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NORTHEAST OHIO CHAPTER SOCIETY FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION |
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Monthly seminar: Crucial ConversationsOn March 13, join NEO STC for a unique soft-skills presentation about the techniques that you can use to confront controversial issues and strengthen relationships in your workplace. Whenever you aren't getting the results you are looking for, it's likely that you are stuck because you haven't had that crucial conversation with the right person at the right time in the right way. Whatever the issue - a problem with poor quality, slow time-to-market, declining customer satisfaction, or a strained relationship — if you cannot talk honestly, you can expect poor results. On the other hand, if you can put your crucial-conversation skills to work, you will have taken that first, important step to solving the problem. Gary Miller, the President of the NEO ASTD, Training and Occupational Development Manager for the SGS Tool Company, and certified Crucial Conversations trainer, leads this exciting workshop. Gary's passion is training and education. He supports the quote: "If you choose a job that you love, you will never have to work another day in your life."
RSVP by Monday, March 10 to programs@neostc.org, or call 440-479-8726. To pre-pay with PayPal, go to: www.neostc.org/calendar/20080313.html. Please note: The chapter is billed per registration. If you register but do not attend, you will be billed for the meeting and meal. |
Upcoming events
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Want to meet other Technical Communicators?NEO STC is looking for a volunteer to develop programs for unemployed technical communicators. Please contact Anne Paczula for more information about this volunteer opportunity. |
Renew those memberships!A new promotion is underway through STC. If our chapter reaches a certain percentage of renewing members by March 31, we have a chance of receiving four free registrations to STC’s 55th Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA, June 1-4! Please renew your membership before March 31 so we can have this opportunity. If we accomplish this goal and receive the free registrations, we will hold a drawing for the conference registrations, which would be available to all members who have renewed. This includes all of you who have already renewed (thank you!) |
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Congratulations to several NEO STC members for international STC achievements!New NEO STC Associate Fellow Jeanette EvansI am delighted that my right-hand person on the newsletter, Jeanette Evans of Rockwell Automation will be receiving the honor of Associate Fellow this year! Associate Fellow is an honor bestowed by STC International. It recognizes long-term service to STC, as well as significant contributions to the profession of technical communication. We are extremely proud to have Jeanette as part of our community. She will be officially recognized at STC’s 55th Annual Conference. New Distinguished Chapter Service Award recipients: Angie Dianetti and Bob Young!This is an International-level award presented to members who have contributed significantly to our chapter. They will be officially recognized at our May meeting. We wish to thank and extend hearty congratulations to both Angie and Bob. Denise Kadilak published in Intercom! Her article, “Implementing Structured FrameMaker,” was published in the February 2008 issue of Intercom. Check it out at http://www.stc.org/intercom/Index.asp?SSOToken=iO4wZfRcpzm66wW%2bfqi0Hp%2bDan4%3d Bob Young and Stephanie Webster published in Tieline!Their article, “How to put the PLAN in planning an STC Regional Conference,” was published in the February 2008 issue of Tieline (The Society Leaders’ Newsletter). Check it out at http://www.stc-cdx.org/node/825 Keep up the good work! |
NEO STC Scholarship Deadline April 1By Jeanette Evans and Sarah Burke, Academic Relations Committee Co-Chairs Don’t let the deadline fool you — NEO STC wants to hear from Ohio’s brightest technical communication students. Our community is accepting applications for a $1,000 scholarship until April 1, 2008. For details, see neostc.org/scholarship. NEO STC is offering a $1,000 scholarship to one deserving Ohio undergraduate, graduate, or community college student studying a technical or scientific communication-related field. This scholarship is designed to encourage local academic excellence, provide the profession with educated communicators, and promote greater awareness of and participation in STC. Applicants will be evaluated based on their potential to contribute to the profession. A special thank you goes to Pressco Technology Inc. for donating some of the funds for this scholarship. Pressco engineers and manufactures high-speed intelligent vision inspection systems for the global food, beverage, and container industry. NEO STC plans to notify the winner by May 1 and will recognize the recipient at our May meeting. While the committee has a few scholarship judges lined up, any NEO STC community member in good standing who has at least five years of experience in the field and who is not currently affiliated with a learning institution or technical communication program is eligible to judge. Judging will take place in April. Judging is a great way to give back to NEO STC and your profession and will only demand a few hours of your time to review and discuss the entries. If you are interested in judging, please contact Sarah Burke. |
