Find out more about the election, get to know the candidates, and pose questions by visiting the STC Election web pages.

Nicky Bleiel — STC Candidate for Vice President

Find out more about Nicky Bleiel by visiting her website and by reading her Newsletter Article about the election and her vision for the Society.

Some of us will remember Nicky for her encouraging and enthusiastic participation in the Virtual Town Hall meeting on January 25, 2012. Nicky will be the featured speaker at our awards celebration on March 1st, so we can meet her in person before the elections.  

Ray Gallon — STC Candidate for Director

Ray is an independent consultant specializing in the convergence of content strategy, content development, and usability. He is currently in his second term as president of STC France. Before that, he was the chapter’s education outreach manager, and guided STC France’s mentoring programme.

Ray will be posting specific articles about important issues on his personal blog. Join him there, and leave your comments, or raise the issues that concern you the most. 

As we hear from other candidates, we will be posting updates on our Chapter blog, so stay tuned as we prepare for the 2012 elections.

Good luck to Nicky, Ray, and all the STC candidates.

Slides from the Virtual Town Hall in pdf format

Among the highlights of the presentation were

• the map of our chapter members’ geographic distribution,
  
• a summary of the events we attended in 2011,
  
• a preview of some of the events we are planning in 2012,
  
• and an open and honest view of our finances.
  

The group had a few lively discussions about what STC offers to our members, especially the grant from IBM, potential locations for future meetings (come to the wineries in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley), and the STC job bank.

The group expressed a desire to give support to our local student affiliates. Tiffany Newland will be attending the JMU Student Chapter Meeting in February and suggested that we send her ideas and information about events that would appeal to students at the undergrad or graduate level. Email Tiffany at tnewland at woodmark.com.

Many thanks to some of the STC leadership who attended online
Nick Bleiel
Alan Houser
Judy Glick-Smith
and to all our chapter members and volunteers for a terrific 2011.

Here’s looking forward to communicating with you in 2012.

Some folks have expressed an interest in seeing the full slideshow, so I’m posting it here.

STC Social Media Survey powerpoint slide show

What did we say?

We like email
We like face-to-face
We like Facebook
We like the Intercom magazine
Job postings, webinar training are important to younger members
Some of us are overwhelmed by too much social media

We are always interested in your feedback so don’t be shy about speaking up in the language and social media format of your choice:

STC WDC Chapter website http://www.stcwdc.org/
STC WDC Chapter event calendar and blog http://www.stcwdc.org/wdcblog/
STC WDC Chapter blog RSS feed
http://www.stcwdc.org/STC_Washington_DC_Chapter.xml
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/STCWDCMB
Linked In http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=156478
Twitter profile http://twitter.com/stcwdc
Twitter hashtag #stcwdc
Join this email announcement list http://www.stcwdc.org/list_annc.shtml
Join our members-only email chat list http://www.stcwdc.org/list_chat.shtml
MySTC WDC group http://stc.org/mystc/groups/viewgroup/94-Washington%2C+DC

Or feel free to contact me directly by email at any time.

Viqui Dill
Social Media Manager & At-Large Director (2012)

The program is part of IBM’s efforts to provide employee expertise and innovative technology to the broader community. It’s also a way to encourage employees to volunteer in organizations that serve their community. Chapter President Charlotte Glenn applied for the grant.

The chapter plans to use the grant to host an event that encourages students in technical communication and promotes technical communication as a career. Look for an upcoming event that gives students an opportunity to network with seasoned technical communicators in the greater DC-Metro Baltimore area.

Thanks IBM!

All the presentations were excellent. In addition to delivering some very interesting research results, the speakers provided links and references to other content that will keep many of us busy learning for the next few months.

Here are some highlights:

• Rebekka Andersen in The Effect of Content Management Systems on Processes in Technical Communication Groups described research that shows how important it is to consider the culture of an organization when attempting to implement content management systems.

• David Farkas described a new non-proprietary format for documents called QuikScan that he and his colleague Quan Zhou developed. The process, which incorporates content summaries within documents, can be used in many writing tools. It saves time and enhances reading comprehension.

• Wendy Freeman in What the Research Says about Use of Social Media by Younger People (It Might Surprise You) presented a thorough analysis of how young people are using social media with some interesting conclusions about what digital literacy means today.

• John Killoran in Search Engine Optimization and the Web Work of Technical Communicators discussed how search engines work and provided tips about writing web content that appeals to search engines.

• Brad Mehlenbacher in Social media and sustaining technical communication summarized the history of social media, explored it strengths and weaknesses, and provided a useful conceptual view of social media that gives a framework for evaluating and using the various forms of media available.

• Martine Courant Rife’s presentation Copyright Law and Professional Online Communication gave us plenty of food for thought about how copyright laws affect technical communication. She also answered our questions about copyrights and requirements of new laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

• Ann Rockley in Changing Publication Processes introduced us to some newer forms of publication, including eBook readers and tablet devices, and described the potential of these forms of communication. She showed how to use these emerging technologies and in one case how not to use them.

• Aimee Kendall Roundtree in Medical Writing in Social Media: Practices and Challenges discussed how the health care industry is using social media for communication. She provided a number of very interesting case studies and addressed some interesting issues related to health care and social media, such as whether online social networks can affect long-term health behavior and the competition between the emerging media and traditional, one-way communication policies in the field of health care.

• Stuart Selber in iPads in technical Communication described a research study at Penn State where students were given iPads to use in English classes. The study explored how users implemented the technology and the challenges that students and teachers faced using this form of technology as a medium for communication.

All in all, this was one of the most interesting webinars that I have attended. If STC offers it as a recording, be sure to take advantage of that opportunity.