#24382
Supporting Our Members through Lean Times
The Twin Cities chapter offers a variety of services to help out-of-work and underemployed writers and editors. Of these services, the most important is something that many members may take for granted: opportunities for volunteers. Members may not realize it, but volunteering at the chapter level improves their marketability by helping them acquire new skills and hone the skills they already have. Some of the Society’s most loyal and active members are those whose careers have seen marked improvement as a result of their participation in STC.
Levander, Deanne K. Tieline (2003). Careers>Unemployment>Community Building>STC
#29688
Surviving a Busy Year: The Marathon of Chapter Presidency 
Every year, the annual conference offers potential chapter leaders a session entitled 'The Marathon of Chapter Presidency'. They're not kidding. My year as president of STC Montreal was a long, steady, exhausting haul--but a very pleasant one now that I can look back on our achievements. In this paper, I'll pass along tips learned from other presidents and tips I learned while coping with my own duties. Try out as many tips as your time, energy, and volunteers permit!
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#31650
TCeurope: A European Umbrella for Technical Communicators 
This paper presents TCeurope, the European umbrella organization for technical communicators and its activities in the past, including lobbying for technical communication at the European Parliament, formulating a European guideline for usable and safe operating manuals for consumer goods, and formulating a European guidelines for professional education and training of technical communicators in Europe.
Fritz, Michael, Michael F. Steehouder and Ursula Wirtz. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>Europe
#31536
Good leadership involves a responsibility to the welfare of the group. If you make choices based on popularity, you will avoid making tough decisions. You might even avoid confrontation and, as a result, deserving people may not be rewarded for their accomplishments. Sometimes leaders have to draw a line in the sand and take a stand.
Laurent, J. Suzanna. Tieline (2008). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#22057
A phpBB-based discussion forum for users of the Tech-Writer website.
Tech-Writer. Resources>Writing>Community Building>Technical Writing
#13000
Technical Communicators’ Forum (TC-Forum)
The idea for TC-Forum evolved during Forum 95. Forum 95 was an international conference organized by the international umbrella organization INTECOM, the International Council for Technical Communication. Forum conferences take place every five years. The first one was held in Malmö, Sweden, in 1975, the last one in Germany in 1995.
#24886
Technical Publications, Art, And Video Competition Forum
STC's local, regional, and international-level Technical Publications, Art, and Video competitions provide the society with the opportunity to showcase its members' talents. A great deal of work goes into making these competition successful, and an open dialogue between participants, competition managers and judges is important at all levels. This forum give local, regional, and international competition managers, and anyone else interested in competitions, the chance to discuss all aspects of STC competitions.
Hoyt, Thomas B. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#12960
Welcome to the Friendly Faces of TECHWR-L, where you can put faces with the names of TECHWR-Lers. The friendly faces are listed in alphabetical order by last name.
#14799
Ten Strategies for Consilience
Can we achieve a true convergence among fields, with science and the humanities working in tandem to produce knowledge? This paper attempts eight rhetorical and two political strategies in a 'gedanken experiment' to assess which among them might meet with greatest success in achieving that congruence. Some of the strategies will be adaptations of prominent writers, including theorists in Technical Communication. The question whether science and the humanities should, in fact, operate from the same attitudes and assumptions will be addressed in a final section.
Missimer, Constance A. Orange Journal, The (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building
#29899
In 2002, the Orlando Chapter of STC initiated a new competition to encourage local area and employer recognition of excellence in technical communication. In establishing the award, the Orlando Chapter increased its dialog with employers, helped raised the visibility of the profession in the area, honored its founder and its continuing relationship with a local university, and increased its level of service to chapter members. This paper describes the objectives established for the award program, how it was judged, and how the chapter benefited from its creation.
Fellure, Alicia, Mike Murray and W.C. Wiese. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
#29696
The Transformation of a Technical Communicator
Transformation is part of human evolution, so it is natural that STC is transforming itself through the 'Transformation Initiative.' Similarly, STC members as technical communicators need to transform themselves, or they will no longer be viable in a changing and evolving world. Part of STC's method for the Transformation Initiative, to rely upon internal communities to expedite solutions, is the same method that technical communicators can use to re-create their own niches or move to others. Individual technical communicators are hosts within themselves to a myriad of talents and strengths, with each talent and strength serving as a community. Individually, then, communicators should apply all of their personal communities to themselves.
Ball, Valerie M. STC Proceedings (2005). Careers>TC>Community Building>STC
#30749
"Thursdays @ STC Chicago" Provide a Unique Networking Opportunity 
In March 2007, the Chicago Chapter STC started a program that has become quite popular with its members. If your community covers a large geographic area, or has a large number of members, this program may work well for you too.
