History of the Toronto chapter

Capsule history

This is just a thumbnail sketch of our history. People, events, and initiatives have been left out. Please send contributions, corrections, and insights to the Webmaster.

• In 1959, the chapter was formed as part of the Society of Technical Writers (STW).
• Many of the members wrote documentation for aircraft mechanics, so dinner meetings were held near the airport (Malton, at the time).
• In 1971, the organization changed its name to the Society for Technical Communication (STC).
• In the mid-1970s, the chapter became dormant, but our Director-Sponsor, Rennie Charles, carried it as an inactive chapter. (Among his other accomplishments, Rennie Charles started the Business Communications programme at Ryerson.)
• In the mid-1980s, Ann Rockley went to Rennie Charles with the idea of reviving the chapter, and called the first meeting of the new era.
• The chapter grew quickly, with a majority of computer documentation specialists.
• One of our first and continuing projects was to produce and mail ten newsletters a year.
• We started special interest groups (SIGs) with separate meetings.
• For some years, there was an STC Toronto West branch with a greater emphasis on freelancers' interests.
• The chapter in Waterloo was nurtured as a branch formed by members who lived west of Toronto.
• In 1989, the chapter put on a 3-day regional conference as a dress rehearsal for hosting the international conference. With Ann Rockley as general manager, it was a huge success and the basis of the chapter's prosperity ever since.
• Rennie Charles died suddenly of a heart attack. The chapter instituted an award to honour him.
• We put on education days with one or more concurrent sessions. This unglamorous and largely thankless task was run for several years by Roy Hartshorn with the unofficial but very welcome help of his wife, Heather Hartshorn.
• in 1997, with Michelle Hutchinson as general manager and about 250 volunteers, the chapter hosted the international conference. It went off without a hitch. It was the largest up to that time, the best ever, and the first to issue proceedings on CD-ROM (thanks to Ann Rockley).
• The chapter held technical illustrations contests and technical publications contests. Roy Hartshorn designed detailed guidelines for judging and scoring, which are now being used internationally.
• We also instituted trading of publications to be judged with other chapters, to insure impartial judging. We started to hold awards banquets to celebrate the winners.
• David Gow organized a very successful awards banquet with Knowlton Nash as the guest speaker.
• We started one of the first online documentation contests in North America, organized by Tony Alderson.
• Carla Salvador and Diane Whitehouse came up with the successful idea of wrapping an Education Day around an awards luncheon.
• The job bank, originally a voice mail system, quickly became a lure for new members.
• And then there was a Web site. Rob Milkovich was one of the forces behind it.
• Stan Wilson, Carolyn Watt, and others held management planning sessions to help guide the chapter into the future.
• Internationally, our entries won prizes at the international contest, our newsletter won best of show twice, and our chapter received achievement awards.
• Members such as Carolyn Watt were founding members of the Canadian Issues SIG and help with chapter planning at the international level.
• We started outreach to universities and colleges, and contributed to the development of technical communications programmes. Many of our senior members still teach and advise in those programmes.

These people have been honoured by the Society.