• How the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses social media to improve communication and debunk myths
• How social media can support your organization’s mission and assist in decision-making
• Best practices for implementation of a social media strategy

Registration ends March 10. Sign up now!

Details/Registration:
http://stcwdcseminarandcelebration.eventbrite.com/

Save the date for the STC WDC Technical Communication Competition Awards Celebration and Seminar about "Engaging Your Target Audience Using Social Media". (Seminar Leader: "Blogger Bob" Burns, www.tsa.gov/blog.
Location: Washington Marriott at Metro Center, Washington, DC.
Map and directions to the event.

Information About the Awards Celebration

Fees

STC members – $45.00*
Non-members – $65.00
Competition judges, entrants, volunteers, or full-time students – $30.00

*If you are a new STC member, please e-mail stcwdc_eventsmanager@yahoo.com for a one-time $5 discount code.

Registration: http://stcwdcseminarandcelebration.eventbrite.com

Early Registration Bonus!

Register by February 15 to be automatically entered in a drawing for a free registration to the WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance on March 21-24. That’s a $995 value!

Lunch

Included in your registration is a plated lunch with salad, entree, and dessert. We will be serving:

Salad

Executive Field Greens with mushrooms, roma tomatoes, asparagus, and balsamic vinaigrette

Choice of Entree

Grilled Chicken Breast served with caramelized chardonnay sauce, jasmine rice pilaf, baby carrots, and asparagus
or

Ziti served with white sweet potato puree and chanterelle mushrooms, marjoram, crisp micro sage on sweet corn saffron sauce

Dessert

Double Chocolate Fudge Cake with raspberry sauce

Bread and Beverages

Assorted breads, butter, margarine, iced tea, assorted soft drinks, sparkling mineral water, Starbucks coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and selection of Tazo teas

If you have specific requests, please e-mail competitions@stcwdc.org by March 9.

Agenda

11:30 a.m. – Check-in and competition entry display
12:00-12:45 p.m. – Plated lunch
12:45-1:00 p.m. – Introduction and welcome
1:00-1:45 p.m. – Seminar: "Engaging Your Target Audience Using Social Media"
Seminar Leader: Curtis "Blogger Bob" Burns, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Office of Strategic Communications & Public Affairs
1:50-2:05 p.m. – Best of Show and Best Student Entry presentations
2:10-2:30 p.m. – Competition awards celebration

Download the flyer.

Information About the Seminar

What You Will Learn

• How the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses social media to improve communication and debunk myths
• Best practices for implementation of a social media strategy
• How social media can support an organization’s mission and assist in decision-making

The TSA blog at www.tsa.gov/blog was launched in 2008 with the intent of demystifying airport security processes and debunking myths by providing simple, non-bureaucratic explanations of why TSA does what it does to keep the traveling public safe. Curtis "Bob" Burns, best known as "Blogger Bob," is the manager and the primary voice of the blog, and he is supported by other TSA employees who also contribute with posts and responses to comments. Since its inception, the blog has provided a forum for open and transparent discussion between TSA and the public on a wide range of topics including the "why" behind security procedures, information on new policies, and myth busting of media and blog stories. Since its launch, the blog has received over 1 million hits.

Curtis "Blogger Blob" Burns started with the TSA in September 2002. He worked at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) for 5 years and is currently located at TSA headquarters in Washington, DC. Bob started as a Transportation Security Officer (TSO) and has since been promoted to a Management Analyst with the Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs.

During his 6 years with TSA, he’s worked as an Operations Watch Officer, Instructor, Training Coordinator, Behavior Detection Officer, and served as the Vice Chairman on TSA’s first National Advisory Council – a group representing TSA’s frontline workforce in discussions with TSA leadership on security and workplace issues. Bob lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, two daughters, and a 100-pound German shepherd named Clarence.

Before joining the TSA, Bob was a singer / songwriter and traveled around the world with his band. Songwriting is now one of his hobbies along with record collecting, ugly ties, and photography. His favorite type of music is psychedelic garage rock music from the 1960s.

