President's Message
by Jean Fudge

Welcome back, after a nice summer break. The Southwest Ohio (SWO) chapter of STC is ready to start a new year. Please allow me to introduce our administrative team:

• President – Jean Fudge – president@stc-swo.org
• Vice President – Judy Harper – vp@stc-swo.org
• Immediate Past President – Sarah Wigser– pastpres@stc-swo.org
• Treasurer – David Kimmel – treasurer@stc-swo.org
• Secretary – Karen Stille– secretary@stc-swo.org
• Chapter SIG Coordinator – John Humpert – sig@stc-swo.org
• Employment Team Lead – Louise Tincher – employment@stc-swo.org
• Membership Lead – Rebecca (Edgerton) Forrest – membership@stc-swo.org
• Newsletter Lead – David Michel – newsletter@stc-swo.org
• Program Lead – Kayte Rudolph – program@stc-swo.org
• Web Lead – Chris Schapman – webmaster@stc-swo.org

Over the summer, big changes also took place at the top level of STC, and some of them have relatively local overtones:

• The executive director of STC, Peter Herbst, is resigning. Thea Teich, SWO STC member (and former president of STC), is chairing the Interim Director committee that is charged with ensuring that Society office functions continue to run smoothly until a permanent Executive Director is in place.

• Mike Bates, STC's first vice president, resigned his position on the board of directors effective August 12, 2005. Mike's family is expanding and he feels he will not be able to commit the time required to serve on the board for the remainder of his term. Mike, who is from the Cleveland area, was our director sponsor for several years.

As I pondered these local connections, I realized that they are not SWO’s only connection to the top levels of STC. Our chapter is really extraordinary, in that we have some extremely active members, including:

• Pam Ecker, of Cincinnati State University, is in charge of the program for the 2006 STC Conference in Las Vegas.
• Sandy Harner, of Cedarville University, is on the STC Board of Directors as assistant to the president for Academic and Research Programs.
• Several SWO members spoke at the international conference and at various regional conferences. We hope to have some of them share those presentations with us at our local meetings later this year.
• Our Public Relations team (Sarah Wigser and Amy Kearns) won a distingished award from STC.
• Our newsletter team (led by Denise Roberts) won an award of excellence from STC.
• Our entire chapter (led by Sarah Wigser) won an award of excellence from STC.

I’m looking forward to this new year, as we try to enrich you on both a professional and personal basis. Please join me.

Sincerely,
Jean Fudge, President, SWO STC