Society for Technical Communication—Israel Chapter

Dear Members and Colleagues,

As you can see, our chapter is alive and well. The most recent count shows that we have 107 members. Although no longer the largest chapter outside of North America, we remain one of the largest. We are confident that membership will grow as more people realize the value in being a member of our professional organization.

At the last Administrative Council meeting, we made two important decisions for the future of our chapter. Both will allow us to provide you with more value-added services. Our first decision was to provide professional education certificates to members that attend events. We believe that our events provide you with important information to help you expand your knowledge and skills. Therefore, at the end of 2006, STC Israel members will be awarded certificates indicating the cumulative hours of professional education they have received via STC Israel events. You will also receive an official letter from our chapter that you can have placed in your employee record at work.

The second decision we made was to subsidize the cost of travel so that I can represent our chapter at the STC Board of Directors meeting scheduled for October in the UK. This will enable me to personally represent our chapter and its needs to the STC Board. It will also help me to gain knowledge to make me better able to lead our chapter. How does this affect you? In order to represent your thoughts and needs, it is important that we hear from you. If you have issues that you would like us to bring before the STC Board, please write to me and let your concerns be known. Don't forget, STC Israel is the Israeli Chapter of an international organization; as such, we have the opportunity to be a part of the future of the Society!

As we look to the future, it is not too soon to advise that we need volunteers at every level. Meir Fishburn, our treasurer, needs an assistant. Ideally, we are looking for someone who can learn about the financial status of our chapter, and possibly serving as treasurer in the future.

If you are interested in becoming involved at any level, please write to let us know. Or, better yet, come to an AC meeting. The next AC meeting is planned for June 12. A separate email will be sent to you, with the date and agenda.

We are beginning to plan a 2007 convention. Several people have stepped forward to volunteer. We hope to have the teams organized by the end of June, and will keep you posted on developments. If you would like to be part of this important team, please come forward.

I would like to give a big thanks to our events committee, headed by Lisa Tsabari. Lisa, Ester Halac, Marla Marom and Eliram Braudo have been doing a great job in keeping events coming, and making them interesting. If you can help them out by offering a venue (we especially need venues in the North), please write to events@stc-israel.org.il.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Shavuot. I look forward to seeing you at the next event.

Debbie Shapiro
President, STC Israel