In today’s world of technology changing in the blink of an eye, ongoing professional development isn’t an option for technical communicators, it’s a requirement. Over the past decade the field of technical communication has grown and gained more respect as a legitimate profession, and the complexities of the job and skill base required of technical communicators have also increased. Some of what’s new we can learn on the job—if we have a job—but sometimes we need to obtain the skills to stay vital in other ways.

When it comes to professional development in tech comm there are a lot of options. If you’re gainfully employed, enjoying what you do, and just need to brush up on the latest tool, then probably just a training seminar or a short online class is all you need. But if you’re not employed, or employed in a different capacity than you’d like to be, then you might want to consider a bigger educational commitment to make yourself more marketable as a technical communicator in today’s world.

In 2008 I stepped out of the working world to go back to school to earn my master’s degree in technical communication. While I’d started my career as a technical writer in a software development environment, I’d changed roles along the way, and by 2008 I was wondering how I’d gotten on the train I was on and, more importantly, how I could get off of it. I decided earning an advanced degree was the right decision for me, so in January, 2009, I took the plunge and started graduate school as a full-time student.

Making the Decision

If you’re thinking about going back to school to earn an advanced degree a few things you should consider are:

• What is my financial situation? If you’ll be paying for your education yourself this is obviously one of the first things to consider. Even at a state school, graduate school is expensive (trust me). If you do like I did and go full-time you’ll need to make sure you can do without an income during that time.
• Why do I want to go back to school? Or, put another way, what do I want the end result to be? In May, 2008, when I was first looking into my program, I sat in my advisor-to-be’s office and told him I wanted “to catch up with the field of tech comm.” Throughout the program I never lost sight of that goal. (Along with the goal of wanting to get not just any job, but a good job as a technical communicator when I was done.)
• Do I have the determination it will take? Whether you’re going full-time or part-time and taking a class or two at a time while you work, graduate school is no small commitment. Make sure you understand that before you start—and it will still probably be different than you think.

Getting the Most Out of School

Once you’ve decided to go back to school I highly recommend you make the most out of your time as a student. Keep in mind that an academic program is just that: academic. Academic programs are good at teaching you how to think but they don’t always provide all of the practical skills technical communicators need, such as tools knowledge or authoring techniques. Augmenting your education with practical opportunities will make you a more well-rounded technical communicator (and better job candidate) in the long run.

Here are some ways I’ve made the most of my experience as a tech comm student:

• Get what you want out of the program—don’t let it define you. When I had to select a book to review in a theory class I chose Anne Gentle’s Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation rather than something more theoretical. For my final project in the same class I explored the idea of user-generated content and highlighted Adobe Community Help. For my capstone project, I put together a Help system for a product that didn’t have one. Selecting practical project topics whenever the opportunity presented itself made my academic program much more meaningful to me.
• Take advantage of student discounts. No, I don’t mean movie tickets and Disneyland (although those are good, too), I mean discounts to professional societies. Most professional organizations, including STC, SIGDOC, and UPA, offer membership discounts to students. While you can, take advantage of the opportunity to join organizations like STC at the discounted rate.
• Get involved in student or local professional chapters. If you have a student STC chapter at your school, seek out the faculty advisor and be a part of it. Or get involved with the local professional chapter. My local STC chapter welcomed my input and was glad to have me at meetings. We now have two student members on our Administrative Council.
• Participate in professional events. Over the course of my program I attended a conference on DITA that was held on my school’s campus; listened to webinars on FrameMaker and SEO put on by my local STC chapter; and attended the 2010 STC Summit in Dallas (taking advantage of the discounted student registration rate).
• Network, network, network. Start networking early, before you really need to. Saying you’re a student is a lot less threatening to people than when your focus is on finding a job. Start building relationships at the beginning; later, when you are looking for a job, you’ll be amazed at what the fruits of your labors may bring.

Peggy Harvey is currently wrapping up her M.S. in Technical Communication at North Carolina State University, graduating from the program in December. She serves as Treasurer and Membership Manager for the STC Carolina Chapter and is an active member of the technical communication community. After a two-year hiatus from corporate America she has begun her post-education job search and expects to re-enter the working world as a practicing technical communicator soon. You can reach her at peggy(at)connectingtocontent.com or follow her on Twitter.

