Being an STC San Diego volunteer is not just a resume booster; it’s fun and you learn a lot.

There are many ways to get your money’s worth from a professional organization. You attend meetings, read the journals, and network with your peers.

Something a lot of us never realize, though, is that you can also get personal satisfaction and growth by volunteering with STC San Diego. We have a great group of dedicated volunteers who constantly work to serve our community.

You can help us by lending a hand with a one-time task or project, or by serving on a committee or the council. Most jobs or roles require no more than one hour per week of commitment, if even that. We have something for everyone, no matter what your skill level or the amount of time and energy you can dedicate.

Here are some of the things you can do as a volunteer with STC San Diego:

• Engage technical communication enthusiasts through our social media.
• Help with equipment setup at events.
• Greet guests at events and help with registration.
• Gather and share information about staffing agencies and recruiters.
• Write a review of a chapter meeting for our website.
• Update and maintain chapter documents, and policies, and procedures.
• Coordinate our chapter goals with STC’s Community Achievement Award (CAA).
• Venue coordination for our events in Sorrento Valley and the Greater San Diego Area.
• Speak to college classes about the technical communication and STC San Diego.

Want to do something not listed here? We want to hear from you if you are interested in becoming a volunteer.

Become a Volunteer

We ask new volunteers to submit a post for the STC San Diego blog. It will get published under your name (great for your portfolio!) and is the best way to begin your volunteer experience with us.

You can submit anything that will be relevant to our STC San Diego community. Possible topics include:

• Your experience at one of our events or another industry event
• Tools or strategies you’ve learned and apply at work
• Your journey to becoming a Technical Communication professional
• Thoughts on industry trends
• Anything else! See a recent example.

Recommended length is 300-600 words. Please contact us if interested!

Become a Council Member

Are you interested in becoming a leader? If so, serving on the STC San Diego council may be for you. As a council member, you may enjoy many benefits such as:

• discounted meetings and workshops
• improved leadership, public speaking, teamwork, and planning skills
• real experience to add to your resume and LinkedIn profile
• the opportunity to make new contacts and friendships
• free registration to the annual STC Summit when you serve as president

Elections for council take place in the fall. Elected candidates serve for a full calendar year.

Council Positions

President

• Presides over monthly chapter meetings.
• Presides over monthly council meetings.
• Liaises between international STC and the local chapter.
• Supports and guides council members.
• Provides a vision to keep our organization relevant to our community.

Treasurer

• Collects money from meeting attendees.
• Deposits, in person, the collected money into the bank checking account.
• Updates all chapter accounts in Quicken each month.
• Receives and verifies the monthly bank statement.
• Pays periodic bills such as the STC mail box and website hosting company.
• Submits a balanced budget to the STC San Diego council.
• Prepares a fiscal year-end financial report to International STC.

Employment

• Searches available resources for relevant job postings.
• Posts open jobs on our group’s LinkedIn and/or Twitter accounts.
• Stands up during the “Does anyone have jobs to offer?” portion of the chapter meetings to announce recently-posted jobs.
• Coordinates an annual networking event for unemployed or under-employed technical communicators.
• Provides up-to-date information about resumes or interviewing skills.
• Identifies ways for our chapter to provide value to unemployed members.
• Tries to make our chapter relevant to the tech comm community.

Public Relations

• Oversees the distribution of content through our social media channels on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Meetup, and EasyMediaLists.
• Maintains the Twitter feed (@STCSoCal) for the SD and OC chapters.
• Promotes and moderates discussions on our LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup pages.
• Eliminates inappropriate or outdated posts.
• Posts links for tech comm meetings, workshops, trade shows, conferences, seminars, webinars, and local jobs to the Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.
• Maintains the DLVR.IT RSS feed for @STCSoCal.

Programs

• Proposes speakers and topics for future monthly meetings to the council.
• Books meeting presenters.
• Obtains a topic description and biography from the presenter.
• Promotes meetings via web, email, and social media.
• Distributes and tallies meeting survey cards.
• Surveys the tech comm population to find appealing programs.

Registration

• Welcomes and orients meeting attendees.
• Manages the logistics of menus and meeting-room setup.
• Determines whether attendee payment is correct.
• Collects and checks off name and payment type (cash or PayPal).
• Distributes pre-printed name tags for regulars and sticky name tags for others.
• Distributes door prize tickets if applicable.

Professional Development

• Develops workshops and classes.
• Stays informed about webinars that can improve writing and technical skills.
• Keeps abreast of educational opportunities.
• Surveys tech comm members to find the most desired educational topics.
• Liaises with company documentation managers to stimulate meeting participation.
• Coordinates with the librarian to promote useful new professional media.

Membership

• Finds ways to promote STC membership.
• Maintains a database that tracks current and non-active STC members.
• Surveys the techcomm population to discover current attitudes toward STC.
• Maintains relationships with other professional writing communities.
• Announces new STC programs that may add value or reduce the cost to members.
• If possible, obtains Summit webinars and attendee reports for presentation to chapter members.