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President’s Column February/March 2008: Recognizing our volunteersBy Tricia Spayer (tspayer@yahoo.com) Continuing from last month’s newsletter, I would like to recognize a few more people that have helped make NEO STC the exciting community it is. Beth Troy came to our chapter from Indiana. She hadn’t even attended one of our meetings, yet she volunteered to help set up our monthly programs. She told me that this was a great opportunity to get professional event experience that she wouldn’t normally get in her regular work schedule. She impressed us by jumping in and organizing speakers and locations for half of our meetings. Shannon Siwicki has helped us with the other half of our meetings. This was her first time coordinating events for NEO STC, and she has come through successfully. Our members gave rave reviews of the cookies she provided as desserts for a couple of our programs. She helped us make wise decisions and took care of many important details. Paul Holland also came to us from another state — Texas — and jumped right in. Paul helped us with our October Crucial Communicator Conference Web site and Constant Contact e-mails. He continues to help us with web issues and he set up a Constant Contact account for NEO STC. It is fantastic to see the energy and talent we have in our chapter. Ginny Haas, Jean Church, and Amy Vogt have put their hearts into our STC International Public Relations Competition entry. This entry will be for our PR efforts for the Crucial Communicator Conference in October. From mounds of meeting notes, files, exhibits and e-mails, this group has compiled quite an impressive entry, which will be entered into a competition in March. What a fun, creative group! Sarah Burke and Jeanette Evans have also put their hearts into the Academic Scholarship Program that was launched February 4. This program is intended to encourage college students who are studying technical communication, and to increase awareness of STC. It really is a worthwhile program, and I believe that this will benefit our community greatly. There are more of you out there that deserve recognition too. I hope to reach you in future columns. Thank you to all our volunteers who keep impressing me with your efforts. |
Chautauqua offers practical solutions and insights for FrameMaker usersBy Julianne Forsythe (jkforsythe@ra.rockwell.com) In the last issue of this newsletter, Lori Neuman wrote an entertaining review of the recent Software Saturday where Bernard Aschwanden of BrightPath Solutions gave a crash course in DITA authoring and tools. In addition to the valuable learning, one of the perks of making this early Saturday morning trek to Tri-C was a chance to win a free registration to the third annual FrameMaker Chautauqua on February 14 and 15. I was one of the lucky winners. So, I packed my bags and headed to North Carolina (not Chautauqua!) for the conference. The FrameMaker Chautauqua takes its name from the traveling shows of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that provided popular education through lectures and other activities, modeled after the Chautauqua Institution of western New York (definition adapted from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary). Sponsored by Bright Path Solutions, the two-day “chautauqua” brought together approximately 70 software users, certified experts, and consultants to exchange ideas and discuss applications of Adobe FrameMaker. Attendees came from businesses of all sizes, as well as education and government/military institutions. The presentations by real-world users provided practical solutions and insights on diverse topics for both structured and unstructured FrameMaker users. RJ Jacquez, Adobe Systems, Inc., was the opening keynote speaker. He gave an overview of the new Adobe Technical Communication Suite, which combines FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Captivate, and Acrobat 3D into an integrated package. By doing so, Adobe is aiming to address industry trends such as incorporating animation into help files and adding 3D images to documentation. The suite also provides a toolkit to support the changing role of today’s technical communicator, who is often tasked with creating traditional documentation, plus other deliverables such as online help, e-learning, demos, and knowledgebases. This year’s conference featured three tracks: What’s New and Best Practices, Tools and Case Studies, and Structured XML and DITA, which was my particular interest. As an attendee, you could choose from sessions to help with your current projects, or hear about ways to extend your capabilities in the future. Hot topics included multi-channel publishing, converting to structured FrameMaker, using Frame plug-ins, developing with the FrameMaker Development Kit (FDK), and creating demos and simulations with Captivate. The sessions highlighted what’s new in FrameMaker 8.0, including improvements to the DITA application, and gave me a greater appreciation of the power of the full Adobe Technical Communication Suite. I was also impressed by the Adobe representatives who were at the conference to hear feedback from people who rely on their tools everyday to do their jobs. I left the conference with a lot of food for thought, inspired by how a bit of inspiration and creativity can improve how we, as technical communicators, create, manage, and deliver content to meet the changing needs of our customers. |
