#26253
All STC community leaders know the difficulty of finding volunteers. In recent years, the Orlando chapter has seen steadily increasing membership counts and meeting attendance figures, implemented creative and successful chapter initiatives, and even won consecutive Chapter of Distinction awards. But when it comes to soliciting volunteers for chapter leadership positions, you may as well be asking them to wrestle the sharks at SeaWorld! On the other hand, there are some things you can do to at least lessen the pain.
Murray, Mike. Tieline (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#31712
How To Justify Conference Attendance
As a manager you may often be faced either with your own need to attend a professional conference or requests by your team members to attend one. Professional conferences can be expensive and not all budget managers understand their importance or the benefits derived by conference attendees. In this article, Mike Doyle discusses how to go about justifying the expense of attending a conference and provides some handy worksheets you can use to do so.
Doyle, Mike. Writing Assistance (2006). Articles>Management>Community Building>Assessment
#30214
How to Organize Educational Meetings for Community and Professional Organizations 
Successful meetings are the end result of a∆ careful planning process. To successfully organize an educational meeting for a community or professional organization, you need to follow a series of steps.
Carliner, Saul. Tieline (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
#24940
How to Stage a Successful Student Competition 
One of the functions of the Society for Technical Communications (STC) is to promote and encourage the professional development of its members. A student chapter of STC has additional responsibilities; it must also seek to build bridges between the students and the professional community.
Bowman, Michelle L., Leonard B. Jones Ill, Winnifred R. Leonard and Marisa J. Mueller. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Community Building>STC
#30504
As a chapter leader, you work hard towards the goal of getting maximum interest and participation in chapter activities by the chapter membership. But are you on target? Probable accurate answers to this question are 'some times,' 'probably,' 'maybe,' etc. As any of us who have served in an STC chapter leadership role can attest, the fact is that the target is a moving one. What is on target today may not necessarily work tomorrow. And vice-versa. However, there are some 'tricks of the trade' which you can use to help you increase your on-target percentage. Come and interact with a panel of past and present chapter presidents as each shares specific ideas for increasing membership involvement and for tailoring activities to meet the needs of members and potential members.
Cantando, Mary Myers, Mark Hanigan Bruce E. Cone, Michael P. Bates and Judith N. Skinner. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#20876
The IEEE PCS Virtual Community has been established to provide you with a more robust environment to facilitate your online collaborative efforts. Enhanced capabilities not featured in static web pages or email listservs include: calendar function; polling function; file sharing; enhanced search function; and im (chat).
#29433
If you create a community around your Web site, look beyond providing the outer semblances of community: design a site that can potentially work the way each of these very different members of the community wants it to work.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2000). Articles>Web Design>Community Building
#19533
In contemporary business texts corporate sponsored online communities are described as central to the commercial development of the Internet. This paper presents a history of how online community has been represented in models of Internet commerce. It critically examines the arguments, narratives and rhetorical strategies drawn on within business texts to represent online community. The paper discusses why academics have an interest in involving themselves in helping organize alternative models of online community formation in the context of moves to corporatize and commodify higher education.
Werry, Chris. First Monday (1999). Articles>Cyberculture>Community Building
#25591
Imagining the Blogosphere: An Introduction to the Imagined Community of Instant Publishing
Blogs above the waterline—those which are frequently updated, widely read, and consistently linked—may represent the conception of blogs in the public mind, but they are not representative of blogs in general.
Lampa, Graham. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Writing>Community Building>Blogging
#30775
The Impact of Social Media on Technical Communication
In this podcast, I talk with Bill Albing, founder of KeyContent.org, about the impact of social media on technical communication. Bill talks about different ways social media helps audiences interconnect and interact. Good social media technologies enable professionals to collaborate easily, without being encumbered by complicated technology or even burdened by managing and filtering feeds. Bill explains that the web is more than just a venue for publication -- it's a medium that allows people to interconnect and work/collaborate with information. This is the direction we're moving towards, and technical communicators are starting to integrate social media, such as user forums, directly into their help.
Albing, Bill and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>Online
#28977
Implementing a Community RSS Feed 
After implementing www.stc.org's RSS feed, I decided to develop one for my own chapter's site. I researched RSS, copied an .rss example file, tweaked the code, and was able to successfully implement a chapter RSS feed.
Flaherty, Brian. Tieline (2007). Design>Web Design>Community Building>RSS
#24094
La Imposibilidad de la Belleza: Reflexiones Sobre la Lógica de la Distinción en la Posmodernidad
Queremos decir: el campo del diseño está muy lejos de erigirse como un lenguaje transgresor mientras continúe definiendo como único legítimo el modo de percepción que establece cierta disposición y cierta competencia. En otras palabras, mientras no se sincere un juicio que, de manera consciente o inconsciente, tiene por principio de intención la ruptura con el rechazo a lo ordinario, lo genérico, lo fácil e inmediatamente accesible, será imposible crear formas estéticas alternativas.
