W.C. Wiese: Member Questions & Answers
W.C. Wiese
Director Questions & Candidate Answers | Member Questions & Candidate Answers
Please describe what you PERSONALLY will be doing to encourage members to renew their membership in STC before the 28 February 2010 deadline.
Like you, John, I’ve presented frequently on the difference STC has made in my career and in the careers of 5 friends who demonstrate STC’s capacity to support professional growth. For the Orlando Chapter, I continue to manage an Active Member program that extends STC recognition into the workplace.
Please provide an elevator speech that a member could use to explain to his or her boss why being a member in STC is important.
“Boss, please don’t ask me to join STC. I might benefit from access to its knowledge and publication archives, networking with my professional counterparts, discovering mentors who can answer my questions, and improving my skills through STC training programs and conferences. It might also help me find a better job.”
What is your position regarding technical communicator certification? What—if any—types of certification do you see appropriate for STC to endorse or provide?
I have supported and admired Steve Jong’s excellent leadership in this area. However, I’ve never seen the line form behind him that demonstrated the membership was interested in it, and it could be very costly for STC to develop a legally defensible certification program.
I’d like to find a middle ground. What we can teach is best practice mastery of a process conforming to international standards for our primary communication products. STC would leverage this mastery to set our membership apart from less skilled practitioners in the workplace. Time to market could be quick. Providing a standardized STC expertise in DITA, Web 2.0, Sarbanes-Oxley, or Usability fits my concept.
One concern we’ve been hearing from many is that STC isn’t relevent to younger technical communicators… that STC isn’t progressive or innovative enough to suit their needs. How do you respond to this and what—if anything—would you change about how STC recruits and retains members in order to address this concern?
I strongly believe in partnerships. Last summer, I completed a study with the Presidents of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and American Society for Indexing to see how we might help each other. One of these organizations primarily supports freelancers, and 25 percent of their membership attends their profitable conference each year. The other shares a classroom with future STC members everyday.
This discussion needs to go further so that each organization can harvest best practices to more effectively meet member needs.
What changes would you advocate making to improve Society/Member communication?
STC has made unprecedented strides during the past 2 years to communicate with members, particularly regarding challenges. STC.org has been routinely updated with member information, and email blasts to members have increased. Unfortunately, much of the news hasn’t been cheery.
Who would you like to hear more from?
What is your position regarding STC’s use of social media, and how do you see it being used going forward both within the Society and publicly on the web?
It’s essential. Sustaining STC means providing value and opportunities to the generation of future members and leaders that STC must now serve.
From many discussions in many different channels, it sounds like 2010-11 is going to be a period of winning back members’ trust, faith, and in some cases, their actual membership. What improvements, changes, or plans do you have for your role that will positively affect members?
To survive, we must meet the needs of young professionals and students. That means STC must engage them sooner, learn to speak in new ways, use more communication channels, and address early-career professional needs. STC must also be about jobs. We must do more to help members find the opportunities they seek, raise perception of STC’s value, and research and share economic metrics that quantify the impact of what we do. (I note your certification question.)
Susan Burton, in her Nov 10 blog post (http://notebook.stc.org/exec-direct-blogging-with-susan-burton), said that “the board always speaks with one voice”. What does this mean to you? Do you think “speaking with one voice” will affect the decisions you make? Do you feel comfortable carrying the board’s voice even if you disagree with the message?
With previous service to the board, I will tell you that I frequently expressed an opposing view to the board majority during discussion. But, in a process worse than a 3-legged race, we either pick one direction or go nowhere at all.
I recognize the importance of a single message— particularly with STC membership that tends to have multiple interpretations. Once a decision is taken, all members need to understand and accept it.
I would not be running for the board if I didn’t want to have a voice in these decisions.
How would you propose to make international chapters like Canada feel more like they are a part of the bigger organization?
The larger question is how STC improves its partnership with all chapters. STC has not been free to focus on chapter issues over the past year, and the resources for sharing best practices and helping chapters expand member services have been missing. Implementation of zero-based budgeting has also reduced trust. On the other hand, no two chapters seem to have the same expectation of STC.
I’d hope the board will act on these shortfalls and restore sufficient local autonomy for you to market new members and provide the growth opportunities members require.
What would you do to convince Canadian members that they should pay the same membership dues as Americans, when many of the STC services do not apply to Canada?
Which services? Even STC’s outstanding work with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to provide insights that any member anywhere can benefit from.
In my experience, the cost to service international chapters is higher than in the United States as a result of currency exchange, US tax laws, differences in banking rules, chapter legal standing, time zones, and misunderstanding of STC’s services. This is often made worse by discounting memberships in developing countries, which are primarily subsidized by North American members. Should STC continue to be an international organization when it requires so much more effort?
Are you aware that the International Affiliation Agreement is currently being reworked, and what do you think it should contain?
As governed by the laws of the United States, and complicated by Homeland Security legislation, STC’s trust relationships with international chapters are no longer sufficient.
I would expect the Affiliation Agreement to commit chapters to become a legal entity and to share STC’s mission and goals, accept STC’s bylaws and code of ethics, provide for responsible management of finances, and protect their officers from liability.
W.C. Wiese
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