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Book review: Total Workday Control Using Microsoft® Outlook: The Eight Best Practices of Task and E-Mail ManagementBy Sharon Resar Sternburg (str_cdp@yahoo.com)Book information: Author: Linenberger, Michael. Second printing 2006. Publisher: New Academy Publishers, San Ramon, California. ISBN-13:978-09749304-1-1 [289 pages, including index, $21.95 USD (soft cover).] In this easy to follow how-to book, efficiency guru Michael Linenberger shows readers how to turn Outlook e-mail into the key to an organized workday — sort of an electronic Franklin Planner on steroids. In a reader-friendly fashion, Linenberger presents his eight best practices as a logical system; and in a step-by-step guide he teaches his readers how to create efficiencies using e-mail and task management in Microsoft Outlook. The format of the book is reminiscent of the Dummies books, especially in its use of examples. However, the presentation flows more smoothly and is less elementary, thus engaging the reader to finish the book from cover to cover. While unlocking the power of e-mail and task management, Total Workday Control provides the added benefit of focusing on the workday through the lens of efficiency. The profit margin on this read is tips on task prioritization, project control and completion, as well as an enhanced knowledge of Outlook’s functionality. I was particularly impressed with the fact that the author took the time to address the different versions of Outlook, and how his system can be used with Blackberries, Palms and Smartphones. Technical Communicators will appreciate the fact that Linenberger assumes nothing — the teacher teaches well. If you are someone who wants to add efficiency to your workflow simply by taking full advantage of Outlook, or someone who just wants to learn more about how powerful a tool Outlook can be, I recommend you add this book to your reading list. |
Laptop Software Saturday: FrameMakerBy Anne Paczula (anne@paczula.com) A new Software Saturday has recently been scheduled for April 12. “Intermediate Unstructured FrameMaker 8.0” will be presented by Alan Houser, President of Group Wellesley, Inc. Alan is an Adobe Certified Expert in FrameMaker and Adobe Certified Instructor. A frequent guest of the NEO STC chapter, he is a highly experienced trainer and consultant and is past president of the Pittsburgh STC chapter. Important note: In contrast to previous Software Saturdays, this training will not take place in a computer lab. Participants must provide their own laptops for this training. In addition, they will need to install FrameMaker 8.0 prior to the training. A free 30-day trial version is available at the Adobe Web site at http://www..adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=framemaker&loc=en. Although NEO STC prefers to host Software Saturdays in a computer lab, scheduling difficulties left little choice but to try this alternative. The registration deadline is April 9, and you may register at http://neostc.org/calendar/20080412.html. If you plan to attend and are able to arrive early, I could use volunteers to help set up the registration table and place signs throughout the building. Additional hands would be much appreciated. Please let me know when you register. |
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Managing the information behind the contentBy Paulette Mitchell Henning (pmhenning@ra.rockwell.com) On January 10, 2008, at Jimmy Daddona’s restaurant in Solon, Sacha Fedier from STAR Group in Switzerland presented how to manage product information life-cycle. Sacha discussed that far too often, content is managed from the perspective of a document or the consumer’s view with little or no attention given to the management of the information that is used to create the content. Sacha highlighted the differences between content management and information management and the inherent flaws found in the traditional document/content management paradigm. When implemented properly, an information management approach to content management reduces the complexity of the technical publication production and management process and provides an all-in-one system that allows the intellectual assets of an enterprise to be captured, reused and leveraged, and target-specific information to be published on-demand. Companies that have adopted this strategy have reduced their publication costs by as much as 40%, increased their publication productivity by as much as 400%, decreased time to market by as much as 60%, and reduced translation costs by 75% to 95%. |
APEX Awards go to local technical communications firmIn July 2007, Radcom, a technical communication and instructional design consulting firm based in Hudson, Ohio, won two APEX Awards (Awards for Publication Excellence). APEX awards recognize excellence in many categories of printed and electronic publications. Some of the categories include marketing, training, documentation, newsletters, and websites. Radcom had two entries that won an Award of Excellence.
