Final Post as Chapter President

Hey everyone,

This will be my last post on this blog. After the conference, or maybe during the conference, Howard is going to take over. I'm leaving tomorrow to go to the conference in Philadelphia. I am really looking forward to it. Mike has arranged for our booth to be shipped and we will staff it. He has even volunteered his wife to staff it some of the time! Thank you, Mike, and to your wife. The chapter really appreciates it.

Speaking of Mike, on Monday, Mike will be installed as the Society 2nd Vice President. On Tuesday, I will be at the banquet with a number of our chapter members to cheer as Mike becomes an STC Fellow. This is really a time for celebration for our chapter.

On Sunday, Howard, Holly, Jen, I and others will be on hand for Leadership Day and to receive our chapter's award as a Chapter of Excellence! This is an honor and is a result of some very hard work by numerous chapter members.

I have put on my list to attend several of our members' sessions. I know Debbie Doyle presents on Tuesday at 1:30 PM. I'm looking forward to, "So, You Can Write. But Can You Think?" It does sound intriguing. I present with the Lone Writers' Progression on Wednesday. If there are any of you presenting, let me know. I would like to attend as many member presentations as I can this year.

Looking through the schedule of presentations, I have highlighted at least 3 in each time frame. I don't know how I can choose. The list I have doesn't have presenters listed, so maybe that will be a way I can trim my list. There are many presenters I love to hear.

Anyway, as my last official duty as your chapter president, I would like to thank everyone involved in the chapter. This has been a wonderful, if sometimes difficult, year for me. I owe it to all of you.

Thanks for everything,
Al

Jean-luc Doumont to Speak at Currents!

We have tried very hard, especially Holly Harkness, our Immediate Past President, to secure Jean-luc as a speaker/presenter for the annual Currents conference. If you have heard Jean-luc speak at the STC International conference or elsewhere, you understand why! His talk on signs at this year's conference was one of the highlights for me. He is a dynamic speaker and will greatly add to the significance of our conference.

Thanks Holly for keeping with this effort and finally securing Jean-luc's services. I can't wait!

Leadership Day

Leadership Day is the day that leaders or those who want to be leaders are provided with the opportunity to learn how to be a Society leader. There were many interesting and informative sessions on many different topics. I will blog more about the sessions in another post.

What I want to say is that our chapter is a Chapter of Excellence!! Thanks to the leadership of Holly and the council, we have been recognized by the Society as an example for other chapters to strive for. Everyone in the chapter, especially our wonderful volunteers, that put enormous time and effort into our programs and events are to be congratulated! Without our volunteers, there would be no chapter and definitely no award!

Congratulations Atlanta!