Category: STC

An STC Europe Summit wrap-up

Whew! The 2013 Summit is over, and many will require long naps to catch up on their sleep!

News about the Summit

Speaking of catching up, go to the Summit site on Lanyrd where all the sessions are listed. Each session is updated, or being updated, with slides and related blog posts.

Two people were very diligent at blogging at the Summit. Sarah Maddox probably wins the prize for live blogging. Sarah’s last post from the Summit collects all her Summit posts in one list. Grab a cup of coffee or tea and enjoy a good read. While you are in reading mode, continue over to Kai Weber’s Summit posts for more great blog posts about the Summit.

Searching for sessions that interest you is easiest on Lanyrd, but you can also go straight to SlideShare and search for “stc13″. All presenters were encouraged to post their slides there with the tag stc13.

Eventifier has a collection of photos, tweets, and more from the Summit.

Summit@aClick

If Lanyrd and Slideshare made you long to revisit some sessions, don’t worry. You can! All attendees will receive access to Summit@aClick in 6-8 weeks. If you didn’t attendee, you can already preorder Summit@aClick, which is all the recorded sessions in one package.

Handouts

We had some English-language copies of “How to Write Clearly” on our table at the Summit’s Communities Reception. You can download a free copy of “How to Write Clearly” in the EU bookstore in 23 languages!

You can download the SIG’s brochure (910 KB) for 2013 as a PDF. We had this as a handout at the Summit, too.

And the winner is…

We gave away two subscriptions to the digital Multilingual Magazine during the conference. The winners were Helen O’Shea and Britta Voigt. They have been notified separately.

The magazine is a great resource if you work with internationalisation, localisation, or globalisation issues. Visit their magazine website where you will also find a blog, a free newsletter, the latest news from the industry, and much more. You can also follow them on Twitter at @multilingualmag.

The Europe SIG roadmap to the STC Summit

The STC Summit 2013 kicks off on Sunday, May 5. You can follow the complete Summit schedule Lanyrd. Attendees can mark the sessions they are attending. Everyone – at the Summit or at home – can track sessions to make sure they get the slides and reviews on that session.

STCSummit2013banner

This blog post highlights a few items in the program that might interest members of the SIG or any of our readers. Remember, these are just a small sampling of the many sessions at the Summit. Review the program on Lanyrd or in the PDF sent to attendees to find many, many more.

Throughout the conference, remember to stop by the Exhibition Hall and visit the vendors who truly make the Summit possible. The hours are 7.00 PM –8.30 PM on Sunday during the Welcome Reception. Then, from 9.30 AM to 5.00 PM on Monday and Tuesday.

SIG activities at the Summit

Two important events to highlight are the Europe SIG meeting and the Communities reception.

The Europe SIG meeting is on Tuesday morning from 7.15 AM to 8.15 AM. This is an informal meeting where members and interested non-members are welcome. We’ll meet in the Sway Restaurant in Hyatt lobby. Grab your own breakfast and join us for discussions about the SIG, what we’ve been doing, and what SIG members want the SIG to do. Members of the International Technical Communication SIG and Canadian SIG are especially welcome!

On Monday, from 6.30 PM to 8.00 PM, visit all the STC SIGs at the Communities Reception in the Centennial Ballroom. The Europe SIG will be there ready to have lively conversations with all visitors. Look for the EU flag on the table.

Session highlights, Monday, May 6

10.00 AM – 11.00 AM Lightning Talks, Session 1, Hanover CD presented by Ray Gallon, Alyssa Fox, Karen Mardahl, Kit Brown-Hoekstra, Michael Opsteegh, Nathaniel Lim and Marcia Wood in Hannover CD

3.30 PM – 4.30 PM And Then There Was One … Documentation Team presented by Kirsty Taylor in Hanover CD

Session highlights, Tuesday, May 7

7.15 AM – 8.15 AM Europe SIG Meeting presented by SIG webmaster, Karen Mardahl in the Sway Restaurant in the Hyatt lobby (PS there will be a drawing!)

8.30 AM – 9.30 AM The 10 Golden Rules of Global Content Strategy presented by Val Swisher in Grand Hall East B

10.00 AM – 11.00 AM Communication and Translation Progression presented by Kirsty Taylor, Whitney Quesenbery, Alan J. Porter, Christopher Bartis, Ann Jennings and Mary Dulin in Regency V

11.30 AM – 12-30 PM International Technical Communication and Canada SIG Meeting (STC-ITC and STC-Canada) presented by Gina Goodson Wadley in Hanover FG – Europe SIG members are very welcome at this lunchtime meeting

1.00 PM – 2 PM Using Foreign-Accented Speech: To Localize or Not? presented by Halcyon Lawrence in Hanover AB

1.00 PM – 2 PM Introduction to Multilanguage Terminology Management presented by David Sommer in Hanover E (Sponsored by Net-Translators)

4.00 PM – 5.00 PM Man Versus Machine in the Translation World presented by David Sommer in Hanover E (Sponsored by Net-Translators)

Session highlights, Wednesday, May 8

11.30 AM – 12.30 PM Writing for Everyone: SEO, ESL, Translation, and Accessibility presented by Char James-Tanny in Grand Hall East D

Happy anniversary, STC!

