Canadian Community

Back in May, in response to a blog post of mine, Michèle Marques commented that the deductibility of STC dues was discussed on the stc-ca-l list. From a search of my own message archive, it appears this discussion took place before I subscribed to the list. Can anyone post a summary of that discussion here? If you can point to particular CRA documentation that relates to dues deductability, that would be a bonus. Tax time is coming…

Thanks.

Milan Davidovic
STC Toronto

December is the time of year to kick back, relax, enjoy friends, family, colleagues, festivities, and food! The Toronto STC executive would like to invite you to share some good cheer with your fellow technical communicators.

Tonight’s get-together is being held at:
MILESTONE’S RESTAURANT
5095 Yonge St,
Toronto, ON
(North of Sheppard Ave)

Milestone’s is across the street from Mel Lastman Square and can be easily seen from the street. Just go on in and let them know that you are with Toronto STC.

Kitty MacAlpine posted this story to the STC Forum. Has anything like this happened to any other STC chapters in Canada? If so, could we get the story posted here?

Milan Davidovic
STC Toronto

You may be aware that a new version of the STC Community Handbook has been released, and can be downloaded from the Leadership Community Resource page. Members of the Global Strategies Committee, of which I am one, have been asked to provide feedback. I looked through the Handbook for things that could be a problem for Canadian members of the Society, and found none.

That’s not necessarily the end of it, though. I might not have spotted something that one of you would have. And because the Handbook is supposed to be globally applicable, perhaps it would be useful to come up with our own supplement to the Handbook. Such a supplement could address:

• Topics in the Handbook from a Canadian perspective.
• Topics not in the Handbook that would be useful for STC communities in Canada.

So, please have a look at the Handbook and leave a comment if you have some thoughts on it.

–
Milan Davidovic
Canadian Issues SIG Liaison to the Global Strategies Committee

Judging from this, it looks as though countries in the STC world are taking it into their own hands to start establishing reliable occupation-related data on technical communicators.

Myself, I haven’t yet “caught the bug” on this issue; I wonder if there are STC members here in Canada who would champion a similar effort.

Milan Davidovic, STC Toronto

So, it appears that STC has struck a committee to help improve how it functions as a global organization. The other day, Michèle Marques got in touch with me and asked if I’d be interested in being our SIG’s liaison to that committee, and I agreed to give it a try.

There’s no particular job description that goes with this gig, so I’m interpreting it as follows:

• If SIG members (or other Canadian STC members) have something to say about how STC supports and accommodates its Canadian members, I can relay it to the committee.
• When the committee does stuff, I’ll let the SIG know about it.

So, if you’ve got something to say, let me know. Otherwise, stay tuned…

–Milan Davidovic, STC Toronto

If you’re a member of the STC Canadian Community or an officer in one of the Canadian STC chapters, you’re welcome to become a contributor. Just leave a comment to this message to this message about one or more topic areas on which you’d like to post, and I will get in touch with you.

- Michele Marques, Manager, Canadian Issues SIG