The mission of the Society for Technical Communication is to advance the theory and practice of technical communication across all user abilities and media.

The mission of the San Francisco chapter is to:

• Promote the arts and sciences of technical communication in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Promote career development in the technical communication profession for our members, other colleagues, and students of technical communication
• Promote respect, increased public awareness, and appreciation of the technical communication profession

The San Francisco chapter meets on the third Wednesday evening of each month. Northern California has five other chapters that meet at other times during the month: Berkeley, East Bay, North Bay, Silicon Valley, and Sacramento.

Like all other STC chapters, the San Francisco chapter is run entirely by volunteers. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet other technical communicators and to build your network. For more information, email the Chapter President.

In addition, several annual STC events in Northern California offer many opportunities for volunteering, including the Touchstone Competition.

STC is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. It is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 20,000 members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators - anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it.

Society membership provides opportunities for ongoing learning and professional networking. Through the efforts of a small, full-time staff and a large network of volunteers, STC promotes the public welfare by educating its members and industry about issues concerning technical communication.

STC shares many goals with a number of related organizations. STC invites other organizations to promote the Society's goals through sustaining organization memberships.

STC is governed on a Society level by an elected board of directors. In addition to the Society leaders, each chapter and SIG elects a set of officers.