Flickr photo credit: bruinshorty, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruinshorty/3873037675/.

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A Narrow View of Tech Comm

When I graduated from Utah State University two months before starting as an intern, I thought technical communication consisted mainly of writing manuals, help systems, and the occasional tutorial. I thought the main activities were writing and creating images for print or Web.

My definition of a technical writer didn’t differ much from most people’s if at all.

I hadn’t heard the terms CSS, single sourcing, structured authoring, DITA, social media, Agile, RSS, SEO, or content strategy. Some of these things were either relatively new or not dreamed of at that point.

I belonged to the student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, but the chapter members mainly learned from each other. There was only so far we could go that way.

A Widening View

My horizons definitely broadened after graduating. The program I graduated from taught me things like collaboration, audience analysis, and project planning. But the focus tended to be on delivering a final document.

Through the projects I worked on, I learned some help authoring, CSS, and JavaScript. I was a team of one for a while, so I had to find opportunities to improve my skills. Later, as people joined the user education team, I discovered tools and techniques I hadn’t guessed existed. I also rejoined STC, started attending conferences, and served in chapter leadership positions. I learned to subscribe to tech comm blogs to find out what other people in my field were up to.

An important lesson I picked up is that I don’t have to be stuck in user guides or online help. The technology available these days has opened many methods of communication.

A Realization

Perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is what I’m really doing as a technical communicator.

My first documents were indeed online help and a small set of manuals, so I can credit my education with getting the job because that’s what my supervisor was looking for. But the other things I’ve done have altered my view of what a technical writer or technical communicator is.

If someone were to ask what I do for a living, for much of the last five years, I would have said something like “I’m a technical writer. I document software.” I still say things like that. So some of the lessons from my time in the field haven’t sunk in to the core of my brain yet.

What I should be saying is, “I provide documentation and training to make people successful in using software.”

That is the goal of all technical communication as far as I’m concerned: making the audience successful at whatever their goals are, whether it be obtaining a certain piece of information or completing some task.

A Look Forward

I’ve been anticipating new projects so that I could bring to bear everything I’ve learned over the last five years. That chance has come with a couple of new software projects, and I expect good results of myself. I’m trying to think outside the manual and the traditional help system. I’m considering the audiences, their environments, and their needs.

With a look back over the last five years, you may think I’m going to wave my fingers over a crystal ball and predict where tech comm is going in the next five years.

I don’t do that sort of thing because I don’t find a lot of value in it.

I can sit here and tell you where I think tech comm should go, and that has come out in my blog. At this point, that’s the only effect I can have on what changes happen in the profession. Sure, the practice of tech comm has its core functions that haven’t changed in the last five years, which means they won’t change in the next five. Everything that has changed has done so at a quick enough pace that I don’t think we can predict what tech comm will look like five years from now.

In many ways, it probably won’t look much different. Most of the changes that have come about have to do with how we produce documents, not with how we deliver or how the audience experiences them. Social media have changed that to some degree, but things like structured authoring and single sourcing affect the writer much more than the audience.

If anything will change in the next five years, it needs to continue to be how we perceive ourselves and how the organizations we work for perceive us and our contribution. That won’t happen unless we think strategically (yes, an allusion to content strategy) and point out that we help make customers successful, rather than thinking tactically (“I create software documentation”).

A Few Final Words

I think I’m smarter now than I was five years ago. I’m recognized by the managers and development teams in the project portfolio I work in. Many of them understand how I work and how to work with me. Equally important, I understand how to work with them. I understand how necessary good audience analysis and project planning are in technical communication.

The last five years have been good to me. I’ve gone from being a just-out-of-college, entry-level newbie to a professional with confidence in my work, an online presence, connections with numerous other professionals, and leadership experience.

Let’s make the next five at least as good.

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The last year wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped, but we did a few things right.