Almeida, Marta y Vazquez and Laura Vanesa. University of Alberta (2003). (Spanish) Design>User Centered Design>Community Building
#22880
Increasing Chapter Membership Through Public Relations
The Orange County Chapter of STC (OCSTC) set a goal of increasing membership by 20% in one chapter year, with increased public exposure and improved member services as the primary goal. PR Committee volunteers planned and carried out eight programs to increase corporate awareness and media coverage, improve intrachapter communications, and extend community relations. Chapter membership grew by 31% during that year and membership retention was above the International average. In addition to international recognition, committee volunteers gained professionally useful skills through their efforts.
Giles, Sandra J. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>Public Relations
#29947
In order for chapters to stay relevant to their members, they must provide intrinsic value to their members and show themselves as professional and authoritative leaders in the field of technical communication.
Opsteegh, Michael. Tieline (2007). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#11893
The Information Design of Community-Building
What turns a Web space into a virtual community or community network? Sandra Maddox writes an introduction to the subject.
Maddox, Sandra. EServer (2001). Design>Information Design>Community Building
#28958
Pith and Vinegar: Is Technical Writing Your Calling?
An essay exploring whether technical writing is a 'calling.'
Harvey, Michael. Carolina Communique (2007). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Community
#26496
It's about the Community Plumbing: The Social Aspects of Content Management Systems
In the summer of 2003, we worked on creating a general description of Drupal--an open source content management system (CMS)--for the "About Drupal" page on drupal.org. While Drupal is clearly within the class of applications known as content management systems, we felt that to describe it with that term alone would not present a clear picture of the breadth and range of Drupal's capabilities. Thus, the final description ended up describing Drupal with a total of four characteristics, although notably not distinct content management; weblog; discussion-based community software; and collaboration. Why is it then that the term CMS alone would not suffice? The word "content" places much emphasis on the product over process; it fails to emphasize the social use of CMSes, a mislabeling which places too much emphasis on the content itself at the expense of the communication and collaboration the better of these systems implement. In order to better understand how CMSes are being influenced by the precepts of social software and their role in creating social networks online, this presentation will: explore Drupal's social software features, narrate its genesis as software serving a community; and explain the influence of the community itself on Drupal development and the software's influence on the community that creates and uses it. In composing this text, we draw on the coauthors' unique perspectives. One of us is the founder and lead developer of Drupal, and the other a researcher in Computers and Writing and a participant in the Drupal community.
Lowe, Charles and Dries Buytaert. Kairosnews (2005). Presentations>Content Management>Community Building>Collaboration
#30746
Lead Volunteers to Superstardom
Thanks to the Orlando Chapter, we now have a program that our volunteers enjoy. Whether or not you decide to do something like this for your community is up to you. But remember this: someone out in the world of STC has tried something. Rely on their expertise. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Haughton, Mel. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#31852
There is an aspect of leadership that’s just as important as knowing how to resolve conflicts. That is knowing when and how to listen. If we are leading a chapter or a SIG or a Society-level committee and one of our members raises an issue, we need to listen very carefully to what they have to say.
Farbey, David. Tieline (2008). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#29674
The Leadership Community Resource (LCR) is the STC's structure for providing support and guidance to STC communities. The LCR provides volunteer guidance, formal coaching and mentoring in specific leadership areas, support for communities in crisis, and resources for new and prospective leaders including an online Leadership Training course to help build a personal or community leadership plan.
#30215
One definition of leadership that I like is 'the ability to cause other people to act in desired ways for the benefit of the group.' Those of us who are managers often have the authority to make other people act for the good of a group, but that power doesn't make you a leader--it makes you a boss. The people who choose to follow you decide if they want you as a leader and thus want to achieve the goals of the group. In the long run, folks in a volunteer organization follow a leader because they believe it's in their own best interests to do so. Those interests could be recognition, advanced career possibilities, learning a new skill, altruism, or any number of other personal perks. Good leaders know how to tap into an individual's personal interests and feed those interests so the person both enjoys and gains from helping the group reach a goal.
Oestreich, Linda L. Tieline (2007). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#30280
Leading a More Successful Chapter
This leadership training workshop is designed to assist new and seasoned STC Chapter leaders with solutions to their chapters' most pressing problems. The agenda of this workshop is determined by the participants. Successful Chapter leaders will facilitate group discussion and roundtable problem-solving sessions.
Brinegar, John P., Steven M. Cascone and Roger A. Grice. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Management>Community Building>STC
#25477
Links, Lives, Logs: Presentation in the Dutch Blogosphere
Few native English weblogs link to non-English weblogs in their blogroll and those English language weblogs that do link to non-English weblogs are usually written by non-native English speakers. The Internet may be transnational but many communities remain bound by barriers of language.
Schaap, Frank. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Presentations>Community Building>Blogging
#29427
Mail Your Newsletter with Less Labor and Cost
A lot of STC chapter and SIG mailings are done the old-fashioned way: envelopes stuffed by hand, and stamped manually or--occasionally--with a stamp machine. That's an awful lot of work, and expensive too. When I confronted this problem a few years back for my current employer, some research revealed a solution that eliminated the annual pressganging of volunteers to stuff envelopes and also saved us a fair bit of money.
Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (1999). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC
#31262
Did you know that every person you encounter has at least 250 people in his or her personal network? Imagine the possibilities if you were connected to a small percentage of those individuals. Multiply that by the number of friends you have, and you've expanded your networking opportunities exponentially.
Capps Powell, Joy. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Careers>Collaboration>Community Building
