For job seekers

The new Job Board allows you to search for jobs by job type, category, and function. You may also subscribe to any or all RSS feeds for a particular job category.

Job seekers may search for jobs using several methods:

1. Click on the "Visit the Job Board" link under JOB BOARD in the center sidebar of the blog and scroll down through the listings. They are in order by date with the most recent posting at the top.
2. Use the JOB SEARCH box to find particular jobs. I’ve added a tool tip for the box to guide you.
   1. Search by job type (full time, part time, contract, freelance, telecommute, intern, volunteer, etc.).
   2. Search a category (advertising, marketing, journalism, technical communication, Internet technology, etc.). The full list is below the search box under JOB FEEDS.
   3. Search by job function (writer, editor, developer, etc.).
3. Click on the link for Job Type or Category in the table at the top of the job details page. This will bring up a list of all listings for that topic.

For employers and recruiters

Employers and recruiters may now fill out the Job Listing form and get it posted directly to the blog (all postings will be moderated and approved before going live). You may also add your logo to your posting. Image formats may be *.jpg, *.gif, or *.png; image sizes must be no larger than 300×100 pixels.

Job listings are free for 45 days for salaried jobs and free for 365 days for standing offer internship announcements. Featured listings may be purchased: $45 for 90 days and $150 for 365 days. Featured listings will appear above the free listings in the board.

Listings are automatically removed from the board when they expire. The expiration date may be extended by request or by putting up a new post.

I hope you enjoy the many improvements the Job Board brings to looking for a job. I know I’ll enjoy more free time and less carpel stress not having to maintain the old announcement pages.

The Employment Resources page on the main site will remain in place with links to the Job Board, Talent Pool, Documentation Contractors & Consultants, and other STC and local career resources. The home page and Employment Resources page will also link to the Twitter Job Announcement Feeds page on the main site for RSS feeds from the STC Technical Editing SIG, DCJobs for Writers, DCJobs for Web Developers

The APEX Awards attract many outstanding entries. Of the nearly 3,800 entries in APEX 2009, just 100 Grand Award Winners were selected

The judges’ comments for the APEX 2009 Grand Award winners are now posted at http://www.apexawards.com/apex2009grandawardcomments.htm

Here are the judges’ comments for the STC Washington, DC Chapter Web site:

“Good gods! This isn’t a site. It’s a universe. The depth and range of data and resources are enormous — yet the clarity of presentation, speed and ease of navigation are first rate. All the latest technical upgrades, too. Nicely done.”

OMG! We are proud to announce that the STC Washington, DC Chapter’s Web site won a rare Grand Award in the 2009 APEX® Awards for Publication Excellence in the "Web & Intranet Sites; Nonprofit Small Office" category! Information about the competition is available at http://www.ApexAwards.com/.

(Some of you may remember we won a 2005 APEX® Awards for Publication Excellence in the category of “Web & Intranet Site Content & Writing”.)

APEX 2009 awards were based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the success of the entry—in the opinion of the judges—in achieving overall communications effectiveness and excellence.

The Grand Award honors the outstanding works in each main category (100 Grand awards in 11 main categories). The Excellence awards recognize exceptional entries in each of the sub-categories (1,158 excellence awards awarded in 122 sub-categories) .

This year, 3,785 entries were evaluated, in the following distribution:
Newsletters: 385; Magazines & Journals: 706; Magapapers & Newspapers: 82; Annual Reports: 183; Brochures, Manuals & Reports: 378; Video & Electronic Publications: 193; Web & Intranet Sites: 267; Campaigns, Programs & Plans: 301; Writing: 659; Design & Illustration: 392; Special Publications: 239.

A list of the winning entries is available as a PDF: Announcing the Winners of APEX 2009 (pdf). Grand Award winners are listed by main category. Award of Excellence winners are listed within each subcategory, alphabetically by organization, or by last name for individual entrants.

