This spring I learned about a group called the Society for Technical Communications, which is basically a group of Technical Writers, Editors, and other similar people who hold seminars about technical writing.
I am currently scoping out the prospect of working as a Director at the tutoring center I currently work at. I am updating my resume, but I am looking at certain aspects of my experience that are kind of lacking.
Namely, there isn’t much beyond school and work experience. I haven’t really done any extracurricular activities whatsoever, and now that college is almost over, I’m kind of kicking myself for not doing something sooner. However, I have one semester left, and I figure since it is my last one, I should motivate myself to do something that would be useful and relevant in my job field. the STC holds monthly meetings and discusses current Techinical Writing nuances. I think learning more about it would help make a great supplement to my existing work experience. The job I am looking at would require me to write documentation, and the better I could write it (in terms of clarity and consistency) the farther I will get in the job.
There is also a Student Society for Technical Communication, which is even better because it is on my own campus, and if I have the time and commitment, I can volunteer to be an Officer. This strikes me as a spiffy thing to put on my Resume, but I wonder if it is worth it.
In any case, I might as well join the SSTC anyway and get some pointers. After I graduate, I can still join the STC (just won’t get the student discount anymore 
)
I’m wondering if any employers out there are interested in things like this on a resume. I’m worried that a lack of diversity might hurt my resume, because the only experience I could show is from previous jobs as well as my education (I have an AA in General Education, and I will have a BA in English this December), though my grades aren’t stellar
Is it reasonable for a student to belong to the STC when there is a SSTC chapter on your campus? While you certainly become a member of either, is your intent to puff up your “credentials” or make a sincere effort to immerse yourself in a professional organization?
If you bill yourself as anything other than an entry level member of the STC, chances are I will assume you are attempting to pull a fast one on me, creating a level of self-importance not back by reality. I would immediately raise suspicions about the rest of your resume. With the current job climate (a buyer’s market) your resume would be circular-filed post haste.
Background/disclaimer: My degrees are in tech writing, but I’ve spent far more time doing interaction design, usability, and program management than “formal” tech writing. I’ve never been involved in hiring loops for writers, but I’ve had writers on teams that I’ve led.
That being said: Based on your OP, you might as well join the STC. I’ve never been particularly overwhelmed by it, but YMMV. It seems to be mostly oriented toward practitioners rather than toward academics (my personal interests lie toward the academic/research side of things, which is why YMMV). I’d be much more impressed if you were a member of the IEEE Professional Communication Society. However, if you’re new to tech writing, you can certainly get some good information out of the STC.
Bear in mind, though, that if you were doing an interview loop with me and I saw that you had a BA in English with less-than-stellar grades, you could be damn sure I’d do a knowledge-oriented interview to see whether you knew your stuff, and I would cut you zero slack based on whether the STC appeared on your resume.
In short: It can’t hurt, you can get some good out of it, but there are other factors that are more important.
I’m a member of STC but will let the membership expire this year, mainly because my “technical writing” job does not involve software documentation or XML.
A good university library should have copies of STC’s quarterly, Technical Communication, and maybe even their monthly, Intercom. In my experience, reading those teaches you everything STC has to offer.
SSTC probably wouldn’t hurt, but my guess is that if you want to impress prospective employers you’d be a lot better off building a portfolio.