A Vision for the Chapter

By Joe Christensen on Sunday, August 9, 2009

Although I am a graduate of Utah State University, I am a life-long fan of Utah Athletics. My affections for the Utes began as a small boy. You see, my dad would drag me up to the old Rice Stadium. And I, whenever possible, would drag his old bones down to the hard asphalt in the North end zone. So it probably comes as no surprise that I am currently a Utah Football season ticket holder.

Well as a season ticket holder at the U, I remember November 25, 2006 all too well. For those of you who aren’t huge football fans, this was the date of the 2006 Holy War. Utah was ahead most of the game. In fact, the Utes had a 31-27 lead going into the final drive. That’s when the trouble began. Utah went to a prevent defense. I hate the prevent defense. The prevent defense only prevents a team from winning. And that’s exactly what happened. BYU marched the football up the field. Tick, tick, tick. But finally… it looked as if the Utah Defense might hold. BYU had gotten to the 11, but they had only three seconds left on the clock. One final play. Surely Utah had them.

That’s when the disaster struck. BYU snapped the final play of the game. The Utah Defense put pressure on John Beck. But the little weasel broke free. He went right. Just tackle him already. But it wasn’t to be. Right before John Beck got clobbered by a Utah Defender, he noticed that Johnny Harline had broken free on the far left. John Beck lobbed up an ugly pass. But it was good enough. Harline caught it. Touchdown. BYU wins.

In retrospect, this game and the Johnny Harline catch reminded me of an important fact. Teams, groups, and organization are only as strong as their weakest link. In the case of Utah, a missed assignment in the secondary cost the team a win. And it really doesn’t matter how talented an individual may be. No one can reach their full potential without helping the team succeed first. Even today I believe Utah had more talent on the field. But BYU won because they were the better team.

That’s the point I am trying to make. Teams are important! Teams… groups… organizations… they are always most successful when they work together. They improve when they have a unified vision. And they achieve excellence when people work together, not just for their own betterment, but for the betterment of the team.

It was for this reason—the reason being a sincere desire to improve our chapter (or team)—that the new executive council of the Intermountain-STC chapter met on Saturday, August 1, 2009. During our meeting, we spent much of our time re-evaluating the vision of our chapter. To sum up our meeting (in an extremely short summary), we hope to bring significant value back to our chapter. Although we created outlines for 15 terrific events, this was far from our primary focus. Instead, we worked hard to create a new vision for the chapter. And we developed corresponding goals that support this vision.

But these goals bring me back to teamwork. There is no better way for each of us to improve in our positions as Technical Communicators—not only within our organizations but also within our market—than through a strong, unified team. So this is the vision or goal of your next executive council. We want to facilitate the development of a strong chapter team.

We understand that for each of us, a strong, unified chapter might mean something different. For you, this might be a desire to improve personal knowledge regarding applications or concepts. Maybe it means developing leadership skills. Possibly it means being able to show your organization your value from a Return on Investment (ROI) perspective. Or maybe this simply means networking.

Whatever your situation may be—whether you are a current, active chapter member; a current, inactive chapter member; a technical communicator that allowed your chapter membership to lapse; a technical communicator that’s never joined STC; or a member of a sister organization—we invite you to join us this year in rebuilding the Intermountain-STC Chapter. As an executive council, we truly believe that we can strengthen our profession. But we all believe that this requires a strong team effort.