Moving on

Names Have Power

John Robb Returns

Simplification of Jury Instructions

Maybe not...

Results of 2003 Bulwer-Lytton contest announced

R.I.P. Netscape

Interesting use of PDF

Oh, THERE he is

With all the blogging tools out there, I have really begun to dislike the fragility and hi-tech-above-usability of Radio Userland. Gotta see about a new mechanism and venue for this blog.

No matter what the tool, I will be blogging more, and about a greater variety of topics, so look in from time to time.

President's Award?

Senior Members Urged to Evangelize?

Has any of you senior members (5 or more years of membership) received a missive from STC President Edward See urging you to promote STC among your colleagues? Renewal rate is apparently down, and we want to boost it.

Does any of you senior members have any opinions to express on the value of STC to the more senior writers among us? Just what is the value you find in this organization? New tools? New processes? New networking opportunities? Sure, it can be a great way for new TWs to come up to speed, but is it feeding those of us who are longer in the tooth? Can you think of any services that STC should be providing to help retain our seniors?

Weblogging

Another Weblog News article from Montana's STC chapter (thanks Jenny).

STC Bloggers?

Well, I've had this weblog for a few months now, and Fred Sampson has had his. Before either of us got started, the Information Design SIG of STC began its IDBlog written by Beth Mazur.

But even with an entire column by Ray Archee (r.archee@uws.edu.au -- a Senior Member in Australia) in the January Intercom and a musing by editor Maurice Martin in the February issue ("To Blog or Not?"), I knew of no other STC-connected blogs before yesterday.

The TECHWR-L mailing list put up a poll question asking about tech writers who have weblogs, and I replied to the poll. Later, Fred pointed it out, and mentioned that Jenny, a member of the Lone Star Chapter, has a weblog.

Any other STC folks out there blogging?

Numbers

I've talked with the leaders of some STC chapters, and they report that attendance at their monthly meetings is down markedly. During the .com boom, we could often attribute that to workload. Now, our membership is also down, but attendance seems to be down more than just membership. How is turnout for YOUR chapter's meetings, and what have the meetings been about (urls of meeting web pages would be appreciated).

Security?

Is anyone else bothered by the message that STC headquarters sent out on 10/23, with the Subject: "STC 2003 Dues Renewal"? Its text was simple enough:

Dear XXX XXXXXX,

This year you've enjoyed the benefits of STC membership, including subscriptions to Intercom and Technical Communication, the STC Web site with its jobs database, chapter meetings, and our annual salary survey. Now it's time to renew, and STC has made doing so easier than ever.

Simply go to our quick and easy online renewal form at www.stc.org/renew.asp and log in using your member ID (#####) and password (!!!!!). In no time at all, you're ready to enjoy another year of STC!

Don't miss out--renew today! We look forward to providing you another year of STC benefits.

(Of course, the XXX..., ###..., and !!!... fields were customized to have your info in them.) I was totally surprised that they would send me my member number and password as plain text without warning me that they planned to do so.

Naturally, I went in and changed my password.

Am I the only one out here disturbed by this security issue?

New Design

OK, folks. This is the new design, blithely ...adapted from that of Robert Scoble's Scobelizer.   On the right, you'll see a navigation list that includes STC's page, TECHWR-L's page, Fred Sampson's blog, then a list of Region 8 chapters and their Web pages.  Those in square brackets are chapters that appear not to have any Web page as yet.  I'd like to get all the regions listed, though that might prove an uweildy length of list. 

Colors might change, and so forth, but this Cascading Style Sheet design is my new approach.  My aim is to make it standards compliant and accessible to all.  Please let me know if your browser is not happy with it.

Please excuse the mess. I'm investigating new formatting templates and encountering some ... educational experiences.

Chapter Newsletters and Web sites

In the last two years, the Silicon Valley Chapter has gone from publishing a monthly newsletter (well, truthfully, a big newsletter one month and a 4-page flyer the next month) to publishing a totally electronic PDF of the newsletter only on the chapter Web site to publishing only an HTML newsletter on the Web site.