Did you know that STC celebrates its 60th anniversary this year? That means there’s a 60th Anniversary Celebration Party, of course! It’s right after the Communities Reception. It’s in the same place – the Centennial Ballroom, so stay for a celebration on Monday!

What are your conference plans? Share them in the comments.

Election time in STC

The STC election opens this Friday, 2 March, and closes Friday, 23 March.

Learn about the candidates on the STC website where there is a section dedicated to the 2012 election information. The following offices are to be filled:

  • Vice President
  • Secretary
  • Director (two positions to be filled)
  • Nominating committee (two positions to be filled)

The full slate of candidates includes a mini-bio for each person and a link to a personal page. You can read more about each person on their personal page, along with links to Twitter accounts, personal websites, and audio files. Read about these people who can make a big difference to the future of STC and remember to cast your vote.

Who can vote?

All members can vote, but are you an active member? All memberships in STC operate on a calendar year basis, so no matter when you joined or last renewed, your membership expired on 31 December. STC has a grace period for renewals, but you must renew by 29 February to be eligible to vote in the STC election.

You can also post questions for the candidates to answer. Ask a few questions to help you determine who gets your vote. Your opinion counts. Share it by voting!

STC Pushes to Become More International in Outlook

by Jen O Neill

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is one of the world’s largest organisations for technical communication. We have members across the world. Currently around 18% of STC members are based outside of the United States, most in Canada. Around 5% of members are in Europe and Asia. So perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising if it can have a very US-centric focus as most members are there.

But it is surprising. And frustrating.

Our business is communication and an increasing number of us work globally. Even if we may not travel as part of our jobs or be based in a foreign country, our work could well be used in multiple countries and languages.

Being global in outlook matters. Understanding how “global” impacts our work and jobs is important so that we can then better meet customer and colleague needs wherever they may be based. It also means we are better able to professionally evolve to changing market demands. As an international professional organisation, STC should be there helping us irrespective of where we’re based.

Problems faced by members based outside of the US

Non US-based members have been complaining for several years to the STC board about the lack of a real global outlook from headquarters and how poorly non US-based members are often served. Examples of current issues are

  • Some membership benefits only available to US members
  • Cost of webinars
  • Can only pay using credit cards (EFT – electronic funds transfer – still not available)
  • Lack of regional conferences and workshops
  • Poor communication between headquarters and members
  • Lack of in-depth sessions on localisation/internationalisation at conferences
  • And the lack of globalized content in the Society Web site, communications and forms (such as dates, times, addresses)

Responding to our requests for change, in 2006 the STC board set up a committee to review how the society could better meet the needs of its international members. This Global Strategies committee advised the office and board on many globalisation issues. A globalisation audit of the society unfortunately had to be postponed in 2008 due to the financial crisis.

So how are we doing with globalising the society?

A year ago, the Globalisation Audit Task Force (GATF) was set up to determine how the society could improve communication with non US-based members and determine issues that needed to be resolved.
Over the past year GATF has collected a list of globalisation issues from multiple sources within in the STC such as our forums and conversations with members as well as reviewing the old website. They also interviewed non US-based members on their needs. All this work provides an insight into the problems faced by members based around the world and gives an informative update on where the STC is in its progress on becoming a more globalised organisation, better able to meet the needs of a multi-cultural membership working in a world that gets smaller every day.

The 2011 GATF report and the presentation of the GATF report to the STC Board at the 2011 annual conference last May make interesting reading. I strongly encourage you to read them.

Where do we go from here?

Progress on improving the international outlook of the society has been slow so this work by GATF is a good step forward. The report gives a practical list of action items and advises that the society how it could proceed.

