RE: The STC and me

["Robert Milkovich" <RMilkovich -at- ADVANCEDUTILITY -dot- com>]

I agree with Geoff and John - you have to put in some effort to make it
work for you. You can't just go to meetings and say nothing and meet
nobody, and you can't just stay home and read the magazines and expect
the membership to be worthwhile. You can't just demand and take and stay
away, you have to give and attend. Be there, or be square. Be active,
not passive.

I joined the STC in 1996 and soon became the job bank coordinator for
the Toronto chapter. Eventually I put the job bank online, and it became
the second-largest chapter job bank (after Silicon Valley). Now I'm the
president of the chapter. It's been a great experience the whole time.
I've learned valuable skills in management and dealing with people from
being on the executive committee. I've made lifelong friends. And
employers are ALWAYS impressed when they realize that the resume belongs
to the person who created the (free) job bank on which they posted their
job ad - "Robert, what is the one thing that makes you stand out from
the other applicants?" "I created a job bank that has helped hundreds of
people find work." My work in the STC has indeed paid for a lifetime of
membership for me. If I had just stayed home and read magazines, none of
these wonderful things would have happened.

If you find that local activity in your area is not to your liking, then
get on the board and set an example! Become a leader - create the STC
chapter that you want, and others will come and help you build that
vision. Staying at home and complaining about how insufficient the STC
is will not make it better and will not improve your situation. As
someone else pointed out, STC provides the trough with water in it, but
you, as the horse, must go and drink it yourself to get the benefit. The
STC is not going to force you to benefit from their work. You've got to
take the initiative, not wait for it to happen TO you.

No association is going to be perfect. No association is going to meet
everyone's needs. Just because one person's needs weren't met doesn't
mean that the entire organization is bad, nor does it mean that everyone
else should write it off just because one person wasn't satisfied. 

Robert Milkovich
Toronto

-----Original Message-----
From: John Fleming 

On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 20:05:56 -0400, while chained to a desk in the
scriptorium, techwordsmith -at- gmail -dot- com ("T.W. Smith") wrote:

> $I did apply for a job that I was well-qualified for, and they were
> $looking for folks active in the local STC, which I am, yet the 
> company $in question never followed up.

Speaking of the financial end, I've picked up more than enough contract
work through leads generated by STC membership to pay for my membership
for the rest of my life--and a whole lot longer.  In short, the six
years I've been in STC have more than paid for themselves in revenue
generated.

As Goeff Hart pointed out, it's all in making the STC membership work
for me.

John Fleming
Technical Writer
Edmonton, Alberta

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