Elections for officers and board of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) are open. Today on Twitter, Peggy Harvey (@paharvey) said she wishes students could vote. I retweeted and replied, “Taxation without representation? If a student cares enough to vote, shouldn’t he/she be able to?” This allusion to the American Revolution was branded later as absurd. I admit that I was using some hyperbole here by making that comparison. I was not in any way suggesting that I think STC is run by tyrants who don’t care about the common man and are interested only in getting money out of us. (No offense to any readers from the United Kingdom.)

What I was highlighting was that student members of STC are paying members and therefore have invested in STC. They are interested in the future of STC, which is directly affected by which officers and board members are elected. I think that if a student member cares enough to vote, he or she should have the ability to do so.

Benefit Number One

I admit that when I was a student member five years ago, I didn’t care enough about happenings at the Society level to vote even if I had had the ability to. But just as in national politics, at least in the United States, many people who have the ability to vote in STC elections don’t take the opportunity to. If STC wants as much participation in the international elections as possible, permitting student members to vote is a way to accomplish that.

Benefit Number Two

Giving student members the ability to vote has another benefit: These members will likely feel more loyalty for STC because they haven’t just paid money into the Society; they’ve also helped select its leadership. STC giving student members a vote shows that they care what the students think. They will be more likely to renew next year, possibly as full members. I think STC could be making a big mistake by continuing to not allow student members to vote. As a chapter president, I’d like for student members within my chapter to vote in chapter elections.

Ignorance Alert

Now, I say all of this without knowing why STC leaders have made the decision to exclude student members from elections. Part of the rationale may be that 1) if students get a significant discount, their benefits should be limited somehow, and 2) by limiting the benefits student members receive, we prevent use of this membership level by people who aren’t actually students. (I don’t mean to doubt the ethics of any STC members or would-be members, but you never know what some people will do to save a few bucks.) STC could verify the enrollment of student members at the educational establishments they name when joining, but that’s extra overhead that we don’t need, particularly right now when STC is trying to reduce overhead.

If you have any insight as to why student members can’t vote or would like to otherwise voice your opinion on the matter, please comment.

And if you’re a member of the STC Ideas Ning network, you can see Bill Swallow’s proposal regarding student member voting.

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