Some other STC sites won awards of Excellence in various Web & Intranet sub-categories:

• Blogs, Forums & Wikis – Society for Technical Communication AccessAbility SIG
• Web Sites – STC-NNE Chapter, Nashua, NH
  (Note: an STC member, Rich Maggiani, also won in this category for his Solari Communication, Web site)
• Web & Intranet Site Design & Illustration – Shafqatullah Syed, Society for Technical Communication, Fairfax, VA

Several other STC entries are also winners in this year’s competition in the 10 other categories. Congratulations to them all!

New alternate style sheets have been added. There are now three style sheets for changing text sizes and 21 style sheets for Low Contrast backgrounds.

The Low Contrast backgrounds help people who have difficulty reading text because of the glare from a white background or because the words appear to move around or become fuzzy. For dyslexic children and adults, reading through tinted lenses or transparent sheets has often helped. Because there is a variety of types of Dyslexia and several forms of color-blindness, different colors suit different people. Try them out and see what a difference a colored background makes. It will also help reduce migraine headaches for some people who have to read under fluorescent lighting conditions. You may no longer have to say, “The page is too bright – it hurts my eyes!”

For more information about the accessibility features of the site, see the Accessibility Design and Features page.

The banner will display a different view of a Washington, DC scene on every page and on every reload. The 94 images rotate randomly. Many of the photos used come from photos donated by friends, relatives, and chapter members (some are listed under Photo Credits disclaimers page—if I missed anyone, please let me know).

New navigation has been added to the top for those who like dropdown menus and the sidebar has been split into a left and right sidebar for those who find the dropdown menus difficult to use. Breadcrumbs have been added to the top of each page so the need to have a link highlighted in the navigation to show where you are was eliminated along with many files that created that effect, which makes maintenance easier. There is a tab jump index that comes up when you go to a new page and click on Tab or when the cursor is in the header of the page. The jump links take you to the different sections of the page so you don’t have to scroll around. Keep tabbing until you get to the link you want, then press Enter. To get back to the tab index, put your cursor in the header text. (I’ve added a similar index to this blog. Put your cursor in the very top line of the page (the society’s name), then Tab. Or, click Top to go to the tab index, then Tab.)

The pages are coded XHTML 1.0 Strict (Transitional for some pages using third party code that doesn’t work in Strict). The site continues to use both server side includes (ssi) and php includes to bring in text shared on many pages and to have secure forms. Font size can be changed to two larger sizes using the three A’s on the right side of the top nav bar. I am still adding finishing touches to the code so the style sheet switchers for higher contrast and text only have not been modified yet to fit the new layout. A few tweeks will get them back in line. The CSS is cleaner with the elimination of many workarounds for the old IE6 browser now that IE7 supports more of the W3C standards. However, there are still some IE exceptions needed. Hopefully, these can also be eliminated in the future when a stable IE8 is issued.

The site passes accessibility requirements for Section 508 and W3C Web initiatives 1, 2, 3.

More translation language capabilities have been added to help the many people around the world who come to our site. (Click on the site visitors location cluster map in the right sidebar to get the details.)

You can keep up to date about job announcement postings, talent pool changes, and new events by subscribing to the RSS feed for the site.

There are other changes I have probably forgotten to mention. Check it out. Add a comment to this post about what you think of the new design.

The Events category provides information about chapter events, conferences, and events for related organizations. All information that was on the main Web site was moved to this blog for easier maintenance.

Related Links

• Events Calendar: http://www.stcwdc.org/events_calendar.shtml
• Directions Index: http://www.stcwdc.org/directions_index.shtml
• Related Meetings and Events: http://www.stcwdc.org/wdcblog/index.php/category/events/relevents/
• Speakers’ Handouts and Presentations: http://www.stcwdc.org/speaker_handouts.shtml
• Archives of Past Chapter Events: http://www.stcwdc.org/events_past_archives.shtml

Aspiring Authors and Contributors for this category: contact Carolyn Kelley Klinger