From this list, we see that there are several things we could all do individually and collectively to push global issues:

  • Educate members on globalisation: Write articles and blogs on STC sites (including the Europe SIG). If you have experience in globalisation, seriously consider submitting a proposal to the annual conference that’s aimed at other experienced members.
  • Make webinars more available to different time zones: Run webinars ourselves to make them more accessible to members in different time zones. However, running a webinar using the facilities used by STC headquarters, Genesys, is too expensive when based outside of North America. Fortunately, there are many other tools around that are more affordable. We could compare notes with other regional groups on suitable webinar tools. Seek sponsorship to make them more affordable.
  • Planning regional conferences (and with volunteers) is hard work (I’ve helped with a few and can speak from experience) so they won’t be annual events. Local initiative gets these off the ground. They don’t have to be large events. Perhaps partner with another international or national association on a shared theme?

Clearly change won’t happen overnight but we need to ensure that the board and office don’t just sit back and do little to solve this growing need. So this is where we all come into the equation. A small committee can only push so hard. We should now all help push the society to become the international society that so many of us want (and expect).

What ideas do you have for pushing these changes forward?
What suitable and affordable webinar tools can you recommend?
Are there issues not covered in the GATF report?

Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments.

News about the STC 2010 Board Elections

The 2010 STC Board of Directors Election is scheduled to run from 9 March 2010 to 8 April 2010. STC members are eligible to vote if they renew by 28 February 2010. Student members are not eligible to vote in Society-level elections, but they are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the candidates. It may be an inspiration for future opportunities in the Society!

Candidate materials and bios will be available on the STC website in early January 2010. This post is a reminder about the upcoming elections – and possibly a reminder to renew your STC membership.

Who are the Candidates

The following information is provided by Jackie Damrau, Manager, Nominating Committee. Feel free to contact Jackie if you have any questions: jdamrau3 at airmail.net.

Please note that the election slate presented below reflects changes to the composition of the Society Board of Directors. Based on the results of the Knowledge-based Governance Survey of the membership conducted in August 2009, the STC Board of Directors voted during its 24 August 2009 meeting to amend the Society Bylaws to reflect the following position changes:

  • Remove the Second Vice President position
  • Remove one Director position
  • Change Director terms to two years
  • Allow Directors to serve two consecutive terms

A full copy of the revised bylaws is posted on the STC website.

Congratulations to all of the candidates, and thanks to everyone who expressed interest in running for office.

  • For President: Mike Hughes will automatically succeed from First Vice President.
  • For First Vice President: Hillary Hart will automatically succeed from Second Vice President.

Candidates on the slate for the 2010 STC election:

  • For Secretary: Rachel Houghton and Steven Jong
  • For Director (three positions to be elected)* Nicky Bleiel, Al Hood, Tricia Spayer, Makarand (Mak) Pandit, and W.C. Wiese
    *Lisa Pappas resigned from the STC Board effective 23 November 2009, which creates an additional position for someone to serve the one year remaining in her term. For the 2010 election, STC members will elect three directors-at-large, with the top two winners serving the two-year terms and the third winner serving the remaining year of Lisa’s term.
  • For Nominating Committee (two positions to be elected): Lory Hawkes, Nathaniel Lim, Linda Mikkelsen, and Preeti Mathur

What individual STC members can do

  • Ask the candidate a question. The STC Web site will provide a “Question and Answer” area where individual members can post a question for all candidates for a position. All candidates for an elected position will receive the question by email and have the opportunity to post an answer. (The page is STC Board Election, but it is not updated at the time of this post.)
  • Endorse a candidate. As an individual member, you may endorse a particular candidate on Twitter, the STC Ideas Ning site, the STC LinkedIn group, or your own personal blog. (NOTE: Group endorsement of a candidate by a community, chapter, or committee is not allowed. E-mail lists that are administered through the Society office and subscribed to based on an elected position in a community, such as the Presidents’ list or Treasurers’ list, are not appropriate venues for endorsements from individual members.)

The elections page will include each candidate’s statement and personal URL for additional information about the candidate.

Note that candidates are permitted to contact individuals personally in addition to providing campaign information on their own personal Web sites. The STC office may also send out (maximum) two campaign messages per candidate through Society e-mail to those who have opted for Society mail.

Renewal time in STC

It’s renewal time in STC (and the SIG). Here’s a page of practical information about renewing your STC membership (and a handy “Renew Now!” button).

Do you have a colleague or friend who is not a member? Share this page of practical information about joining STC for the first time.

Existing members feeling the financial pinch should look at the STC recovery package offered by the Society.

If you’re torn between buying some software and paying for your membership, Madcap has a tempting offer – paying for your membership!

We hope to see you in STC in 2010!

Call for Proposals for 2010 STC Summit in Dallas

The call has gone out. From now until Monday, October 5, at 10 AM ET, you can submit your proposals for the STC’s Technical Communication Summit 2010.

You may submit more than one proposal, but each must be submitted separately at www.softconference.com/subs/stc/2010/.

