By: Alex Garcia
President
Orlando Central Florida Chapter, STC
president@stc-orlando.org
Hello, and welcome to another edition of President’s Corner. Changes are happening within our chapter, and it is a very exciting time to be a member. As I alluded to last month, we have just finalized the merger between the Orlando Central Florida Chapter STC and the Suncoast Chapter STC. I know that the Suncoast chapter created a solid legacy during its existence, and we hope that the new chapter will continue to build on it. As of press time, our official name has not been approved by the STC International offices, but let me introduce, at least colloquially, The Florida Chapter STC. Headquartered and based in Orlando, the Florida Chapter STC will be made up of two regionally-geared Special Interest Groups: The Suncoast SIG (Tampa Bay-Sarasota-Charlotte) and the First Coast SIG (Jacksonville and Gainesville). Your Administrative Council will hold court in the Orlando area, and our physical chapter meetings will still emanate from this region. Since our chapter is transforming to an all-Florida-encompassing organization, a few “staffing announcements” are necessary:
- I have appointed Debra Johnson, your Immediate Past President, as head of the A/V Committee. She is tasked with bringing our A/V equipment up to the state-of-the-art so that we can provide our virtual chapter members with the best online experience.
- At the Administrative Council retreat, we created a Communications Committee. I see this as our top priority, and no better person to head this up than your Memo to Members editor Nick Ducharme. As you may have already seen, Nick and his committee instituted the use of Mail Chimp for all chapter communications. We hope to have one common voice, look, and feel to all chapter communications, and Mail Chimp is a great start. Kudos Nick and his committee!
- As with any organizational change, documentation is key. I would like to thank your Director-at-Large Karen Lane for the amazing, and very thorough, job she did as head of the Bylaws As I write this, the new Bylaws are winding their way through the International STC approval process.
As you can see, your new STC Florida Chapter, as we would like to call it, is strong and healthy. That saying, don’t forget to renew your membership and Save $30! For a limited time, Classic members can save $30 on membership! Enter STC2017 in the “Membership Promo Code” field on the last page of the online application to apply your discount. And, don’t forget to add the Orlando Central Florida Chapter (our current name) as your home chapter. https://www.stc.org/membership/.
Until next month.