http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/Tieline A listing of works published by Tieline in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Tieline http://tc.eserver.org/33712.html http://tc.eserver.org/33712.html Surveys have always been a great way to gauge users' opinions and reactions toward new and existing products and services. With SurveyMonkey, an online survey software program, creating a survey has become a quick and easy way to create useful surveys for a multitude of needs. In this reprint of David Farbey's article, originally published in the January 2006 edition of Forward, the newsletter of the UK Chapter, Farbey gives a step-by-step guide on creating a survey with SurveyMonkey. http://tc.eserver.org/33713.html http://tc.eserver.org/33713.html Many STC members have contributed to the Body of Knowledge and as the endeavor continues, the more important it becomes to gain many perspectives and ideas from all across the STC membership. SIGs have unique angles for their contributions. Lori Gillen, co-manager of the AccessAbility SIG, contributed this persona for use by the BOK. This persona illustrates pertinent accessibility issues that a body of knowledge for technical communicators should encompass. http://tc.eserver.org/33714.html http://tc.eserver.org/33714.html Innovation is important in any area of life, and STC communities are no exception. Last year, STC Chicago and STC-NIU (Northern Illinois University) combined their strengths to facilitate innovation and to help revive a student chapter. http://tc.eserver.org/32701.html http://tc.eserver.org/32701.html In addition to providing a welcoming atmosphere, SIN SIG offers newcomers a jump-start to networking. As a new member, Thuy Vu took advantage of SIN SIG for exactly that purpose. She says, "To have the support and resources of SIN SIG from day one was very valuable to me as a new member. SIN SIG made it much easier to connect with the group and to learn my way around." We've found that the casual SIN SIG meeting with its small group provides an avenue to get to know a few faces and learn about opportunities for involvement without intimidating new people. http://tc.eserver.org/32702.html http://tc.eserver.org/32702.html At this year's Technical Communication Summit, I introduced social networking at Leadership Day by telling those in attendance about Twitter. Some folks already knew about it, but for others, it was a new concept ... letting people know what was going on in real time? Setting up meetings? Getting the A/C fixed in the conference rooms? By the end of the Summit, about 20 people had sent messages, or tweeted, consistently throughout the conference. http://tc.eserver.org/32703.html http://tc.eserver.org/32703.html The focus of the Society office over the last two months has been working with chapter and SIG leaders on their financial reports for the 2008 Fiscal Year (July 2007-June 2008) and their Community Status Reports (CSRs) for the May-August 2008 period. For the chapters, this also includes submission of the appropriate tax forms. http://tc.eserver.org/32158.html http://tc.eserver.org/32158.html To reinvigorate the chapter, former chapter president, Theresa Putkey suggested that the chapter move to a member-driven, online community. Instead of the eight volunteers currently pulling the chapter along, the chapter’s 250 members can set the pace, build momentum, and provide more value than a handful of volunteers are able to provide. http://tc.eserver.org/32159.html http://tc.eserver.org/32159.html As a former Board member, I was often buttonholed by members to discuss what the Board was doing and our plans for STC's future. One of the most common topics of discussion was, "What am I getting for my membership and why should I renew?" Why should you renew? Beats the heck outta me. But I can tell you why I renew, year after year after year. http://tc.eserver.org/31852.html http://tc.eserver.org/31852.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31851.html http://tc.eserver.org/31851.html Once you prioritize time for involvement in STC activities, you have good opportunities to show your talents to your peers. Yes, it is scary. The technical communication community is a very difficult audience. But isn't that a fantastic learning opportunity? http://tc.eserver.org/31850.html http://tc.eserver.org/31850.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31537.html http://tc.eserver.org/31537.html As Leadership Community Resource (LCR) volunteers, we constantly receive requests to help a community with volunteer burnout. In the worst cases, we have seen entire councils walk away from communities, one volunteer doing all four elected positions, overworked volunteers snapping at each other, and many communities run by officers who have been in the same position for years. We want to help community leaders understand volunteer burnout and provide ways to help prevent it. http://tc.eserver.org/31536.html http://tc.eserver.org/31536.