Filled Leadership Positions

When I ran for president, we had no current president (due to circumstances that I won’t explain here). Our treasurer/programs manager/competitions manager was keeping things going, with help from the immediate past president. I had just taken over a few months previous as the webmaster because the previous one became unable to continue. Our ship was staffed by a skeleton crew and was probably close to being decommissioned by the central office.

After the treasurer and I ran for office and won, I set about filling up the chapter leadership positions. I asked the prior year’s immediate past president to remain in that position for one more year, and she accepted. I recruited Paul to serve as vice president and someone else as the public relations manager. Within a short time, a former chapter president stepped forward to serve as secretary, and another person offered to take the employment manager position. A previous education manager also returned.

It didn’t take long to get nearly a fully staffed chapter, and I was pretty proud of that. I think that after the year the chapter had just experienced, people responded when they saw that someone was sitting in the driver seat and had a foot on the accelerator. The great group we assembled paved the way for other accomplishments.

Survival

Even as voting was going on, I attended the 2009 STC Summit and found out about the million-dollar shortfall. What a fun thing to step into. Not only was I trying to keep the chapter’s collective head above water, but now I had to help the overall organization do the same thing. But I tried to know what was going on, keep the board informed, and get the chapter members’ thoughts and feelings about these events. I could have done better at letting the chapter know what was happening and at trying to recruit new members. However, we did what headquarters asked us to do, meaning that we created a zero-based budget and sent some funds to them so STC could come out of the red.

Ultimately, though the chapter came out of the dues restructuring with only 30 to 35 members, we’re moving forward.

Events

We offered a greater variety of events over this last year. Previously, most of our chapter meetings were in a presentation format. However, we introduced formats such as discussion forums and greater opportunities for networking. We also extensively explored doing webinars and half-day events, which we are introducing this year.

On top of that, we saw a 100% increase in attendance at some of our events. Attendance had been pretty scarce over the last year, and it began climbing back up. This isn’t to say that our events are packed, but by comparison, we made a big jump.

Chapter Website

Tom Johnson took on the webmaster position when I became president, and he led the effort with his WordPress expertise to making the chapter website a more dynamic source of information. The new website was a big step forward in engaging chapter members and providing up-to-date chapter information.

I should add that Tom opened a chapter Twitter account through which we automatically announce updates to the website.

Wrap-up

I’m not sure I was ready to be president of a chapter when I ran, but I knew our chapter needed a president last year or we would be sunk. Our treasurer needed more support. I certainly could have accomplished more, but I think our chapter saw a good year in spite of the challenges. Paul is enthusiastic and has a lot of great ideas, so I expect things to continue getting better.

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Gryp: You mean how that Sauron guy forged one HAT to rule them all?

Ben: You’re getting a few universes confused here.

Gryp: Me? You’re the one talking to a mythological creature.

Ben: *Ahem!* We’re going to talk about a discussion about the Society for Technical Communication that was started by Kristi Leach and carried on by Sarah O’Keefe and numerous others in comments on their posts.

Gryp: Wow, links within your dialogue. That’s pretty slick.

Ben: If you’re good, some day I’ll teach you how. So Gryp, the discussion is largely about old ways versus new ways of doing things. For example, big central conferences versus smaller conferences or unconferences with more open formats. Or top-down leadership and formal structure versus online communities and more volunteers. Would you like to comment on what you think about STC’s current state in this area and their efforts to make changes?

Gryp: I think there’s an interesting parallel between STC and the field of technical communication. Both are going through periods of transformation and redefinition right now, started by the fact that their value has been repeatedly called into question.

Ben: Interesting. I’ve thought the same thing.

Gryp: I do read your blog, but a little bias may be at play there. Let me give you another example. Certain aspects of tech comm change quickly, depending on where technology goes. XML, semantic content, social media, mobile delivery—you get the picture. However, the concepts and goals underlying the field don’t change. User analysis, clear communication, interviewing skills.

Just as technical communicators are trying to adapt to the latest trends and technologies in communication, STC is trying to shift in the way it communicates. Starting a blog, moving publications online to more robust platforms, that kind of thing. But the way STC communicates with its members, the media it uses, doesn’t change the underlying concepts and principles.