Friend, Russ. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#29698
Transforming Your Chapter through Corporate Bingo
As a chapter President, starting the Transformation process can seem a daunting task. Once you have the committee in place, directing its efforts can leave you with even more questions. Not sure what to do next? Look to the corporate Bingo card to help set your course. While the blocks of the corporate Bingo card generate chuckles, smiles, and even more jokes, it also provides direction, guidance, and some thought-provoking considerations for your chapter's transformation.
Guess, Suzanne. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
#31240
Types of Social Media Measurement
Social media measurement sounds like an inherently good idea. Management likes numbers, and if we can measure it, we can manage it. So, all this new online activity should be easier to understand, once we measure it. There's only one problem: What does social media measurement mean? Like social media itself, it is an evolving term with multiple definitions based on the needs of different constituencies.
Gilliatt, Nathan. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
#27611
The UML Forum is web community dedicated to the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the industry-standard visual modeling language for specifying software-intensive systems. Here you can find information related to UML specifications, UML tools, UML books, UML papers, and UML mailing lists.
#31415
Understanding "Micro Media": Subscribing to RSS Feeds
For the last 19 years, Keith Moore has hosted a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called "How Colleges and Universities Can Obtain National (and Regional) Publicity." In a sign of the times, this year's conference included a session in which we focused not on getting into the major mass media, but on the capabilities of the machines that sit on our desktops. In short, we looked at the evolving world of so-called "micro media," tools that are enabling us to create new online communities in ways never before possible.
Forbush, Dan. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>RSS
#24920
Usability, User Experience, Or Both?
Explains how the new name of the former STC Usability SIG better serves the growing number of technical communicators whose work encompasses the overall product--not just usability or documentation.
Bachmann, Karen L. Intercom (2005). Articles>Usability>Community Building>User Experience
#31850
Using Constant Contact to Communicate with Your Members
Using Constant Contact helped us distribute mass emails to (the former Region 4) STC members to promote a regional conference that we held in October 2007. This was a successful and professional-looking campaign. We signed up for a 60 day trial account to evaluate the Constant Contact service. The trial was so successful that our board voted to purchase an account for the NEO STC Community.
Spayer, Tricia. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#29117
Using the Internet as a Tool for Public Service: Creating a Community History Web Site 
Creating a community history Web site is a way for technical communication practitioners, students, and teachers to improve their expertise while performing a valuable public service. Developers of this kind of Web site combine personal interest in the history and culture of their chosen communities with professional interest in a wide range of skills: for example, online research, Web site design, creation of artwork, photography, graphics editing, collaboration, professional/technical writing, as well as site publication and promotion. Technical communicators working on community history Web sites enjoy creative freedom that makes these projects especially engaging and fun. While learning about subjects of particular interest and improving professional skills, developers gain the satisfaction of trying to help communities increase civic pride and heritage tourism. Also, the technical communication profession benefits when its members demonstrate good citizenship to employers, other constituencies, and the public.
Henson, Darold Leigh. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>History
#30679
Using Web 2.0 Architecture for a More Flexible Enterprise
Web 2.0 repositories can help you create a flexible software architecture, which can easily be plugged into Web 2.0 communities and extranets. Creating a fluid system that also works in accordance with requirements for modifiability, performance, security, scalability, and reusability can be challenging. In this article, learn techniques to help ensure your Enterprise Web 2.0 architecture meets your quality requirements.
Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#24924
Virtual Communities: Weaving the Human Web
Muses on the increasing importance of communities in the technical communication profession.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Intercom (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>Social Networking
#27612
The Visual Modeling Forum is a web community dedicated to visual modeling languages and tools. The visual modeling languages that we cover include industry standards, such as Unified Modeling Language (UML), the System Modeling Language (SysML), as well as emerging standards, such as Domain-Specific Modeling Languages and visual OWL for the Semantic Web.
Visual Modeling Forum. Resources>Collaboration>Community Building>UML
#24269
Volunteering and Using Your Skills
Non-profits need all the volunteer help you can give. If you thought about trying your hand at grant writing or developing a marketing campaign, get your experience by helping a nonprofit. Always wanted to teach? Try your skills at a non-profit. You’ll simultaneously gain experience and help others. You, just might enjoy it and discover a new career opportunity.
Norberg, Elsie L. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building
#21075
The purpose of this article is to explain the voyeur web. The central idea is that it is easy to view what other people are doing and experiencing on the web. A list of voyeur tools are provided.
Rhodes, John S. WebWord (2002). Design>Web Design>Community Building
#31239
Web 2.0: The Medium is the Message, But What's the Result?
Let's face it: These are tough times to be a professional communicator. Our audiences have taken the reins of what is indisputably the dominating mass communication medium of our era: the Internet. Web 2.0, characterized by social media applications for peer-to-peer collaboration such as YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia is challenging all of our basic assumptions as communication practitioners. The astonishing rise of social networking structures and content is in effect challenging the very existence of the traditional corporate communication function.
Kealey, Caroline. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking