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/31061.html http://tc.eserver.org/31061.html Finance is not a skill set that comes easily to most technical communicators. Many of us earned our college degrees in majors (journalism in my case) that were more related to our verbal SAT scores than to our math scores. Also, those of us who aren't in business for ourselves often rely on invisible corporate functionaries to handle all that tedious, confusing money stuff so we can focus on more important, or at least more familiar, matters. http://tc.eserver.org/30748.html http://tc.eserver.org/30748.html The Define-a-Thon is a new word game from the editors of The American Heritage Dictionary. The idea is that you can spell a word without knowing its meaning. So why not develop a competition where the contestant has to pick the right word after its definition has been given? http://tc.eserver.org/30747.html http://tc.eserver.org/30747.html Make the meetings fun--after a long day at work, we need to relax. If you can help them relax at the meeting, you are a step ahead. Some chapters use a relaxation technique at the beginning of their meeting. One California chapter president responded on the listserv that he wears a Santa suit at his chapter's December meeting, so don't be afraid to try something new! http://tc.eserver.org/30746.html http://tc.eserver.org/30746.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30749.html http://tc.eserver.org/30749.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30216.html http://tc.eserver.org/30216.html If you are not delegating properly, you are making your own life more difficult. In turn, your subordinates suffer because their interests and talents are being overlooked, however unintentionally. http://tc.eserver.org/30213.html http://tc.eserver.org/30213.html Society chapters often involve members who live and work in a very wide geographic area. Even members of chapters with smaller physical areas face long commute times from work sites to meeting sites. Often, the time spent commuting is enough to discourage even the most stalwart Society member from participation. Chapter leaders and committee managers are left with the problem of how to offer their members the means to participate in meetings more effectively. http://tc.eserver.org/30214.html http://tc.eserver.org/30214.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30215.html http://tc.eserver.org/30215.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30071.html http://tc.eserver.org/30071.html The literature on managing virtual teams and projects across cultures and locations is primarily theoretical and not integrated with information about collaborative tools such as wikis, blogs, and project dashboards. The authors advocate choosing the best situational tool, based on team and team members' needs. http://tc.eserver.org/29947.html http://tc.eserver.org/29947.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/28977.html http://tc.eserver.org/28977.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26754.html http://tc.eserver.org/26754.html SIN stands for Shy, Inactive, or New. I admit that it wasn't my original idea--I appropriated the name and concept from another organization. http://tc.eserver.org/26252.html http://tc.eserver.org/26252.html he recognition activities of STC generate a key component of the value provided to its members. Establishing a Technical Communication Week celebration can help boost your community’s profile and the perceived value of our work. http://tc.eserver.org/26251.html http://tc.eserver.org/26251.html In April 2005 the Vermont Chapter STC hosted the STC traveling exhibits, which include award-winning entries from the five major STC competitions: the international technical art competition (ITAC), international technical publications competition (ITPC), international online communication competition (IOCC), Society newsletter competition, and Society public relations competition. If your chapter, like ours, is in a small market, you probably don’t get the opportunity to network with technical writers from different industries or to see documentation for other markets. Hosting the traveling exhibits is a great way to see what other technical writers are doing in the field. http://tc.eserver.org/26253.html http://tc.eserver.org/26253.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/26255.html http://tc.eserver.org/26255.html Rechartering, as many of you know, means examining and refining your community’s purpose, mission, goals, and plan for delivering value to your members. Through the recommendations of STC’s regional directors and of the communities transformation committee, the board approached about thirty communities and asked them to participate in the pilot program. Twenty-four communities (eighteen professional chapters, three student chapters, and three SIGs) agreed to the experiment. http://tc.eserver.org/26250.html http://tc.eserver.org/26250.html I was having a hard time coming up with a program that would provide tangible member benefits and be easy to maintain at low (or no) cost. I finally found what I was looking for when a friend