Ben: You mean advancing the profession, improving the practice of tech comm—things like that?

Gryp: Exactly. I can see how some people argued that STC needed to get with the times. A society of communicators ought to take advantage of updated communication channels. But this doesn’t change the core of the reason STC exists, and I suppose that’s why things like the annual conference may never go away. In spite of the next new thing, people still need to gather and exchange knowledge. They still need to get together and associate in real life, cultivate flesh-and-blood relationships.

However, you bring up a good point. If “improving the practice” means adopting new channels of communication with members, then STC ought to do that. Not only will doing so market STC better, but STC can stand up as an example of effective use of those channels. It seems the society as a whole lagged behind in using things like blogs and Twitter, but I think they’re catching up. They’ve got people on the board who are already doing those kinds of things, so it follows that STC as an organization would follow suit. I think you have some forward-thinking people running the show these days. But they’re a small number, so they need everyone’s input.

Ben: So do you think there’s an “old vs. new” problem in STC right now? Or are we treading on dangerous ground by using those terms?

Gryp: I think it’s fine to be talking about old and new as long as you’re doing a few things: not equating “old vs. new” with “old vs. young”; and not adopting new things just because they’re new, but doing it if there’s a real business case for it; and on the other hand, not holding on to older practices because you’re nervous about trying something different.

When she was STC President, Cindy Currie talked about the “new normal.” So people are already trying to paint STC as doing new things. The board is trying new things. So give them your feedback, volunteer if you can, and help build the new aspects of STC.

But keep in mind that STC will probably not be completely reinvented because some things are already working, and some things have to be done due to the type of organization that STC is. You may think that the 501(c)(3) card is played just when the board doesn’t want to change something, but its specific non-profit status is a real factor.

Anyway, if you want new, check out Michael Hughes’s first Open Mike post. See, I can do it too. There’s a bit of the new STC in Mike’s post.

Ben: That’s all we have time for right now. But feel free to ask either of us a question or express your view, and we’ll continue the discussion. Thank you!

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Thanks to Paul Pehrson, cameraman.

Tom’s other videocasts from the STC conference are posted on his site. He does a great job coming up with thought-provoking questions and conducting the interviews.

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Some of the session rooms were set up using relocatable walls. The doors in the walls were designed, I assume, to not take up any more space on the Z axis than the rest of the wall to make storage more tidy. This means that the person who designed the latch mechanism had to figure out an alternative to a knob or handle.

The result was a three-inch-wide button with the word PUSH printed three times around its perimeter (see the photo). You disengage the latch mechanism by pushing the button.

Whatever it accomplished, this design didn’t really meet people’s needs, or at least it didn’t meet conventions so that most people would understand how to use it.

The first person approached the door and slowed, looking at the latch mechanism somewhat warily. She figured it out, pushing the button and then opening the door.

The second person didn’t have as much luck. She tried just pushing the door open, then tried turning the button. She finally tried pushing the button itself, and the door reluctantly gave way.

Now, I think that this person saw the PUSH instruction and maybe interpreted it as “push the door.” But I think she was also a little self-conscious because her initial effort to exit failed, and the longer she stood there, the more notice she attracted. I wonder what her thoughts were as she finally got out of the room, but I’m sure they weren’t positive.

Whatever the reasons for that particular design, I don’t think it was designed with people in mind other than the fact that it had instructional text on it. The majority of people who would use the door are accustomed to doorknobs or latch handles, not a button. I don’t blame someone for having to look twice before deciding how to get out of the room. Maybe the word PUSH should have been PUSH HERE or PUSH HERE TO OPEN.

The same principle I observed with this door apply to other design processes. If we design anything, a piece of furniture, an appliance, a software application, a help system, to meet its own needs or to express our own cleverness, ignoring the needs of the users, we’re inviting trouble. We’re opening the door—pardon the play on words—to the user becoming embarrassed and flustered while trying to use the product, leading to greater error and to a negative opinion of the product and its maker.

Thanks to Trina for taking the picture.

