By Jonathan W. Baker 

Introduction

My name is Jonathan W. Baker and I have been an STC member since 1995. I came to STC during a time of personal and professional change. STC has helped shape me and I believe I have helped shape STC. I would like the opportunity to continue to do so as 2nd Vice President. The following outlines some of my values and a brief bit of biographical information.

Values

When I came onto the Board of Directors in 2002, I came with a set of values with regard to who we are as technical communicators and as an organization. I also had a clear sense of who we are and what we can be as an organization.

One of the interesting parts of the experience on the Board was the focus not on finance, but on values—member values. Some members feel that STC is not providing value for their dues and because of this STC has been shedding members at a prodigious rate—from 21,789 in June of 2001 to 15,773 in June 2005.

When I talk about values, mine, yours, and ours, I am talking about the things that we need to operate at a high level. Sometimes this means simple things like openness and honesty and other times it means if you or I pay our dues we expect certain things from the organization. 

Honesty, integrity, straight-shooting, go without saying in my book. I expect a high degree of professionalism. And I believe that every member in STC expects the same from each other and from STC. That is why my first email to the membership addressed the issue of openness. STC has to be transparent and that means that the leadership has to be transparent. No secrets. (Actually, that isn’t completely true. Personnel issues are an area that STC has to remain squeaky clean in terms of respecting privacy.) But in terms of policy and how policy is made and in terms of how the office operates and why, the membership has a right and perhaps even a responsibility to know what is happening. 

Other values—the process of working through the development of the transformation plan led the Board to understand that STC was not meeting the promise of member value. This means that STC was not providing the right mix of products for the membership. One clear message that the Board got was that members wants more choices and more educational opportunities.  

More choice has lead to a revised membership structure that first addressed more types of membership with a variety of price points. The second phase of membership changes provided for international dues based largely upon the World Bank Model, which numerous other associations also use.  

More choice is leading to more educational opportunities. The phone seminars program has expanded and the price has been reduced. Last fall, a 2-day training program was held in the Washington, D.C. area. And more is going on in this educational arena for STC.

These are all efforts that I supported and some that I actually worked on while on the Board. I believe that these changes are just the initial step to an STC that offers more value for more members. 

Membership numbers have bounced up from a low of 15,773 this past June to a more reasonable 18,000 as of January 2006 and I would hope that as STC tunes its value proposition and the economy continues to improve that the membership numbers will continue to go up.

In response to the two emails that I sent to the membership, I received lots of interesting comments asking about my values. As I indicated in my last email, I am a proponent of what we the Board set forth in the transformation. I should also tell you that when I came onto the Board in 2002, it was clear to me that we had a lot of work to do. Based on my own experience, I might have handled things in a different manner, but in hindsight I believe that this transformation has engaged and galvanized many members and will make for a more open, successful organization. 

I understand that this year STC has begun a certificate program in the training program and will continue to develop this area. Professionalizing how we work and how we appear to others as professionals is critically important for us. As such, the issues of certification and standards need to be revisited. 

I support the concept that STC is an international organization and that much of our future is in the international space. This doesn’t mean that I favor abandoning our North American members; rather it means that STC needs to understand what our North American members value and to deliver on that promise. For a number of years, I’ve been hearing that STC is not providing value to our experienced and expert members. The last two conferences have done a better job at meeting those needs and I believe that as we delve into the educational space we can do a better job of meeting advanced practitioners needs. 

As I’ve said in the past, please join me on this journey. STC is a very special group of people, who are capable of adapting to all kinds of change. Isn’t it time we had some fun with all these opportunities ahead of us?  

As always, you can contact me at: jbaker2525@earthlink.net or 978-443-3049.

Biographical Information

My professional experience includes being both a manager and an individual contributor and both an employee and a contractor. I started out in the textbook business (John Wiley, Harper and Row, and Little, Brown and Co), migrated to Digital Press at Digital Equipment Corporation, and then moved into Digital’s Corporate User Publications group to become a technical writer. After leaving Digital, I spent most of the next 10 years contracting as a technical communicator.  At present, I am an almost five-year employee of EMC, Inc. handling programs related to writing and editing standards.  

My STC work includes the following:

• 2006 – Candidate for 2nd Vice President.
   
• 2005 – Member of the STC Governance and the STC Global Membership support committees.
   
• 2002-2005 – Director/Sponsor, Region 1, Bylaws Committee Manager, member of the Transformation Membership and Finance Committees.
   
• 2001-2002 – Publications Portal Project Manager.
   
• 2001-2002 – New Media Publications Committee Manager.
   
• 1996-2001 – Held many Boston Chapter positions, including chapter president.
   
• Awards – Boston Chapter’s Carol A. Landers ‘Spirit of Volunteering’ Award and Distinguished Chapter Service Award.

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