Notes from 56th International STC Conference
Atlanta, Georgia, May 2-5, 2009

Leadership Day

Reorganize, Revamp, Revitalize, and Stay Relevant: How STC Toronto Survives Tough Times

Bernard Aschwanden, President, Toronto Chapter

Session Description: Toronto Chapter’s strategy to survive the recession.

• Load your Administrative Council with action-oriented individuals prepared to deal with the crisis situation.
• Reduce cost of putting on meetings
• Volunteer time was reaching intolerable levels; bring it under control
• Speaker quality, attrition was an issue ... too many meetings.
• No pattern to meetings; 20-30 people at a meeting, at least 15 the same core group ... obviously not appealing to the majority of the membership
• Program manager under enormous pressure; burnout
• Promoting meetings ... need to do more in the new media.
• Action 1: cut # of meetings from 10 to 5. Alternate with socials.
• Action 2: multiple locations
• Action 3: include full-day and other organizations
• Action 4: extend promotion to other organizations
• Link to charts of presentation for the full model ... bernard@publishingsmarter.com