STC Australia Chapter... whats the point?

We're now well and truly into the new year. I just renewed my membership, and was sure to pay extra and nominate Australia as my regional chapter.

Have you renewed? Are you thinking of joining? Have you ever wondered "what is the point of joining a chapter?"

 $25 is, after all, $25.

I thought it was a good exercise to start off the year with a look at the promise of chapter membership.

The STC Australia Chapter's official website has this to say about what we aim to provide:

Purposes of the Australia Chapter

(taken from the Chapter's Constitution)
The purposes for which the Chapter was formed are:

1. to provide a forum where Australian technical communicators can discuss their work
2. to adopt strategies that support active participation by members, irrespective of their location throughout Australia
3. to promote industry and public awareness about technical communications and technical communicators within Australia
4. to provide services for Australian technical communicators in the form of meetings, publications, seminars and conferences
5. to assist in establishing and maintaining high standards of technical communication
6. to engage in research, education, and publishing activities designed to advance the theory and practice of technical communication
7. to guide and inform students and to aid educational institutions in the establishment of curricula for training in technical communication
8. to operate within the rules and guidelines established by the Society of Technical Communicators (Inc)
9. to establish and maintain liaison with other organisations in all matters affecting technical communicators as a group
10. to do everything necessary and proper in connection with or incidental to the above purposes

When I look at this list, I see three things.
1) An admirable list of goals.
2) A lot of work.
3) An opportunity to define the benefits of membership with members.

This is what we're currently promising you, as a chapter member, or potential chapter member. In my mind, each of these promises is worth exploration on its own.

Over the next month or so, that is exactly what we'll be doing here. One promise at a time, we'll go over the constitution of the chapter, and try to put each of these things in perspective. Hopefully, some readers will be inclined to comment here, or on the Facebook page.

I'm looking forward to working on this series, and hopefully, finding out what STC Australia Chapter members want of their chapter.