STC WDC Chapter Event

Workshop
Location: Rockville Library
Cost: Free
Registration: http://designingdocuments.eventbrite.com/

This mini-workshop will present an overview of how to prepare documents using Microsoft Word, Adobe FrameMaker, and Adobe Acrobat that all people can read, even those people who rely on screen readers. The United States government made this a requirement for federal agencies in 1998 when Congress passed Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. All document designers have the opportunity to increase the readership of their documents, even if they aren’t compelled to do so by law. Adding alternate text, adding basic structure to your documents, and setting simple options provided by authoring tools are things we all can do to improve the accessibility of our documents.

By the end of this mini-workshop you will have begun to understand how to set up your source documents in Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker to support accessibility, create an accessible PDF using either tool, check for accessibility in Adobe Acrobat, and fix accessibility problems in your PDF.

You will receive a handout that summarizes the procedures introduced in class.

Intended Audience

Technical writers and documentation specialists working in any industry who use Word, FrameMaker, and Acrobat to create documents. Note: This class will not explain Section 508. For more information about Section 508 requirements, see the official Section 508 website and other resources that will be shared in class.

Agenda

• 10:00-10:15 a.m. Registration and refreshments (bagels and juice will be provided)
• 10:15-11:00 a.m. Workshop Part 1: Document preparation in Word and FrameMaker; creating the PDF (speaker: Carolyn Kelley Klinger)
• 11:00-11:45 a.m. Workshop Part 2: Checking for and fixing accessibility problems in your PDF (speaker: Dona Patrick)
• 11:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Q&A

Feel free to join us for lunch (pay on your own) immediately after the workshop at Spice Xing for an Indian buffet at 100-B Gibbs Street, which is an easy walk (about one block) from the library. Please let Carolyn know by e-mail at carolyn.klinger@verizon.net if you want to join us for lunch so that she can alert the restaurant.

About the Speakers

Carolyn Kelley Klinger is an independent consultant working primarily for the National Cancer Institute as a technical writer. New to accessibility, she has led her technical writing team at the NCI in the development of accessible documentation in the past year. Not finding the detail she needed in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Section 508 guidelines, she created her own reference materials for her group that are unique to HHS. She delivered a version of this workshop at Accessibility Camp DC in October 2009. You can reach Carolyn at carolyn.klinger@verizon.net and at STC Washington, DC Chapter events (see the Events Calendar).

Dona Patrick, who holds a masters in Educational Technology from George Washington University, has been involved in web accessibility since 2001 when she was hired by Caliber Associates (now part of ICF Consulting) to become a web accessibility resource in anticipation of Section 508. Before that she taught students with learning and / or emotional difficulties. She now exclusively works on evaluating, remediating and creating accessible PDF documents for government agencies through her work at ICF Consulting. She maintains a PDF Accessibility website at http://accessdp.wordpress.com. Dona can be contacted at dona.patrick@gmail.com.

Food

Bagels and juice

Directions

Metro: Take the Red Line to Rockville. Cross Route 355 at East Middle Lane, or you may take the Pedestrian bridge at the Metro stop. (If you take the Pedestrian Overpass, turn right on Monroe Street and continue to East Middle Lane.) Continue on East Middle Lane to Maryland Avenue. Turn right onto Maryland Avenue. The library is on the plaza on your left at 21 Maryland Avenue.

We will be in the first floor meeting room.

Get driving directions from your address.

Parking

Although the library is close to the Rockville Metro station, plenty of parking is available near the library. Parking in the Town Square Garage across the street from the library is free on Saturdays.

• STC Annual Conference / Technical Summit: conference overview and registration
• Conference session materials and archives SUMMIT@aClick
• Online Certificate courses
• Job Seeker Boot Camp designed to help you find jobs in difficult times
• Live Web Seminars: Schedule

What is a Web Seminar?

A Web seminar is similar to a conference call but with show and tell. Participants listen to the presenter over the phone or Voice Over IP (VOIP) while viewing presentation materials on a Web site. Note: The webinar platform does not support Voice Over IP (VOIP) for Apple Macintosh system. Participants using Macintosh computers can access all other functions of the platform and use the 800 dial-in number with Skype instead of VOIP.

Benefits:

• No travel time
• Pay per site and not per person
• Train without leaving the office

Cost:

• Members $79
• Nonmembers $149

List of Seminars

• Upcoming seminars: http://www.stc.org/edu/seminars01.asp.
• Historical list of seminars: http://www.stc.org/edu/live-web-seminars-historical-reference.asp
• 24/7 SUMMIT@aClick Web Seminars: http://www.softconference.com/stc/amh.asp