The Summit will be held 2–5 May 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas in Dallas, TX.

The logo for the STC 2010 Technical Summit
The logo for the STC 2010 Technical Summit

Questions and contacts

For general information or questions about the system, contact Lloyd Tucker, Director of Education and Membership, at lloyd.tucker@stc.org or via telephone at +1 (571) 366-1904.

For questions about your proposal content or format, contact a Track Manager. Their contact information is available through the call for proposals link. Here’s a quick overview:

  • Conference chair: Alan Houser (@arh)
  • Program chair: Rachel Houghton (@rjhoughton)
  • Web Technologies, Emerging Technologies, and Education & Training tracks: Track Manager Paul Mueller (@useraid) – also Deputy Program Chair
  • Design, Architecture, and Publishing: Track Manager Sarah O’Keefe, (@sarahokeefe)
  • Managing People, Projects, and Business: Track Manager Richard Hamilton (@richardhamilton)
  • Usability and Accessibility: Track Manager Caroline Jarrett
  • Writing and Editing: Track Manager Kathryn Poe
  • Professional Development and Communication/Interpersonal Skills tracks: Track Manager Ant Davey (@antdavey)
  • Academic & Research Topics: Topic Mgr Charlie Kostelnick (Note: There is no academic track for the STC 2010 Summit. The programming committee seeks academic and research-based proposals in all tracks.)

If you are on Twitter, follow @stc2010 for the latest news about the 2010 STC Technical Summit!

Speak up, speakers, and join the STC speaker database

Do you know about the STC (beta) site for finding speakers? It’s at http://findaspeaker.stc.org/.

Despite the current discussion about STC’s financial crisis, this is an excellent initiative that deserves support. The site definitely needs data, and only you can help provide that data. Add your name – or share with the people who should be in this database.

Currently, there are no listings for people in Europe. Case in point! We need the names of speakers based in Europe to add to the diversity of this database. Spread the word. Let’s make STC truly international!

Around the world

Of course, we are promoting the European angle. After all, we are the Europe SIG. We would definitely encourage speakers located outside North America and Europe to contribute to the database. Spread the word to colleagues in Russia, Africa, South America, Australia/New Zealand, all of Asia – everywhere.

Remember your speaker tips!

Wherever you speak, please consider all the people attending your presentation. I’m talking about those attendees who are hard-of-hearing. You do want everyone to hear what you have to say, right? The AccessAbility SIG of STC has a nice cheat sheet for you to use.

STC is listening – how do you think we should resolve our financial crisis?

STC needs your help – now! We have a financial crisis, not unlike the crisis that faces many associations like our own, but that is not a comforting fact. We need your input, thoughts, reflections to help STC resolve its situation one way or another.

People are already blogging about this issue.

As you can see from the titles alone, this is a serious discussion. Some might even ask why do we need to solve this financial crisis? This is a time for societal (or personal) soul-searching. What are your thoughts on the topic?

What’s this about?

Last week, Cindy Currie, STC President, sent out a message to all STC members asking for input to help resolve the financial crisis that the Society is facing. The Society really does need your input now! If you are an STC member and have not received this mail, request a copy through a comment in the blog, the contact page, or a mail on the SIG discussion list.

You are strongly encouraged to read the background information available to STC members on the STC site. A login is required.

Please submit any suggestions that you have to stc@stc.org. Please use “STC Crisis Suggestions” as your subject line on emails sent to stc@stc.org.

For those who use Twitter, tag your tweets with #stcorg when discussing STC’s current situation to submit quick ideas. @stceusig will tweet news as it pops up.

Share your ideas here or on the blogs listed here. Perhaps a European point-of-view is needed on this topic. Who knows? We’ll never know if you keep your great ideas to yourself! Remember, your ideas are really needed at stc@stc.org – they are waiting for input from all STC members. Together, we can make a difference.

There’s still time to register for the STC conference!

The 2009 STC Technical Summit in Atlanta, Georgia is less than 3 weeks away. You can still get the Early Bird Rates, and the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency, has reduced their hotel rates. Why not register today?

For planning your trip, read the conference accessibility information; it benefits everyone, not just those with special needs. The host chapter in Atlanta has dedicated a special section of their site for information about their city.

Meet with other Europe SIG members (or wannabe SIG members!) at the networking lunch on Monday, the business meeting Tuesday morning (with refreshments!), or the Monday evening community event sponsored by the host chapter. Or at any of the many sessions and social events throughout the conference.

All you have to do at the conference is enjoy, learn, share, network…!

See you in Atlanta May 3-6. (Or from May 2 if you attend the pre-conference workshops.)

PS Remember to read the information for international attendees if you are not a US citizen.