Director's Message: Gearing Up for a Great Year!

by Cindy Currie, STC Region 1 Director

Have some fun, grow your skills, and expand your network

Welcome to a brand new STC year! Many communities have their planning for this year well underway and are in need of fresh faces to bring some of these plans to fruition. If you have received a call for volunteers from your community leaders, please seriously consider moving into an active role in your community.

Many communities are looking for program managers, competition managers, newsletter editors and / or webmasters, and to fill other positions. Role sharing might be possible if you’re interested in a role, but you may have some constraints that make it unrealistic for you to assume 100% responsibility for it. Ask your community leaders how you can participate in a way that meets both your needs and those of the community.

Sure, I know, volunteering means you need to make a (sometimes big) commitment, but with the benefits available to you by doing so — new skills, new contacts, new friends, great sense of accomplishment, and valuable experience to add to your résumé or CV — how can you afford not to? Truthfully, very often the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. So, now is the time to go for it and send that "I want to volunteer!" email to your chapter leaders!

New monthly email message from STC President

Have you seen News and Notes from the STC President, the new email publication from STC President Paula Berger? To keep you current on STC happenings, Paula began sending a monthly email communiqué to all STC members over the summer. These messages go out at the end of each month (shortly after the monthly Board of Directors teleconferences — also new this STC year!) to ensure that you are always in the know. There’s a lot happening in STC these days!

To review recent messages, visit http://www.stc.org/stcmembers/presNewsAug06.asp. (Note: The August issue is current as of this writing, but you should be able to access all recent issues — July, August, and beyond — from this page.) And, be sure to watch your inbox for Paula’s next message.

Two not-to-be-missed conference/educational opportunities this fall

• Region 2 will host Making Cents of Making Sense: Technical Communication and Business (www.stcuk.org/R2conf) in London, England, October 13-14, 2006. This conference is aimed at companies in need of technical communication and the people who produce it. The program includes top-notch speakers who can show the business value of quality technical communication.
• Region 5 will host 50 Facets of Technical Communication (www.region5conf.com/) in Addison, Texas, November 2-4, 2006. This conference is the perfect place to polish every facet of your technical communication portfolio! In addition, the Lone Star chapter will be celebrating its 50th anniversary at this conference.

It’s time to honor deserving members

This is the time of year to think about who you would like to nominate for the honorary rank of STC Associate Fellow and get this process underway. Any member or community in STC can submit a nomination packet. For more information, visit www.stc.org/recog/honors01.asp.

Completed nomination forms must be email to the STC Office (peg@stc.org) no later that October 21, 2006. For questions or concerns, contact Associate Fellow Committee Chair, Mark Hanigan, at onwritetrk@aol.com.

Making life easy!

Mark your calendars for the second annual World Usability Day (WUD), November 14, 2006. World Usability Day 2006 promotes the value of usability engineering and user-centered design and the belief that every user has the responsibility to ask for things that work better. The Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) (www.usabilityprofessionals.org) is doing that by encouraging, organizing, and sponsoring 36 hours of activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on this day. The UPA, UPA chapters, and allied organizations (of which STC is one!) will all hold events revolving around the common theme — "Making life easy!" The focus this year is on accessibility and inclusion.

Organizing STC’s participation in this event are Rahel Bailie and Jerome Ryckborst. As we get closer to the day, look for more information about how STC is participating and for events in your area. For more information about WUD in general, visit www.worldusabilityday.org.

Seeking new organizational partnerships

Forming partnerships with other professional organizations (both profit and non-profit) is a strategic priority this year. STC has recently rejoined INTECOM (International Council for Technical Communication, www.intecom.org) and has entered into a formal agreement with LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association, www.lisa.org) that provides a framework for the exchange of membership privileges and project collaboration. If any of you have thoughts about organizations that STC should have as partners, please email Mark Clifford at 2vp@stc.org or Andrea Ames at aames@pobox.com.

Out and About

My chapter visit plans for this year are beginning to take shape and look like this at the moment:

• Connecticut Chapter Strategic Planning (Recharting) Workshop, November (date TBD)
• Tech Valley Chapter, November (date TBD)
• Northern New England Chapter, January (date TBD)
• Eastern Ontario Chapter, March (date TBD)

Please let me know what your program plans and events are for this STC year and if you’d like to me to visit your chapter or attend a special event. I will continue my visits as your interest and my finances and schedule permit.

About Cindy Currie

Cindy is currently the Director of STC Region 1. She is an STC Fellow and a member of the Northern New England and United Kingdom chapters, and well as numerous SIGs. She is a senior project manager at Hewlett-Packard Company.