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Last year, I was the incoming Intermountain Chapter president. I missed the beginning of Leadership Day where then-president Mark Clifford took the chapter presidents and SIG managers aside and dropped the bomb labeled “$1.2 million shortfall.” The rest of Leadership Day, most of which I attended, held a tense atmostphere. People were upset and probably panicking to some degree. I felt somewhat overwhelmed as a new chapter president stepping into office and being handed these problems.

I wouldn’t say that I doubted the Society board over the following twelve months, but I tried to voice my concerns where members of the board would hear them. I admit that my dissatisfaction with the board stemmed from a perception that they weren’t open and transparent enough. They solicited ideas from all members, but I didn’t see much communication back that described which ideas the board was discussing. I wasn’t alone on this.

This year, the proceedings of Leadership Day left me with a feeling of greater confidence in STC and its board. I believe that STC is moving forward with more strength and a clearer vision. We still have problems to solve and obstacles to remove, but I believe the board has made huge strides. I’ll tell you about four things that are reassuring for me.

Recommendations from the Community Support and Funding Task Force

Hillary Hart, now vice president of STC, assembled a task force with leaders of communities from all size categories. I had the opportunity to join but didn’t think I could give it the time it would deserve. But the task force surveyed members and made recommendations for board consideration that would boost the support that chapters receive and improve members’ perceptions of the organization and board.

The main recommendations that I support are:

• STC should position itself as the place to go for employers to find technical communicators.
• STC should position itself as the place to go for training on how to write technical papers and how to write technical presentations.
• STC should create a marketing committee to promote STC.

Having been told by chapter members who declined to renew membership this year that STC’s value level didn’t justify the cost, I felt strongly enough about these items that I stood up at an audience microphone and thanked the task force for their work and their recommendations. I think if acted on, these recommendations will significantly increase STC’s importance.

Certification

Cindy Currie announced that the board approved a plan for a work-based certification program with a revised plan due in June. Instead of having to pass an exam, practitioners in the field of tech comm can submit work to be critiqued in six areas. I wonder what this means for communicators who deliver proprietary, private, or sensitive information and will be finding out before the conference is over.

Still, this provides technical communicators with the opportunity to obtain credentials in the profession. As a result, employers will have this specific standard against which to judge candidates and know that someone who has been certified by STC has certain skills.

Marketing Committee

Of course, if employers continue to lack understanding of technical communicators, our skill sets, and why we’re important, they won’t care about our credentials. The task force recommended a marketing committee be formed, and this made perfect sense to me. Chapters have a PR manager position, so why isn’t there such a thing at the Society level?

Mike Hughes wrapped up Leadership Day with a preview of his speech for the annual business meeting the next evening, and he told us that he had already begun forming a marketing committee. This group will focus on making sure employers know who STC is and who technical communicators are.

Transparency and Building Trust

In his closing comments, Mike also told us that one of his emphases as president of the Society will be for the board to open up to the members a lot more. Mike wrote on his personal blog about struggles the board faced, and I think doing so increased his credibility because people could see that the board is composed of real people who wrestle with real problems, and it wasn’t their intent to force a policy or procedure on people. Mike’s posting about it didn’t hurt the board’s image in my mind.

Mike wants members of the board to speak more openly about their deliberations so that members of the Society can become engaged and offer input early—of course with the caveat that we will be listened to, but our ideas may not be acted on. But that openness and encouragement of conversation will help to build the trust that many members lost over the last year.

Wrap-Up

I believe that having made it through the financial crisis, STC can make big strides toward being what it should and being the gathering place for technical communicators of all varieties. It’s encouraging to have received confirmation that Mike and the rest of the board see our problems and want to engage in more open communication with the rest of the members.

When I renewed at the beginning of the year, I was giving the board a year to show me what they would do. After what happened on Leadership Day, I expect I’ll be renewing my membership again in 2011.

Cross posted at http://intermountain-stc.org.

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On a related note, Tom Johnson posted the results to date of a brief survey we’ve done with the chapter. If our chapter is a microcosm as Tom wonders in this post, then more challenges await STC in 2010.

