STCWVC Admin Council Meeting
Meeting Day/Time/Location: 3rd Thursday of each month, 6:15pm-8:00pm, 
Greenwood Gardens, 1st floor conference room.

1/22/2004, convened 6:15pm

Attendance: Rachel Houghton, Maralee Sauter, Wyn Bowler, Theresa Shelton, 
Christie Graunke, Kymm Nelsen, Jean Richardson, Kellie Pierce, Patti 
Loverink, and Deb Layton.

Last month’s meeting minutes approved and seconded.

Treasurer’s report (RP not present; report distributed)
$260 profit from program meeting.
January reimbursement should be coming in soon.

Programs Report (MS and JR)
The February meeting will be held at Techtronics. The topic is 
“Informational Architecture is Not Quite What You Think.” Cold food, coffee, 
and possibly desert will be served.  Techtronics is a potential location for 
future meetings.

In March, the New Member Orientation will be held at the Greenwood Inn, but 
may be reduced from one hour to thirty minutes.

We also discussed possible meeting locations for April, May, and June.


Zoomerang Report (TW not present; report distributed)
Worked with Maralee to launch the January 2004 survey.  There were 10 
responses.

Launched the 2003 Survey of Salaries and Rates for Technical Communicators 
on January 20th.  So far, there are 124 responses.  Tom has invited sister 
organizations--CHIFOO, ASTD, SECP, ASI, and IPN--to send their members to 
the URL survey.  About 200 responses are needed for a good sample.

Got the Zoomerang subscription renewed thanks to Rachel.  Our subscription 
is now good for the next year.  It expires on 1/22/2005.


Newsletter Report (KC)
We discussed the need for more involvement from members for the newsletter. 
Suggestions included recruiting senior members, PCC students, and students 
in the PSU Master’s program.

The newsletter will be moving to PDF format. Kevin and Erica will have a 
proposal ready to present at the March or April Business Meeting.


Upcoming Elections and Nominations (KN)
Elections will close on March 31st.  It was suggested that we narrow and 
better define the roles of our officers and of the President. We will use 
Zoomerang ballots and snail mail.

A proposal was brought up to amend the bylaws, eliminating the issue of 
succession.  Currently, being President requires a 5-year commitment.  
Proposed benefits included minimizing yearly commitment, improvement of the 
nomination process, allow for rethinking of officer roles.  This issue will 
be submitted to the Administrative Council for discussion at the February 
meeting.  Christy is going to devise a draft of possible scenarios for 
restructuring elections.  We will still aim for a March 31st closing of 
elections.


Web Report (WB)
Wyn has been assigning web work to volunteers.  Currently, links are being 
fixed and the Competition, Calendar, and Volunteer pages are being updated.


Publicity (SL not present; report distributed)
Winter mailing went out late December.  Weekly mailings have been going out 
with no problems.


Competition Report (CG)
The Awards Banquet will be held on February 5th at the Mallory Hotel in the 
Crystal Room.


SIG Report (MH not present; report distributed)
Only five individuals attended the 1/14 meeting w/David Larsen of 
eWorldMedia. (One RSVP, but didn't show.)

The meeting room at the Capitol Hill Library apparently has neither an 
Internet connection nor reception for wireless access (and David's laptop is 
equipped w/a wi-fi card), so his presentation had to be scaled down. 
However, despite these limitations, the program was a success, based on 
attendee's questions and other feedback.

Upcoming Programs, Feb. - May 2004
Wed., 2/11: Dr. Arkady Mak, Medical Writing Made Simpler, Beaverton Business 
Center at the Round.
Wed., 3/11: Frank Spillers, Experience Dynamics, Capitol Hill Library: He 
will discuss a topic TBD, but one generally associated with analyzing user 
interfaces for the Web and graphic software.


Employment Report (KP)
We discussed discontinuing the PayPal method of payment for non-member 
subscriptions.  Thus far, this method has been unreliable.  It was decided 
that Kellie, Teresa, and Russell would work together to resolve this matter.

Kellie brought up the issue of posting jobs that are not directly submitted 
through the web site.

Kellie proposed allowing companies and local/contract temp agencies to 
subscribe to our job list for free.  The potential benefits include: reminds 
companies of our presence and allows them to see what’s going on in the 
local market.