2010 – renewing membership in STC and the SIG

It’s renewal time for STC members. After a turbulent summer with financial worries, our STC president, Cindy Currie has news about the dues and the effort to find an appropriate solution for all of us. Her complete announcement is on the STC Notebook blog. Please read the complete story, including the fees, over there. This post is SIG-only: it highlights how this SIG is affected.

How is this SIG affected?

In brief, the financing of this SIG is unchanged. You see, SIGs have been doing zero-based budgets for several years now. This means that we prepare a budget, like a business, and say that we expect to use X amount of money for this-and-that. If the budget is approved by the board, we can go ahead and spend that money, and we are reimbursed as payments are made throughout the year for this-and-that.

There does tend to be a relation to size, although that might be old habits not wanting to die. We must think of how the expense will benefit the SIG members. If the project was huge and all-encompassing, well, then it might not be a SIG-only project and we might chose to collaborate with other STC communities and not budget for it within our SIG. A lot of this is planning with your common-sense gene activated!

(As a side note, the chapters will do zero-based budgets for the first time this year. To some, it seems like they will not be getting the $25 per member that they received previously. True, they will not get it outright. They must budget to show what money they will need during the fiscal year.)

What expenses does this SIG have?

When SIGs plan their expenses, they have to think about what expenses they will incur to offer certain services to their members. Any expense should, ethically, benefit as many members as possible. A practical example is conference “SWAG” – the giveaways for conferences. The hosting of this website is paid for by the SIG. We bought books for a raffle instead of buying SWAG at the Atlanta conference. We are virtual, so we are not concerned with payment for renting facilities for meetings. There are virtual activities that can incur expenses – and provide income, such as webinars, but we are small. We also believe in infiltration, uh, manipulation, uh, highlighting how accessibility is universal. Therefore, our members often discuss accessibility outside the SIG, such as in conference progressions on usability, management, academia, and other areas where accessibility is part of that picture. If we all go off evangelizing about accessibility elsewhere, do we need this SIG at all?

How does the SIG contribute to STC members?

Our (huge) contribution to all members is the annual accessibility conference guide. This is initiated by the SIG, but, again, involves non-SIG members (usually the local chapter) to provide information to help all members, including those with disabilities, to prepare for the conference.

What value do YOU expect from the SIG and STC?

Discussions about the value of STC are found in closed lists or open spaces, such as Twitter or other community blogs. For example, the STC Rocky Mountain chapter has posted some articles with member opinions about renewal recently. http://stcrmc.org/wordpress/?p=41 and http://stcrmc.org/wordpress/?p=42. STC Rocky Mountain chapter member Tom Johnson posted the results of a renewal survey on his blog.

What value do you find in our SIG and how will that influence your decision to renew your STC – and SIG – membership for 2010? Discuss in the comments!

What value can YOU add to the SIG and STC?

This information will be added by you in the comments here.