STC Elections Candidates

The following STC candidates gave us articles to publish in our newsletter. For the full election slate, see http://www.stc.org/2009/12/stc-2010-slate-of-candidates.asp.

• Nicky Bleiel
• W.C. Wiese
• Nathaniel Lim

Nicky Bleiel - STC Candidate for Director

I am currently serving on the Society for Technical Communication Board of Directors and am running for another two-year term as a Director-At-Large.

My past two years on the Board have been interesting, challenging, and important. Interesting because I have learned a great deal, challenging because of the hurdles we faced, and important because the Society is at a critical juncture.

"Change" has been a hallmark of the last year, and STC has been no different. We have made many changes to the way we have always done things. We made difficult decisions and took difficult actions, all with the intent to strengthen the Society. We made no decisions without careful deliberation and research. So far, those choices have had the desired effect. But there is still work to be done.

I would like to continue to serve as a Director so that I can see a number of initiatives through and continue the momentum. And with my Board experience, I can hit the ground running; no learning curve required. My experience is valuable, and I would like to use it to continue serving STC.

In addition to my Board experience, my STC experience includes five years as a chapter leader (including President of the Pittsburgh Chapter), a competitions judge, a conference and webinar speaker, and a regional conference planner. I have 15 years of experience as a technical communicator in the software industry. I am heavily involved in the profession, and am a frequent speaker at many conferences, including STC, WritersUA, tcworld, LavaCon, and DocTrain. I have written articles for Intercom, tcworld, TechCom Manager, and more. My areas of expertise include embedded help, tools and technologies, user assistance design, single sourcing, wikis, Web 2.0, and convergence technical communication.

To learn more about me, please see my website: http://www.nickybleiel.com. It includes my biography; a list of recommendations from members; a list of my presentations, articles, and podcasts; and a rundown of my service to STC over the years.

Here are just a few of the recommendations I’ve received from members:

"I wholeheartedly endorse Nicky for a second term as member of the STC Board of Directors. In addition to being an effective technical communicator, Nicky understands the challenges that the profession and the Society need to address. STC membership will benefit greatly from her contributions."

"Over the past three years, I have witnessed Nicky's strength and excellence on the STC Board of Directors. She cares about STC, knows when to make the hard decisions, and always looks at problems from as many perspectives as possible to find the "truth" of the matter. I'm convinced that the STC BoD is stronger and more successful because of Nicky's presence."

Please vote for me when you receive your ballot. Polls open March 9. (Reminder: you must renew your membership by Feb. 28th to be eligible to vote.)

Thank you.

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Strengthening STC

by W.C. Wiese, Candidate for STC Director

Because of the economic issues and their unparalleled impact on STC, this year’s elections are especially important. 2010 becomes another year of course correction for the society, with a disproportionately high impact on technical communicators.

Will this Board of Directors be asked to close down STC? Let’s hope not. But economic pressures and STC’s ongoing membership declines mandate change:

• STC must become an organization for the future. We can remain a Baby Boomer organization and dwindle. Or, 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 different communication channels, and address early-career professional needs.
• STC must 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.
• We must strengthen STC’s financial foundation. We’ll need to match the cost of services to demand for them, reexamine the educational products we offer, and offer value that professionals agree is worth the cost of membership.
• STC should partner. We have much to learn and much to gain from partnerships with smaller professional organizations, such as the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) and American Society for Indexing (ASI). They generally support our interests but have not been as severely impacted by the current economy.
• STC must mend ties to chapters and SIGs. These valued groups have always been most effective in promoting STC and generating the leaders who will carry STC forward.

As a former chapter president and treasurer, I recognize that chapter and SIG membership issues are really STC’s membership issues – we must work together to solve them. Community health is ultimately STC’s health because chapters and SIGs attract members, encourage risk-taking and individual growth, and generate future leaders.

As STC treasurer, I worked with 3 STC Executive Directors in 4 years, contributing to financial stability during the change process. During my term, I implemented the chapter treasurers’ discussion group to enhance mentorship and communication, supported infrastructure investment, made chapter and STC financial concerns visible to the Board of Directors, and fought to strengthen STC’s financial footing.

I now need your vote to help strengthen STC’s capacity to serve a new generation of members and ensure its future.

Please send your suggestions and concerns to the campaign website at: http://www.stc.org/candidatesFAQ.

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Help Me Enhance the Technical Communication Profession

by Nathanial Lim

When you tell your friends and family that you are a technical writer, what is their reaction? To me, they say that it sounds like an important job and probably isn’t easy. When I tell them I write online help as part of my job, they often tell me that Help does not help. Unfortunately, this is sad but true. People get frustrated when they read poorly written documents and cannot find the information they need.

This is why I am running for STC Nominating Committee. I want to make a difference. From here, I could tell you my interesting biography, awards I’ve received, impressive accomplishments, extensive work history, decision-making process, and reasons for running. But, that is all in my candidate statement on the STC website. Here is the stuff I could not include:

• Reliable: I strongly believe in accountability and follow through. If I say I will do something, I make sure it gets done (or tell people early enough in the process if I cannot do it, so we can go to plan B). I also believe in following directions and meeting deadlines. At the same time, if I don’t understand the process or don’t believe that the rule applies, I will ask questions until I am satisfied that this is the best way to go about it.
• Critical Thinker: When I was a lead judge for the STC international tech pubs competition, a new procedure came into effect that required writing at least 24 comments on the judging form. Thinking that this would be too numerous, I inquired to find that this was not a hard and fast rule. The spirit of the procedure was to ensure that submitters received sufficient written comments and not just numbered ratings. Thus, I wrote critiques to help the submitters, not always conforming to the rule.
• Innovator: My company recently started translating documents into several foreign languages. My manager gave me the task of creating a new procedure for labeling them, putting them through the approval process, and posting them on our website for customers to download. Tracking and classifying over a hundred documents with different versions and languages could potentially fall into disarray. I was careful to think things through before taking action. I asked appropriate personnel for their input and drafted a formal procedure. Management approved. Although the procedure continues to get revised even to this day, I am proud that I was part of the first effort to formalize it.

You can also get to know me at LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniellim) and Facebook (search nathaniel lim impac).

Starting March 9, please take a minute to cast your vote for Nathaniel Lim. I would be grateful for your vote for Nominating Committee.

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