether it was the promise of some good food and wine, or simple curiosity to hear Karen present a talk with such a provocative title, I don't think anyone went home disappointed! It was great to see so many new faces, as well as a few regulars. A big thanks to Monika Duvinage for manning the registration desk!

Leaving Las Vegas...

Though Minneapolis lacked the glitzy razzmatazz and scorching temperatures of Las Vegas (home of last year's STC conference), this year's event (which took place May 13-16 2007) was widely acclaimed as the most dynamic and successful STC conference ever. In any case, with something to see and do at the conference from 7am to 11pm most days, there wasn't much time left for sightseeing!

Online voting for the STC France Chapter 2008-9 leadership council elections will start on 5 May 2008 and end at noon on 19 May 2008.

Results will be announced at the STC France Chapter Annual General Meeting on Monday evening 19 May 2008.

To propose your candidacy, you must complete a Candidate Profile and Statement of Intent form and send it by email to elections@stcfrance.org no later than midnight on 30 April 2008.

You must be a current member of the STC France Chapter to stand for election. Additional requirements apply to certain positions.

All current STC France members in good standing will receive a link to the online voting form and instructions by email when voting starts on 5 May 2008.

For your vote to count, you must cast your vote online before noon on 19 May 2008.

I am just on my way back from the STC Israel Convention that was held in Herzelia, the hi-tech suburb of Tel Aviv, on June 4. The STC Israel Chapter also celebrated its 40th anniversary!

As a board member of the STC France Chapter, I am going to relate a bit of what I noticed about the organization of the event before giving my report of the sessions I attended. I hope our general members will be interested and comment on this organization, so that we can perhaps adopt some of the ideas for future STC France Chapter events.

The meeting was held at FIAP Jean Monnet (Paris 14), which has become our regular meeting place. As usual, those coming directly from work met in the bar area and then went into the self-service restaurant for an early dinner together.

The meeting started at 8:00pm, and because we were a small group, the session was quite interactive, with the presentation about STC's Region 2 Conference serving as support for discussion.

Online voting for the STC France Chapter 2008-9 leadership council elections will start on 5 May 2008 and end at noon on 19 May 2008.

Results will be announced at the STC France Chapter Annual General Meeting on Monday evening 19 May 2008.

To propose your candidacy, you must complete a Candidate Profile and Statement of Intent form and send it by email to elections@stcfrance.org no later than midnight on 30 April 2008.

You must be a current member of the STC France Chapter to stand for election. Additional requirements apply to certain positions.

All current STC France members in good standing will receive a link to the online voting form and instructions by email when voting starts on 5 May 2008.

For your vote to count, you must cast your vote online before noon on 19 May 2008.

STC France held an open house meeting on September 21 and drew a crowd of about 20 people.

We opened with a short introduction of the STC for all those who were not yet members and announced our main objective for this year: Raise our profile. To help us reach this goal, we presented attendees with a wide range of volunteer opportunities and invited everyone to sign up to participate. We are extending this invitation to all our members, so even if you did not attend the meeting, please consider signing up as a volunteer. Areas where you can contribute include:

The STC France Chapter Annual Conference 2006 on March 24, 2006 in Paris was a great success! We had over 40 participants from all over France (and beyond) and our team of expert speakers helped make this one of our most innovative and dynamic France Chapter conferences to date!

The theme of this year's conference was Taking Charge of Your Career and our goal was to provide attendees with an opportunity to learn more about current trends and techniques in the profession, learn about how others had negotiated the various twists and turns of their careers and discover new ways to take better charge of their own professional development.