What a week! The Conference Program Committee team outdid themselves, and I expect next year's conference to be even bigger and better. This year, more than 1400 people attended the conference, and the 79 exhibitors made it the biggest exhibition ever.

Some of the highlights:

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• The board started with two days of meetings. The minutes and slides should be published within the next couple of weeks on the STC site, and if you get a chance, check them out.
• Leadership Day, held on Sunday before the conference starts, was well attended. Executive Director Susan Burton, outgoing President Paula Berger, and incoming President Linda Oestreich all spoke.

  Every time she spoke, Susan presented the same consistent messages: the office has better technology (new phone system, new association management software, and so on). The Society has created new staff positions to better serve members: Director of Education (Lloyd Tucker), Director of Marketing and Membership (Mary Kabza), Director of Community Relations (not yet hired), Interim CFO (Doris Fee), and Interim COO (Laura Skoff).

  Several legal issues have been addressed, including the new bylaws which are so desperately needed to bring us into compliance with New York state law (where STC is incorporated).

  STC is working with the government to update the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for "technical writer", changing the name to "technical communicator" with a more updated definition. (See From Writer to Communicator.) STC members are encouraged to talk to employers, HR personnel, and anyone else who can help spread the word. (The SOC information is used to determine salary ranges.)

  Outgoing President Paula Berger also spoke. Holly Harkness, Immediate Past President for the Atlanta Chapter, recapped Paula's talk at her new blog (Don't Call Me Tina).

  Incoming President Linda Oestreich talked about some of her plans for the next year. The organization chart has been slightly modified, with six primary groups (Governance, Communities, Communication, Business Development, Finance & Audit, and Professional Growth, which includes Outreach, Education, and Recognition).

  The breakout sessions were very popular. Lisa Pappas and I covered community technology, and we had more people than chairs for all three sessions.

• Sunday's opening general session needed more publicity...people didn't know that it was going on. Saul Carliner talked with Ann Rockley, Dr. Michael Hughes, and Nancy Locke about their opinions on technical communication.
• However, the exhibition opening night was a lot of fun, and it looked like everyone knew about it! There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony, which lent a certain "air" to the festivities. I wandered around a bit and caught up with some old friends...one of these days, I'll remember to eat more and talk less ;-) )
• The Annual Meeting and Annual Forum on Monday night were interesting, to say the least. Several chapter presidents made a motion that the board consider creating a Community Funding Task Force, and the last half of the forum was all about community funding. WC Wiese, Treasurer, has already posted an email to the Presidents and Treasurers listservs, which has been repeated on some different chapter sites and on the STC Forums.

I didn't get a chance to attend many sessions...it seemed like I always needed to be somewhere else! But I've heard that several sessions overflowed their rooms (my session on wikis was one of them).

More information will be released over the next month or so. If you're interested in volunteering for anything, or if you want to know where information can be found, send me an email and I'll do what I can to help.