All English majors in the Tech Comm concentration:

Here is the decription of Student Liaison to the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication

The office of student liaison to STC/ETC is a managerial position; students in this position must therefore be current members of STC. Student liaisons are chosen by the current president of STC/ETC, or approved by the president after he has reviewed recommendations from chapter members. Student liaisons must work within the budget set by the chapter president and the executive committee, and they must attend the monthly executive committee meetings of STC/ETC, arriving prepared to give their report of activities and to participate in committee actions. In general, the job of student liaisons is to promote STC to fellow students, primarily UTK students, and to involve them in STC activities. Here are some specific ways they might do this:

1. Educational/promotional meetings. For example, student liaisons might organize one meeting per semester for the purpose of educating students about the field of technical communication, promoting STC, discussing the job market, and announcing STC-related meetings and other activities. These meetings could involve presentations by members of STC on topics of interest to students. Liaisons would be responsible for all aspects of the meeting: arranging for speakers, publicizing the event, arranging for a meeting room (this includes checking on or providing for any necessary AV equipment), and arranging for refreshments (if any). Meeting rooms for such student activities are available free on UTK campus.

2. Membership promotion. This could take place not only at the promotional meetings mentioned in point #1, but in many other contexts: at chapter meetings, in classrooms, on the Internet, through personal conversations, etc.

3. Classroom announcements and other forms of publicity. Liaisons could appear in appropriate classes periodically to announce chapter meetings, conferences, STC-sponsored community services, etc. They could also disseminate such information via flyers, posters, e-mail, newspaper articles, and other appropriate media.

4. Student Conference promotion. Liaisons should promote the annual Region 3 STC Student Conference, not only making sure that students are well informed about it but also encouraging them to submit proposals to it and to attend it. They should stay in touch with conference managers to keep abreast of conference developments.

5. Consultation with UTK faculty representative. Liaisons must consult with the director of the UTK Tech Comm program (at present, Dr. Russel Hirst) about their activities.

6. Record keeping and "torch passing." Liaisons should keep journals of their activities, including helpful contacts, sources of information, successes, problems, and suggestions. They will pass on this information to their successors. The chapter president will ask departing liaisons for recommendations about successors.