Handouts for the Leadership Program at the STC Summit 2015.

1. Resource Sharing for
Low Volunteer Communities
David L. Caruso - @dccd – GreaterPittsburghSTC@gmail.com
1. Connections
a. Geographic - Are there other communities within driving
distance?
b. Employment
i. What are the top employment sectors within your
region? Education, Health Care, Energy
ii. What other communities share these? How can you
leverage that shared domain?
• Energy – Houston & Pittsburgh
• Education – Austin & Pittsburgh
iii. Specific employers with multiple locations
c. Competition/Mentoring
d. Special Interests/SIGs
2. Resource Sharing
a. Speakers
i. Live in home location – virtual in remote location
ii. Exchange – speakers travel to each other’s city with
costs covered in kind
iii. Collaborative – speakers work with each other to
present live with the other on line (or phone) to
answer questions.
b. Web hosting/development/WordPress implementation
c. Software/Tools
i. Adobe Connect
ii. Survey/email marketing

2. 3. Honesty with Members
a. Prepare a “State of the Chapter” email once or twice
a year
i. Keeps in touch
ii. Provides honest appraisal of the level of
services you can provide with the amount of
volunteers you have
iii. Opportunity to ask for volunteers
b. What/Why are we “worth saving!” Answer a few
questions to see why your chapter should not only
survive but thrive!
i. Does your city/region have a tie to a key
piece of tech comm history?
ii. Does your chapter have a rich history of
notable STC luminaries?
iii. Are there job markets expanding in your
city/region who could potentially be hiring
communication professionals?
4. Volunteers
a. Break up larger formal roles into tasks or collections
of tasks to make volunteering easier for those who
don’t want a title or too much responsibility.
b. Roles become needs based – what does the chapter
need to survive? Key roles (need to have) and then
optional ones (nice to have).
c. Volunteering = experience. Emphasize the resume
benefits of volunteering and working with others in
their profession.
d. Intangible benefits – soft skills: networking,
relationship building, knowledge exchange. These are
all important in the workplace and are not being
taught in any classroom.