Comments on: The Prez Dispenser: Blogging with Cindy Currie

By: rick

rick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:46:57 +0000

Patrick: The Technical Editing SIG lists many jobs outside of the US (including Ireland). Please see the SIG’s employment page http://www.stc-techedit.org/Employment for details.

By: Patrick Leahy

Patrick Leahy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:45:16 +0000

For me, based in Dublin, Ireland, STC means the Intercom magazine and little else. When I was a fresh–or fizzy–member I submitted suggestions such as widening the job-search database so that it included jobs available in Europe or wheeling STC around so that it became a truly international organisation. Sorry, the job-search database would lead you to believe that there are no technical writing jobs available outside North America (including Canada) and India.
So, what do members want–besides an international jobs database ?
Well, how about an intelligent search engine for Intercom articles so that you can find the information that you need. A search engine that would allow you to enter keywords to find information regardless of the title of the article or the year of publication. Intercom provides some exceptional articles on estimation and project management.
How about a list of employment agencies that specialise in technical writing?
How about survival articles for technical writers who need to work in foreign countries? Such articles should provide information on how to set up a bank account, how to find a place to live and so on.
Here’s one other idea, which is purely self-serving, give STC members who do not qualify for relief because they have recently been made redundant, three months grace before you cancel their membership. When they renew, you can backdate the membership so STC does not incur any financial loss.
We need to focus on providing technical writers with the information that they need to get work and to do the work that they get.

By: Destry Wion

Destry Wion — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:50:26 +0000

I would just like to say that “The Prez Dispenser” is brilliant (I assume it’s original) and it should become the actual name of this blog, which not only gives it a blog-worthy title, but also adds a much needed human element (an important figure in this case) to the stovepipe communication. Who better to be addressing STC members than the president herself (and every president thereafter).

By contrast, the title “STC’s Notebook” has about as much zing [1] as a deflated balloon. Even the author field, “STC-Office” (why is there a hyphen?) couldn’t be more distant. Why doesn’t it say “Cindy Currie”?

Little (arguably big) things like this mean a lot! Don’t forget the little things in all that “high alert” scrambling. More importantly, never think something is done simply because it’s launched. Make it modus operandi to always tweak and improve on a regular basis. Always.

[1] – http://www.alistapart.com/articles/words-that-zing/

By: rick

rick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:28:07 +0000

>
>It’s important for communities to know now that we will fund them in 2011 and beyond, so please be assured of this.
>

How about some of the easy, fast, and free ways that STC.org (HQ) can support its communities:
1. Add Chapter/SIG events to the STC calendar (http://stc.org/edu/relatedEvents01.asp). The fact that the calendar is blank (and has been as long as I can remember), is… um…. er…. not good.
2. Add additional Chapter/SIG information (such as syndicating the Community/SIG’s RSS feed) to each Chapter/SIG’s information paragraph (http://stc.org/membership/chapter-search.asp). Just like we used to have on the.. um… er… STC wiki.
3. Create a Chapter/SIG “dashboard” where members (and potential) members can see “what’s going on” in each community. If the folks can see (and compare) what is happening in Chapter XXXXX or SIG YYYYY, the’ll be more inclined to join.

The Chapers/SIGs have stepped up and helped out HQ by returning the surplus funds. I’d love to see HQ turn around and support us.

Just some suggestions…

By: Milan Davidovic

Milan Davidovic — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:44:17 +0000

“So, these differences among members, then, lead to some difficulty in determining “what members want.” ”

Shouldn’t “what members want” be to achieve strategic plan goals and thereby work toward the vision and mission expressed at http://www.stc.org/about/ ?

By: Larry Kunz

Larry Kunz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:33:27 +0000

Cindy, I expect that the silent majority doesn’t think about these things all that much. They’ve entrusted the hard decision making to their elected leaders, from whom they expect wise leadership and accountability. From my viewpoint I’d say that the current leaders are doing their jobs very well.

You mentioned some of the ways in which STC members differ, but you left out two of the biggest ones: age and employment status.

I strongly suspect that a 30-year old STC member and a 55-year old member have very different expectations of what a professional society should be. We need to take the pulse of those younger members because, of course, they represent STC’s future. As strategic planning manager for the Society, I’m looking forward to doing just that.

By employment status I mean full-time employee, contractor, business owner, or unemployed. The full-time employees want to know that STC is there when they need training or guidance. Those on the other end of the spectrum might rely on STC more heavily — or at least differently — as a place for networking and even as a way to define themselves as professionals.

Thanks for this thoughtful and detailed update, Cindy. Reinventing STC takes time, as you say. But we’re moving in the right direction.