More information on the APEX Awards can be found at www.apexawards.com. In January, 2008, Radcom also was also selected as one of the Top Businesses by DiversityBusiness.com for distinguishing themselves as one of the top entrepreneurs in the country. Over 600,000 businesses in the United Sates had the opportunity to participate in the 8th annual contest. The awards are based on gross annual sales value and the business profile on file with DiversityBusiness.com. This award is the basis of Diversity Business.com’s annual Top Business List which is seen by over 15 million people and is used by major corporations and large buying organizations for finding new business partners. |
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“On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”By Al Brown, Senior Member We hope you take W.C. Fields’ quote to heart and join us here for the Technical Communication Summit June 1-4. You know what to expect at the Summit itself: News about the latest developments and techniques in our field and the chance to get together with colleagues and friends, old and new. But there are plenty of surprises and unexpected pleasures waiting for you in the City of Brotherly Love. Just a few examples — you can:
In short, there are lots of things to see, do, and eat (not just pretzels and cheese steaks) in William Penn’s “Greene Country Towne.” Stop by the STC-Philly Metro Chapter’s Hospitality Booth and say hello. We will be glad to suggest something exciting that fits your particular interests. See you there! |
Member profile: Sherri HenkinBy Jeanette Evans (jeanette.evans@sbcglobal.net) Sherri Henkin began her relationship with STC in 2002 with LA STC. She joined STC to stay current with technical writer news, employment, and educational opportunities. As she puts it, the “actual driver to join was in a program in LA STC with Raymond Urgo (P&P) who guided us on defining our long-term and short-term goals. One of mine was to join STC by a certain date — and I did. I am now a Senior Member.” Having moved to Cleveland in September, 2004, and transferred membership, Sherri feels that NEO STC helped her orient to Cleveland and employment in the area. She has been involved in the NEO STC community first on the Employment Committee (2004-2006) which she says is a great way to get to know the employment market, Crucial Communicator Conference Committee (2006-2007), and currently on the Newsletter Committee. Sherri’s employer AmTrust was one of the donors for give-aways for the Crucial Communicator conference in Cleveland. For the 2008 STC Technical Summit (June, 2008), Sherri will be a presenter as part of the Policies & Procedures SIG Progression Session. The Progression Session format is an educational session that has different speakers presenting on various topics simultaneously. Speakers each host a table with a presentation on a topic from their own area of practice. Sherri’s topic is “Moving from Documentation Specialist to Process Improvement Analyst — or — When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door.” As Sherri describes, the presentation is based on her career journey from documentation specialist to process improvement analyst/business analyst, including the role STC has played in this process. The presentation is a work in progress; highlights are outline the skills for each role, provide pointers on growing one’s skills, and discuss how the business analyst option is one method to grow one’s technical communicating skills. Holding a BA in political science from Boston University, Sherri also has a Master’s in Public Administration at NYU. Her work background includes everything from office manager to business owner (where Sherri learned graphics and wrote advertising and marketing copy) to administrative assistant in the late 90’s at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “It was there that I learned to write procedures, job descriptions, and informal employee communications. I enjoyed those parts of the work, so it was that job that jump-started me into P&P writer. AmTrust Bank — in Cleveland — is a first in two ways: in a bank and documentation specialist.” Currently, Sherri is a Senior Process Improvement Analyst in Mortgage Banking. Now living in Cleveland Heights, Sherri points out that what motivated her to move from LA to Cleveland was marriage to a Clevelander. But she says that part of her heart is in LA, where she has a son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter. Sherri’s hobbies include writing creative non-fiction (some pieces have been or will be published), reading (about writing, spiritual matters, history, and travel), swimming, and traveling (especially to LA). Her volunteer work includes being a speaker for small community groups. |