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Michael says:

We tend to keep a core of loyal members (I love all of you), but that has created a demographic problem: A lot of us are older and will be retiring in the coming decade. We are losing our “next generation” of STC members. The upshot is that decisions about how to grow the society are being made by those who often lack the perspective of what the target population wants. Ouch!! OK, that one hits this sixty-year old boy too, so hold off on the flames.

You Talkin’ to Me?

I consider myself among the “next generation” that Michael talks about. Depending on whom you ask, I was born during the somewhat fuzzy transition from Generation X to Generation Y. I graduated from college about four years ago and have a grand total of five years’ experience or so in technical communication. If I’ve ever come across here as anything different (the most likely being even more ignorant than I really am), then you have my apologies for deceiving you.

I agree that the best people to know how to reach the (shall we say) newer generations of technical communicators are themselves. But is replacing the current leadership with a bunch of twenty-thirty-something, forward-thinking, tech-savvy hotshots the answer?

Maybe.

But if you change things completely, you lose the older folks’ experience and longer view, and they can be every bit as forward thinking as the subsequent generations. Some of us do ride behind the crest of the wave. (Not everyone can be in the front rank, right?)

I’m not volunteering for general STC duty. I’ve got my hands full as president of a chapter, and for now the community level suits me just fine. Perhaps if I can fix all the world’s problems on a local level, I can turn around and fix them on a general level. But don’t hold your breath.

The Current Offering

One of my aims as a chapter president is to find out what the current members want out of us. If we can give them what they want, we stand in a better position to attract previous members and new members. In our August board meeting, what people want was one of our focuses, and we used that to start planning our program of events for the coming months. We’re going to implement a questionnaire to get specific feedback from members.

As I’ve said before, I want support for the chapter level. The Leadership Community Resource (LCR) group is lining up mentors for the chapters, but an older member of my chapter says that this song has been sung before. I hope that STC follows up on this. But still, that’s my perspective as an officer and an indirect benefit for the rest of the members.

The thing that troubles me the most is that the majority of the things that are free with STC membership—the things STC advertises—have more to do with finding a job and career building than with improving our actual day-to-day work as technical communicators. Those kinds of things, like webinars and the annual conference, are costly if you have to pay for them yourself. So I don’t blame people for wondering what they’re getting out of a dues hike when they still have to pay for what they want out of STC.

Even the documentation that STC provided for leaders in the LCR suggests that of the costs to serve a member, one-third belongs to the publications. The other two-thirds amounts to what appears to be overhead (and the “find a job” kinds of benefits). True, many people join for the publications, but $175—or more, soon—is a lot to pay for a couple of subscriptions.

The Million-Dollar Question

This isn’t Sam’s Club or Costco. People don’t join STC to get discounts on a conference or webinars. They join to get direct, concrete benefits. It comes down to goods (I’ve got something in hand I didn’t have before) or services (you do something for me so I don’t have to do it myself or something I can’t do for myself). Publications fall into the first category, and community relations fall into the second. But that seems fairly limited.

So of course, as Michael suggests, a big question is what will get the next generation of technical communicators to join STC?

Now remember what I said before. I consider myself among the next generation. So when I talk about “what the next generation wants,” I’m speaking for myself.

I’ll acknowledge that the next generation wants lower dues (or for our employers all to pay dues for us). That’s one of the first things that will help draw people. I’ve read a lot of back and forth on that subject, and I acknowledge that “lower taxes” is the watchword of every generation. But for many people, it comes down to what you’re getting for your money, what goods you have in hand or how your life is being made easier by services.

At first, lower dues will be attractive only to those who want to belong to STC anyway. To reach those who don’t intend to join STC now, I think we need a couple of things: to drive innovation in our field and to foster community and collaboration among members.

Drive Innovation

For years, software vendors have been telling technical communicators how to do our job by what they give us. Unless we turn into programmers ourselves (admittedly, there are tech writers at all levels of programming skill), we’re at the mercy of companies like Adobe, MadCap, and ComponentOne. I would like to be proven wrong, but I doubt their strategies are formed by technical communicators. We are still limited mostly by software product managers’ concept of technical communication. And it’s the bane of our profession that project and product managers don’t understand tech comm.