Now, some of us in the chapter are pondering just what the relationship should be between the chapter Web site (and webmaster) and the chapter newsletter (and editor), if the newsletter is simply a collection of pages on the Web site.

How has YOUR chapter organized its publications? Does the chapter still print and mail a paper newsletter?

Does the chapter also publish a newsletter on the Web site? Is there a mechanism for members to opt out of getting a paper copy? Is the current newsletter in a members-only part of the Web site?

Is there an archive of older newsletters on the site? Is access to them limited to members only?

What is the relationship between your council, your Web site, and your newsletter--is the webmaster a council member? What about the newsletter editor?

Facelift for STC.org

The STC.org home page has a new face.  Attractive, but rather busy.  I've looked at it using Mozilla 1.1 so far.  No idea (yet) how it looks from Netscape(7, or 6.x, or 4.7), or Opera, or the ubiquitous MSIE.  The graphic of the current cover of intercom is not as dominant as it used to be, but the two links in the lower right corner of the why join STC? box are stylistically odd.... It resizes nicely.

I followed the link labeled "Where do STC members work?" hoping it might address industrial demographics,but no, not yet.

Overall, a great makeover!

STC.org Restricting Access

A few weeks back, the STC International Web site announced

The STC Web site will soon include a "members-only" section that will contain the STC jobs database, full-article publications search, the STC member directory, and other premium content from the current Web site.

Today, Sept 30, the site is "Temporarily Unavailable" with the message:

Beginning October 1, the STC Web site will include a members-only section featuring such premium content as the STC jobs database, membership directory, and current issues of Intercom and Technical Communication.

To ensure a smooth transition, we've taken the site offline temporarily. Please visit us again on October 1 to browse the new site!

On the one hand, it provides members some value for their dues dollar that non-members do not get. On the other hand, it makes us less altruistic in a time of sizable unemployment in our sector

Some local chapters have already done this sort of thing, by making the current issue of the newsletter available only to persons whose identity is on file with the chapter.

What is your reaction to this concept?

Research on What Industries are Where

Fred Sampson (wfreds@cruzio.com) says:  I'd start with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unfortunately, it appears that the most recent detailed info is for 1999, but you can search around for SOC 27-3042 Technical Writing within various industries and see what the employment estimates are. I saw numbers like 48,000 TWs, with 13,000 in computer-related industries. You can also look for state or regional statistics.

What Industries are Where?

Has anyone got good demographics on where the industries that employ Technical Writers are? A flurry of recent messages in the TECHWR-L mailing list under the Subject: Begging for help in West Virginia (see the TECHWR-L archives)talk about where a newly-minted BA in Writing can find employment brings up the question: in what industry? Most of the readers of TECHWR-L are in the Computers & Internet part of the profession, but there's Biotech, and Appliances, and Policies & Procedures, ...

I asked (Executive Director) Bill Stolgitis at the STC Annual Conference in Nashville in May 2002 whether the STC has any industrial demographic information--whether we had any idea what the profile of industries in a given chapter's area might be. I know that Silicon Valley chapter has a lot of Computer TW jobs and a number of Biotech jobs, and that a lot of Biotech is in New England. He observed that Connecticut has a lot of insurance businesses, so Policies & Procedures would probably be big there, but admitted that the STC has no such information. We agreed that this would be Good Information to have, but how would it best be gathered?

If we poll the STC membership, asking what industry each respondent is in, that might be a quick beginning. This could be part of the information requested with renewals. But it would be optional, and what about the writers who are not STC members, not to mention the members who work on contract and write for a spectrum of industries?

Should we start from the writer end, or do we want county-level (or urban-conglomeration-level) data about what industries operate there and provide what sorts of jobs? Would the individual state departments of employment development have that info? Might it be on the Web somewhere?

Ideas, anyone?

Consistency of date, location?

Suppose your chapter spans a geographic area of some 80 miles by 20 miles.  Does it make more sense to have a monthly chapter meeting at the same place, on the same day of the month, every month? Or would it be better to either vary the location or the day (or both)?