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Member profile: Anne PaczulaBy Jeanette Evans (jeanette.evans@sbcglobal.net) Anne Paczula joined NEO STC in early 2007. She had no prior involvement with STC before moving to the Cleveland area in 2005 and working for RADCom. As Anne puts it, “I learned that my employer was a very strong supporter of NEO STC. In fact, I got my job with RADCom thanks to the job listing I found on the NEO STC Web site!” Before moving to Cleveland, Anne lived in the Washington, DC area and worked as an instructional designer for various consulting firms that did federal contract work. “I had the opportunity to develop user materials and computer-based and classroom-based training for operators of mechanical demining equipment in countries plagued with landmines, first responders to hazardous materials incidents, air traffic controllers, and government budget personnel.” While living in the Washington metro area, Anne volunteered for the local chapter of the American Society for Training and Development and was also a member of the International Society for Performance Improvement. As an undergrad, Anne studied French and psychology. Then, after living in France for two years, Anne earned a masters degree in international affairs. While studying and working, “I had the opportunity to travel to different parts of the world including western Europe, Rwanda, Jordan, New Zealand, Cambodia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. I very much enjoyed the international travel and am glad I was able to visit these diverse places before starting a family.” Anne lives with her husband and 2-year-old son in Fairlawn, outside Akron. An avid reader, Anne highly recommends Consumption by Kevin Patterson, a fictional work based on the changes that the Inuit people of Canada have experienced in recent decades. |
Interesting articles from other community newslettersWritersUA Survey: User Assistance Salary Survey Results Available The results of the 2008 WritersUA Salary Survey are now available. The survey provides a variety of compensation figures — all specific to the user assistance profession. |
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STC election informationSTC’s 2008 election will open in early March. Personal messages from candidates are listed below (note that these are not inclusive; only candidates who sent us articles specifically for the newsletter are included). In addition, STC has posted brief biographies about each candidate at http://www.stc.org/candidatesFAQ/index.asp. Members can use the "Ask the Candidate" feature on the Web site to submit questions directly to the candidates. Don’t forget to vote! Last year, only 14.3% of STC’s members voted. Make your voice heard! | |||||||||||
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Providing value: STC takes the lead. Lawrence D. “Larry” Kunz, STC second vice-president candidateBy Larry Kunz (lk81924@gmail.com), STC Fellow Are you getting value for your investment in STC? Many members, as they renew their memberships for 2008, are asking what value they receive in return for the dues they pay. I’m pretty well sold on the value of STC. Just last year I got a new job after spotting the opening on my chapter’s employment page. During the interview process, I benefited from the experience I’ve gained through STC and the contacts I’ve made in STC. But that’s just one person’s experience. STC must offer real value, consistently and across the board, to members and prospective members. STC will need to offer even more value to remain competitive in the next few years. (Yes, I said “STC” and “remain competitive” in the same sentence. STC is a business, and it confronts significant issues and stiff competition in today’s marketplace. It’s nice to think that STC is more than just a business and that it will always be here. But the reality is that, to remain viable in the short term, STC must do better at proving its value.) Taking a longer view, however, STC has an opportunity to provide value in ways that go far beyond what is possible today. STC is uniquely positioned to take the lead in defining the profession of technical communication. When we do that, we’ll provide significant and enduring value for our members, for practitioners who haven’t yet become members, for the people who employ us, and even for society in general. Defining the Profession Ever since I joined STC 25 years ago, we’ve been saying that technical communication is a profession. But we are an immature profession, and as a result our work often isn’t taken seriously by the people who employ us and the people who buy our products. To grow into a mature profession, we need at least two things:
