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President's Corner
by Marc Lee, President, Rocky Mountain Chapter
Greetings! My name is Marc Lee and I am the president of the Rocky Mountain
chapter of STC for the year 2004-2005. I am observing my 20th anniversary as a
technical communicator this week and I have been involved in the chapter for
about 15 years. For the past four years I have been a judge in the online
technical communication competition.
For the coming year, I'll be reporting to you about your chapter both here in
Technicalities and by monthly eBlasts. You should have received two eBlasts
by now. If you haven't, let me know: it means that we don't have a
current email address for you. By these means, as well as through our regular
chapter meetings, I will try to keep you up-to-date with the chapter's
activities and plans.
This year, we are
hoping to make your involvement in the chapter more meaningful and make the
chapter more responsive to your needs. Here are our main objectives for
2004-2005:
- Increase the appeal and relevance of our meeting programs to the members.
We have been working to establish a full year's program
for you early in the chapter year. A survey
soliciting your suggestions for program topics went out and the results have been tallied. Thank you to those of you who responded. The survey gave us very interesting and valid results. The response rate was nearly 25%, and we are acting quickly to provide a survey-centric schedule of meeting programs for 2004-2005.
- Increase attendance at our meetings. The more people attending, the more
networking possibilities that exist. Also, I hope to attract additional
non-members including business leaders, university affiliates and others to
our meetings.
- Increase the publicity for our chapter and our industry. We have an
award-winning publicity team, but are planning to increase the impact of our
publicity. We are working on promotional press and general business kits that
will underscore the importance of technical communications to the wider
community.
- Streamline our competitions. Our online, pubs, and art competitions have
been some of the most dynamic areas of chapter activity -- involving dozens of
entries and volunteers. This year, we're re-designing our competition program,
and will take a year off from holding the competition. It's not a year off
from competition work, however. We'll be meeting to plan even better
competitions for the year 2005-2006, including a detailed schedule of
competition dates and deadlines that will better integrate with the
International competition schedule.
- Follow up with the International Society's 'transformation' plans. While
the transformation is still a little vague as to details, it is going to
happen eventually. For this reason, our chapter will keep abreast of the
process and keep you informed. We've already volunteered for a pilot
're-chartering', which has been submitted to the International.
Beyond the official agenda, I have some additional ideas that represent, to
me, some important opportunities that the chapter and Society have not
successfully addressed in the past. These are areas that could potentially
improve our chapter and our individual careers. At this point, however, I would
call the following more of a wish list:
- Find additional forums for addressing the key issues in our industry.
Important topics include new technology, return on technical communications
investment, and new markets for technical communicators. These might include
SIGs or just informal discussions.
- Make a more robust members' database available to all members. This tool
could be used for exchanges within the membership. Would you like to find
people with Unix 'troff' background who worked on Berkeley BSD? Find someone
with an interest in game design for e-learning? Find someone who has basic
electronic component knowledge and has an aviation background? Our database
could be such a tool. Undertaking general education among influentials and
leaders in business about technical communications. I would like to find a way
to include a broader community. We should attract industry leaders, government
officials, and academics to our chapter meetings or specially designed forums.
One immediate goal could be to compile a database of the 100 most influential
users of technical communication services in our area. This could serve as the
basis for outreach programs to communicate the benefits of our discipline.
- Address the importance of 'domain' knowledge in our business. You can't
write about or program about something you don't understand. I would like to
have an arena within our chapter for members to learn basic electronics
concepts; basic or advanced software engineering concepts; basic telephony;
and basic science or technology in emerging areas of technical communication
such as bio-engineering, pharmaceuticals, or agribusiness.
No activity gets done without the involvement of the members. This takes
time, effort and commitment. We have a cadre of chapter leaders who have
volunteered hundreds of hours to make your chapter 'go' and provide better
benefits to you. Still, we are always in need of additional support.
The difference between the numbered 'objectives' and the bulleted 'wish list'
is that we have a program and people behind the objectives. That doesn't mean
those activities are fully staffed; they're not. But the bulleted items are just
ideas on paper at this point -- without even a name attached to them. If any of
them interest you, please contact me about becoming involved in making them
real. If there is no interest expressed by one or more members, most likely that
item will not get done this year.
Finally, please just communicate -- negative, positive or in between -- about
your ideas for the chapter. Use my email or phone to communicate directly.
Hoping to see each of you at some activity or meeting of the chapter this
year,
Sincerely,
Marc Lee
STC RMC President,
2004-2005
303 460 8391
marc@mlmultimedia.com
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