July 2002
Chapter meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month, September thru June. Occasionally, we have to reschedule due to holidays, and September presents that very challenge. So our first meeting for the 2002/2003 chapter year is Tuesday, September 10. Location TBA.
Plan now to attend the planning sessions for the 2002/2003 chapter year. This is your chapter, and your involvement is critical to a successful year. We know some of you have a ways to drive, but this is your opportunity to make STC work for you, so plan to attend.
The first planning session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30, 6:30 p.m. at Pontious Farm in White Heath, Illinois. If this does not work for you, and you really really want to participate, let Laura know a.s.a.p. so we can reschedule. LALaCombe@aol.com
Pontious Farm is in White Heath, about 15 miles west of Champaign on I-72. Take the White Heath exit, turn right at the top of the exit ramp. Turn slightly right at the first intersection past the fire station (you can also turn totally right there, but slightly right will do.) Head up the hill, past the school, to the T intersection. Turn right. Go straight past the ball park on up the lane.
The second planning session is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, August 27.
Come to both sessions, or even just one, and put your $.02 into your chapter's
year. We'll be organizing meeting topics and events, committee activities and
officers, and chapter goals and objectives. White Heath is a short hour from
Springfield, and the time goes by quickly when you carpool. Plus, you may be
able to grab some of the best blueberries in the world, so BE THERE.
Meet Our New Officers
Election results are in and congratulations go to Laura LaCombe, chapter president, and Lisa Denlinger, chapter treasurer. Lisa and Laura want to thank everyone for their participation in the election. We have some tough acts to follow and are looking forward to a year of continued growth and member involvement, and guidance from our predecessors.
Congratulations also to Marty Atwater, who formally accepted the vice-presidency.
We are still in need of a secretary, which involves taking minutes at the meetings. Feel the need to get involved? Just let Laura know.
***Laura LaCombe, Chapter President***
Laura LaCombe, your new chapter president, is an independent technical and marketing
communications consultant. She works in her home office in Williamsville, IL
(15 miles north of Springfield on I-55), where she resides with her college
bound daughter, skittish cat, four lizards, Oscar and Elvis the gay goldfish,
and a school of Danios who are in the witness protection program. She's hoping
Oscar, Elvis, and the lizards go to college with the kid.
Laura has been a technical/marketing communications professional for over 16 years, providing quality, effective and usable communications in print, online, and multimedia formats. She has provided services for broadcasting, government, transportation, engineering, software development/startups, performing arts, education, telecommunications, health care, and network implementation/management companies that enhance their company image and improve the bottom line.
Laura graduated from Iowa State University with Bachelor's degrees in business and telecommunicative arts. In her off hours, Laura plays the violin in the Illinois Symphony and the Millikin/Decatur Symphony orchestras, and is a founding member and manager of the Lincoln Land String Quartet. Laura is looking forward to contributing to the continued success of the STC Central Illinois Chapter.
***Marty Atwater, Chapter Vice President***
Martha Atwater has been involved in computer-based education and training for
over 17 years as a development manager, instructional designer, programmer,
documenter, consultant and trainer. Her work has centered around the development
of computer-based and stand up training materials and has involved budgeting,
supervision, planning, reporting, documentation and proposal writing.
Ms. Atwater understands the driving principles of successful education and can transform a set of goals into a cost-effective solution. She analyzes needs, designs solutions, and delivers educationally sound and affordable training.
Throughout her career, Ms. Atwater has consistently built motivated development teams that deliver products on schedule and under budget. She has innovated processes and procedures that have drastically increased the speed of courseware development while enhancing quality, lowering production costs, and pushing the technical boundaries. A cornerstone of her approach is the development of online instructional strategies that can be reused across varying learning domains.
Ms. Atwater has managed teams of resources in the development of large-scale multimedia projects covering a wide range of learning domains, including public school education, various government agencies, and the airline, automobile, merchandising, paper, insurance, computer hardware, and computer software industries.
Over the years Ms. Atwater has helped hundreds of educators and trainers realize the potential of technology as a tool for teaching and learning and to translate their message to an online format.
As a public school and college educator, she has designed, developed, and delivered educational strategies and curriculum. Ms. Atwater has Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester. She has also completed extensive coursework in computer programming, systems analysis, database design, and systems design.
***Lisa Denlinger, Chapter Treasurer***
Lisa Denlinger graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Scientific Communication
from Ohio State University. She did freelance work as a writer while in college.
Currently, she is employed as a Technical Marketing Writer at Wolfram Research,
Inc. Lisa has been a member of the Central Illinois Chapter of STC for one year.
Lisa lives in Champaign with her husband and Albert the guinea pig. She enjoys
the Potters Club sponsored by the Champaign Parks District (http://www.prairienet.org/potters/).
Lisa is looking forward to another exciting year in STC where she intends to
increase our membership and try to expand our member-pool geographically to
serve members in Springfield, Decatur, and Peoria.