The technical communication profession is desperate for leadership — desperate for a set of ethical values, an agreed-on body of knowledge, and perhaps a credentialing system. Today, all of the pieces are in place for us to develop technical communication into a mature profession. We have the will, we have the know-how, and we have an organization — STC — with the stature, the broad reach, and the resources to lead the way. STC can assemble the building blocks for our profession, it can forge consensus, and it can gain buy-in among the significant stakeholders in the worldwide community of technical communicators. What Is STC Doing? As a member of the STC board of directors, I am leading the effort to formulate a strategic plan, or roadmap, that positions STC as the leader in defining the profession — especially by establishing a body of knowledge and promoting ethical standards. (We’ve already begun working on the body of knowledge.) You might have heard the phrase “telling our powerful story.” The strategic plan focuses on raising the profile of all technical communicators — and emphasizing the value we provide to our employers and to the world in general — by marketing our people and the work we do. The strategic plan also emphasizes establishing and expanding partnerships. By teaming with other organizations, STC will strengthen its leadership role in the profession and position itself to provide even more value to its members. STC doesn’t need to be fixed. It needs to be modernized. The board of directors, along with the executive director and her staff, understand this. We know that STC must keep providing value over the short term while setting the stage for long-term value by defining the profession. We are implementing plans to keep the business of STC strong by retaining and attracting members and by constantly reviewing its suite of programs and services to ensure that they still make sense. I believe that we can find a way to develop technical communication as a profession and continue delivering real value to our members — all without losing the social and interpersonal aspects that have made STC so special to so many people over our history. What It Means to You Defining the profession will benefit every technical communicator because it will make us more valuable to the people who sign our paychecks. Instead of simply saying, “I need some manuals and online helps” (which reduces technical communication to a commodity, not a profession), our employers will realize that they need professional people who contribute value to the organization by increasing customer satisfaction and making products easier to use — thus easier to sell. We will prove our value on a much wider stage as well. By providing information that makes technology work for the people who use it, we contribute real value to society as a whole. I am running for second vice-president because nobody is better acquainted with the issues that STC will have to confront as leads the profession to where we want it to go. I can foster a climate of creativity and cooperation in which we’ll plot a course for the Society and the profession. STC needs leaders who can build consensus and explain decisions to the membership at large. I hope you will entrust me with your vote. The next few years will be exciting. Along with my membership dues, I have chosen to invest my time and energy in being a part of this effort. I hope you will agree that STC’s future, and the value it will bring to you, is worth investing in as well. Lawrence D. “Larry” Kunz is a member of the Society’s board of directors and immediate past president of the Carolina chapter. He is employed as a Senior Technical Writer at Systems Documentation, Inc., in Durham, NC, where he manages a large software documentation project. To learn more about Larry, check out lk81924.googlepages.com/home. |
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Job newsIf you are looking for a position, remember to check the NEO STC job site. I have gotten a number of calls recently looking for writers, and I always point them to our jobs site at www.neostc.org/jobs/openings.php! Remember to update your resumes. Employers: Job listings on the NEO STC Web site are free and reach a targeted audience! See neostc.org/jobs/ |
NEO STC listservThe NEO STC listserv is another way to stay connected with other NEO STC members. It’s easy and it does not generate huge amounts of e-mail! For information on subscribing, see www.neostc.org/official/listserv.htm |
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Lines & Letters editors Managing Editor: Barbara Philbrick (caslon@alltel.net) Co-Editors:
Love it? Hate it? Let us know! Contact us: newsletter@neostc.org |
See something interesting? Tell us about it! Many of our NEO STC members are also members of another STC community or SIG. If you receive a newsletter and find an interesting article, please consider passing it on to the Lines and Letters editors at newsletter@neostc.org. | ||||||||||
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Lines & Letters archives www.neostc.org/lines/Archives/index.html. Archives include PDF and HTML versions of the newsletter from 2000 to last month’s issue. |
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© 2008 Northeast Ohio Chapter STC. |
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