told me about a book review he was writing for O’Reilly, a technical publisher. When I asked how he got hooked up with O’Reilly, he filled me in on their user group program. http://tc.eserver.org/26256.html http://tc.eserver.org/26256.html If your chapter has never created a strategic plan, or if it has been a long time since plans were updated, it's a good idea to develop one now. Those first plans can require one or two years to create, but don't be intimidated by the commitment. The phases of the plan are easily broken down into small, manageable sessions for which you can set reasonable or flexible completion dates. http://tc.eserver.org/26254.html http://tc.eserver.org/26254.html Although the economy in Northern California has improved, people are not clamoring to become technical communicators the way they were in the boom days of the late 1990s. Finding volunteers for chapter positions is difficult, and those who do volunteer often have to do more with less. An organization of local chapters can facilitate inter-chapter communication and sharing of resources. http://tc.eserver.org/24384.html http://tc.eserver.org/24384.html Looking for a quick, simple way for your members to register and pay for chapter events? Many chapters are turning to online services that facilitate financial transactions over the Internet (also called P2P, or person-to-person transactions). http://tc.eserver.org/24386.html http://tc.eserver.org/24386.html If you’re looking for ways to boost your chapter’s profile, consider having your state declare a technical communication week. Currently, about a dozen states celebrate the event. One of the first was Arizona, where Thomas P. Barnett, a senior member with the Phoenix Chapter STC, has been manager of Arizona’s Technical Communication Week for several years. Last October marked the thirteenth year that technical communicators in Arizona have celebrated their profession. http://tc.eserver.org/24381.html http://tc.eserver.org/24381.html If you’re looking for a quick, simple, and cost-efficient way to survey your members, you may want to try a Web-based survey service such as Zoomerang. Zoomerang offers users the ability to create and design their own surveys, send the surveys to targeted groups, and download the results, which Zoomerang tabulates. http://tc.eserver.org/24385.html http://tc.eserver.org/24385.html A list, organized in alphabetical order by chapter name, of the best sixteen tips from STC chapter leaders in 2000. http://tc.eserver.org/24388.html http://tc.eserver.org/24388.html In the past few years, our chapter has presented three or four Saturday workshops per year, including the Career Day workshop. (We offer the Saturday workshops as an alternative to the usual monthly chapter dinner meeting.) We developed our Career Day program with two tracks—one for novice technical communicators (and curious laypeople), and another for persons with some experience in the field. Initially, we cooperated with a smaller, nearby chapter with many of the same employment issues. http://tc.eserver.org/24383.html http://tc.eserver.org/24383.html Have you ever wished that someone would offer advanced training for technical communicators in your community? In Winnipeg, we certainly did. However, we found that most training is expensive. Our chapter would bring in workshop leaders, but have difficulty getting enough people to sign up. Those of us who wanted training often had to leave the city, but not all of us could get our companies to pay to send us for training, or even to annual conferences. About four years ago, the Manitoba chapter stumbled upon an easy, cheap solution: We started a journal club. Four times a year, several chapter members meet to discuss the contents of the latest issue of Technical Communication. http://tc.eserver.org/24387.html http://tc.eserver.org/24387.html The Silicon Valley Chapter STC began its mentoring program in 1999. We developed the program in response to the many requests we were receiving from students, members, and practitioners in the local area for mentors within the local STC chapter. I hope to help other chapters meet their members' needs by describing how the Silicon Valley chapter established its program. http://tc.eserver.org/24389.html http://tc.eserver.org/24389.html STC's special interest groups (SIGs) provide a way for STC members to share their interest in particular areas of technical communication. Society SIGs at the international level may have hundreds of members, and many publish a newsletter, host an electronic newsgroup, and sponsor events and sessions at STC's annual conferences. Chapter SIGs usually have fewer members, but, because their members live in the same area, they can meet regularly and address members'local needs. http://tc.eserver.org/24380.html http://tc.eserver.org/24380.html How does an STC chapter address such a wide scope of skills and interests? The answer for us is an educational program called STC-U. http://tc.eserver.org/24382.html http://tc.eserver.org/24382.html 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.