Wine & Cheese & Chapter Awards, Oh My!

by Donald Johnstone, Program Manager

On Tuesday, March 7, the STC Southwestern Ontario Chapter once again held its annual Wine and Cheese Networking and Awards event. Insofar as the networking side of things, there were 29 attendees; while most of the faces were familiar, there were many newcomers. Business cards were handed out with reckless abandon. The evening began with the council president, Debbie Kerr, welcoming the crowd and inducing the council members to introduce themselves.

Technical Communicators: the future looks bright!

Thereafter, Pauline Horn took the podium and handed out the Heidi Thiessen Memorial Awards. These are presented to local university students for excellence in technical communications.

This year’s winners were:

• First Place: Jason Tsang – University of Waterloo, Faculty of Environmental Studies – School of Planning
• Second Place: Meredith Webster – University of Waterloo, Faculty of Arts, English, Rhetoric & Professional Writing.

It is always pleasing to see someone new to the field filled with enthusiasm. Both of these winners exhibited gratitude for the award and looked to the future with zeal.

One of the winners sent the STC a thank you email, which I feel that I should share with you all:

"Through the Southwestern Ontario Chapter of the Society of Technical Communications, I was selected as the 1st place recipient of the 2005-2006 Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award for student technical writing.

I am writing this letter to express my sincerest thanks to you, the organization and the local chapter for this award. It is an honour to be recognized for my work, and receiving this award only motivates me to continue to work on and improve my technical communication skills. As a Planning student in my final term of school, I have been fortunate to have had a glimpse at the application of these skills through my co-op work placements. I must admit that I was surprised to hear that you had not previously received entries from students in my field of study.

In such an environment where technical information is conveyed and scrutinized by people of various backgrounds, the use of appropriate communications techniques in the Planning field mesh well with the mission of the STC. Hopefully, others in my area of study will embrace and explore the opportunities that your organization offers to students like me. I hope to open a dialogue with both the Dean of my Faculty and the Director of the School of Planning so that other students will have the opportunity to learn more about your organization and the local chapter.

Thank you once again for selecting me for the award, and the wonderful event at the University Club last night. I am looking forward to participating in future Society events.

Sincerely,
Jason Tsang
School of Planning: 4B Honours Co-op
Candidate for Bachelors in Environmental Studies
University of Waterloo - Faculty of Environmental Studies"

Once again, congratulations to Jason and Meredith.

Oh, and the awards don't stop there!

We saved the Distinguished Chapter Service Award (DCSA) as the last award to present during the evening. This award acknowledges the work of chapter members who provide exemplary service to the Society through their dedication to the chapter and its activities: much to her surprise (we got her!), we presented Sherry McMenemy with the award. To demonstrate Sherry's dedicated service to the chapter (so far), Debbie Kerr , our president, read a list of portfolio and committee positions that Sherry has held with our chapter. In fact, by volunteering in more than one capacity in the course of a year, Sherry has managed to cram approximately 20 years of service into a little over eight years as a member of our chapter!

In addition to years of service, Debbie also read glowing testimonials about Sherry from Deb Maskens (Associate Fellow and former Chapter President), Holly Curtis (former Chapter President), Christy Simard (former Student Awards Manager), and Margie Yundt (current co-worker).

Here is a small excerpt from Margie's testimonial: “Sherry is a ‘super hero' when it comes to clear communication and doing whatever it takes to make users understand and want to read her instructions. She is relentless in her pursuit of clear, concise and USABLE documentation, and has a keen knack for understanding exactly what an audience needs, and sharing that knowledge with anyone who will listen.”

Congratulations, Sherry! The insignia on your award is definitely deserved, “In recognition of your outstanding dedication to the Southwestern Ontario Chapter and your commitment to the technical communication profession.”

A merry time was had by all

Once the presentations were finished, the throngs of merrymakers returned to the refreshments. The food that was offered by the University Club was, as usual, tasty and varied, and the service was great. There were people there to the very end, whereby laughter and conviviality was shared by all.

It was a well-attended and satisfying event and the STC offers a warm thank you—whether an STC member or a visitor—to all attendees.

The chapter would like to thank The Peer Group and Economical Insurance Group in Waterloo for donating the door prizes for March. Congratulations to our lucky door prize winners, Rob Cundara and Dan Zlotnikov!

About Donald Johnstone

Donald is our chapter’s Program Manager, and he’s travelled all over the world (even Africa!) to book the talent for the monthly STC meetings. He would like to do some more travelling, but our limited budget, and supporting his teenage son, currently prevents him from touring.

Donald’s background in programming and system analysis have provided him with a solid foundation in his career as technical writer…so far. He loves science fiction, history, photography, and his wife—not necessarily in that order.