At our January meeting, Paul Hanisko of Master Printing will show us how to save time and money on our printing projects. He will provide samples you can see and touch, as well as useful materials to take with you.
The meeting content will be based on your questions and input, so send those questions to paul@mprinting.com or phone him directly at 440-816-1112.
We'll be meeting at the Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence. The CIC-SIG will meet at 5:30.
If you have contact information for a person at an area college or university, please let me know and I will include them in our academic relations survey.
The survey went out in December, 2004. We sent the survey to representatives at these universites:
Bowling Green
Carnegie Mellon
Cedarville
Miami
Youngstown State
Here is the text of the survey:
Please help the NEO STC (Northeast Ohio chapter of the Society for Technical Communication) with our academic outreach!
Current and graduating students can find immediate value in the FIND ME A JOB section of our website, www.neostc.org. But we also need input from you, or someone in your organization, to help us plan for future activities.
To be included in our survey, we must receive your response by 1 February 2005.
1. If you are a member of a student chapter, how many members are in your student chapter?
2. Does your student chapter or university participate in any activities in connection with other
(non-student) STC chapters, such as NEO STC?
If so, please list the activities.
3. Please rank (5=very interested; 0=not interested)
your interest in participating in the following types of activities with NEO STC:
a. __ Mentoring from members in the professional technical communications community
b. __ College level writing contest with cash prizes
c. __ Placing your resume on our web site to help you connect with full-time or internship opportunities
1/13/2005: Getting it Printed with Paul Hanisko (see above)
1/18/2005: Networking Luncheon, Fox & Hound, 1479 SOM Center Road, Mayfield Heights
1/26/2004: Webinar, "Getting the Most Out of Your Contractors to Ensure Project Success"**
2/2/2005: Webinar, "Sentence Diagramming"*
2/10/2005: Monthly meeting, Scott Butler on Usability Testing
* Note that the chapter is not sponsoring these seminars. If you would like to host a seminar, please
e-mail us.
** RADCom, Inc., has offered to host the contracting webinar if others are willing to split the cost. Please contact Jill McCauslin (jmccauslin@radcomservices.com) if you are interested.
Who would you like to hear speak? We will be doing a joint meeting with the Pittsburgh chapter on Saturday, April 23, 2005. If there is a particular speaker you can recommend, please send your suggestion and contact information to Nicky Bleiel (nbleiel@matrixplus.com) of the Pittsburgh chapter and our own Stephanie Webster (swebster@tmwsystems.com).
Congratulations to RADCom, Inc., a firm that designs, develops, and delivers customized e-learning, training, and documentation. They have been named a winner of the 2004 Weatherhead 100 Upstart award. The 2004 Weatherhead 100 recognizes over 100 of the fastest-growing companies in Northeast Ohio from 1999 to 2003. The Upstart category is open to businesses with percentage growth that qualifies for the Weatherhead 100 and that have 15 or fewer employees and/or less than $1 million in net sales in 2003. The Weatherhead 100 is compiled and managed by the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
"These winners are special," said Jeanne Coughlin, chairman of COSE. "In a challenging economic climate for the last several years, these companies have forged ahead successfully for five consecutive years. They have grown their businesses and exceeded their own expectations and those of others. We applaud them."
Founded in 1987 by The Weatherhead School of Management, The Weatherhead 100 has been a leading honor bestowed on Northeast Ohio businesses. Earlier this year, COSE, which has nurtured the region's entrepreneurs for more than three decades, became a partner with the Weatherhead School of Management in this effort. Since its inception, more than 2,000 entrepreneurs have achieved the extraordinary business growth required for winning.
What a festive way to end the 2004 NEO STC year! Many of our members ventured out into a chilly December evening to eat, socialize, and give. Kicking back and chatting was a great way to get to know other members just a little bit better, meet some new faces, and answer questions about what our jobs are like for those interested in technical communication fields.
Welcome to visitors Sylvia Hare, Stephanie Schmelzer, Beverly Beckert, Rebecca Martin, Mario Morelos, Pat Smith, and Denise Whitney! It was great to have you come and find out more about our local chapter. We would love to see you at other meetings or activities with NEO STC!
The annual food drive brought another chance for NEO STC to get involved in our community. We were able to contribute $65.00 and 60 pounds of food to the local Cleveland Foodbank! Thanks to everyone for being so generous. As I dropped off the food and money, the staff at the Foodbank asked that their thank-you's be passed on to you.
Please see the attached letter from Anne Goodman, the Foodbank's executive director. Click here to read the letter (you will need Acrobat Reader).
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland, OH, is looking for a Marketing Editorial Manager. Members only: See the national STC site at http://www.stc.org and search for job ID 16222.
Hyland Software Inc. in Westlake, OH, is looking for self-motivated, IT professionals to join its industry leading documentation team.. More information
Virtual Hold Technology in Akron, OH, is looking for technical writer to create documentation for the installation, support, and administration of their software products. The candidate must also have experience turning this documentation into training materials for software installers, help desk engineers, and end-users. More information
Bonne Bell, Inc., is looking for a Web Designer. The Web Designer will be responsible for executing internet site design that reflects the strategic goals, objectives, and identity for the company. More information
The Matco Tools in Stow, OH, is looking for a Customer Service Trainer. More information
Arhaus Furniture is looking for a Graphic Designer. This position will play an integral role in communicating their unique, upscale home furnishings according to their brand message, with the ability of thinking outside the box. More information
Penton Media, in Cleveland, OH, is looking for a Senior Editor for Industry Week magazine. More information
Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH, has an opening for a Communication Writer. This position will be responsible for developing and writing communications for a variety of clients within the university administration and its schools. More information
Willing to devote a half-hour of your week to bettering our chapter?
Yes? Then consider volunteering for NEO STC's Employment Committee. Our committee is always looking for volunteers to search popular job sites each week and submit revelant job postings to our website. Volunteers, through their weekly effort, help us keep our chapter's jobs page full of new opportunities for our members. Contact Sarah Burke, Employment Committee Co-Manager, at Sarah Burke (sarahwilsonburke@hotmail.com) or at 216-902-4235 for more information about this volunteer opportunity.
NEO STC is only as strong as its volunteers! Help NEO STC while increasing your professional visibility, developing new skills, and becoming friends with fellow members.
First and most importantly: Don't forget to renew your STC membership
this month. If you have questions about the new membership options,
please contact me or one of your other NEO STC board members for
assistance. Renewing online is quick and easy - put it on your To Do
list for today!
The chapter is committed to sponsoring at least two more of the STC
webinars (WebEx seminars, see www.stc.org/seminarsList.asp). Upcoming
topics and speakers include some very high-profile sessions. Which two
would be most valuable to you? Please let me know (klindsey@parker.com)
and we'll make it happen. All three sponsored seminars so far have been
held in Cleveland's eastern suburbs, but our members are geographically
spread far and wide. What other locations could you suggest? Does your
company have the equipment and the space to host us?
Thanks to the Competitions team, who put in a lot of hard work during
November to judge the many impressive entries we received and assign
awards. You'll be hearing more about our two best-of-show winners, who
are both NEO STC members! Congratulations!
As we move into 2005, I hope you'll continue to express your opinions
and give input regarding our chapter events - meetings, networking
lunches, and so on. How is the Independence meeting location working out for
you? (Yes, I know - the construction has made it quite a challenge just
to get into the parking lot!) Do you have good suggestions for next
year's locations? Speakers or topics? And if you have ideas we could
use for this year's April meeting (with the Pittsburgh chapter), please
contact me right away.
I'd love to see each of you at a meeting or networking lunch in the next
couple months. Let's resolve to not forget our "auld acquaintances," and
to make some new ones too!
If you surf the Internet, you might have picked up data-miners, advertisers, and tracking components. Lavasoft offers a great free utility for getting rid of some of them.
I unintentionally picked up some aggressive marketing software. While it wasn't harmful, it was definitely annoying. It added a toolbar to Internet Explorer and changed my Internet Explorer Home Page.
In my search for a solution, I found Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. It was highly recommended, and I concur. Although it does not catch everything (I also use McAfee), it runs cleanly, does not slow my system down, picks up some things that McAfee misses, and doesn't make me feel like the stern guys in crew cuts just took over my computer. It is easy enough and fast enough to use that I regularly scan for files.
Updates are easy to check for and load. The software runs well as a background task. Once it has completed its search, it displays a list of problem files and gives you the chance to pick which ones to remove.
You can download a copy from Lavasoft, where they redirect you to c/net for the actual download. The software is free for personal use; for commercial use, they have a version for $39.95.
For a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft products, check out Microsoft's Accessibility, Keyboard Shortcuts page at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard.aspx. There are lists for many of Microsoft's programs.
Are you looking for a job? Advertising an opening? Hiring a technical communicator?
Then check out the new and improved Jobs pages on the Northeast Ohio chapter Web site. Here you’ll find job openings from Akron to Cleveland to Youngstown (and beyond) covering the field of technical communication.
You’ll also find pages where you can submit a resume or job opening for posting. And, if you need contract consultants, job placement services, or other employment resources, you can find these, too. It’s all here — http://www.neostc.org/jobs/.