STC should be taking the lead by developing ideas, maybe through a committee or task force, for the products that technical communicators need. We shouldn’t be leaving it up to non–technical writers to tell us how to deliver documentation and training. We should be telling them what we want in as united a voice as possible and let them scramble and compete to give us what we want.

Foster Community and Collaboration

Some loud complaints were voiced when STC retired the forums. I imagine that this is because many STC members wanted a place to connect with each other. Further evidence that people value STC for the community is the fact that I have heard people say they get the most value out of the SIGs, and those are virtual communities. STC membership is so spread out that it’s vital STC take advantage of and provide ways to network and build professional relationships virtually.

I think STC ought to facilitate mentoring among technical communicators and give us a way to show each other what we’re doing and get feedback about it. If these things are out there on a society level, I’m not aware of them.

I understand that we’re all professionals and time is limited. We can’t give everything away; we have ourselves and families to support. But think of all the open source development projects out there. People contribute to things because they’re interested and enthusiastic. Let’s make a place for enthusiastic technical communicators (there is such a thing) to come together virtually and really make a good name for our profession.

Another aspect where STC could bring members into teams and communities is to find projects for us to do. Task forces are often assigned to gather information and give input. They also ought to give members a chance to work on projects, showcase the profession, and add to their portfolios. As an organization using connections and influence, STC could find opportunities where individuals couldn’t. And people who don’t want to volunteer as officers because they see no return for their effort may be more interested in participating in projects where there is a concrete output, as well as enhancement to their expertise and portfolios.

If much of STC’s cost is overhead, maybe we need more communities, projects, and volunteer leaders and facilitators to guide things along and less paid staff. I hate to suggest that anyone lose his or her job, but it’s worth looking at to see if STC government could be reorganized to use more volunteers. (Sounds like a job for a task force.) Just a thought.

Show Me the Value

In recent months, the discussion usually comes down to value. In fact, the other night after our local chapter event, one of the members told me that she is the representative STC member for her team at work. Her employer is paying for her membership but no one else’s, and they want to know what they get back from STC for their money. They have every right to be asking that. I hope this year, our chapter makes long strides toward giving members something to say when employers ask them why they should pay for STC membership. This particular employer doesn’t see enough value in STC to pay for all of the employed technical communicators to belong.

Collaboration and communities are important for the future of STC because they are an important part of life for newer generations. Well known technical communicators are waving their arms and saying social media are the future (and the present) of our field, and if that’s the case, then it ought to be the near—even immediate—future of STC. I’m no social media cyborg, implanting artificial community in my life at every possible opportunity, but that’s where many people in the world are right now. The society also ought to be pointing the direction that tech comm vendors go in their development. We need to arrive at a happy place where employers will pay for their employees’ memberships and see concrete, positive results from that membership in their organizations.

As a member of the “next generation,” that’s what I want out of STC.

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But I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe this is a crisis STC needed—an impetus to get us all thinking together about how to improve the model, how to offer more direct benefits to the members.

We’re past the point where talking about what previous officers did is going to help. I bought a house about two years ago and still am not happy with some of the ways the previous owners did things or left things for us, but my wife has pointed out that it’s our house, so we need to deal with it. Yes, previous staff and officers at the main office made detrimental decisions, but going over that can do only one positive thing: to show us how not to do it. Once that lesson is learned, it’s time to move on.

The Dilemma: Return on Investment

A significant part of the quandary here is that STC offers certain benefits, but many people want to see more tangible benefits. An existing benefit is networking; people have found jobs and gotten contracts because of people they met through STC. This is not true of everyone, and I’m sure for some it’s not for lack of trying. Some want to see benefits come more directly out of the dues they pay. The quandary comes in the fact that people are going to want these benefits now, particularly because of an impending dues increase. But right now, STC needs to get out of the shortfall, where the board will then be in a better position to reevaluate programs and revenue sources—in short, to get STC on surer financial footing and offering more benefits to members.

So, in effect, there’s a bit of a gamble here, folks. If you’re an STC member and you want to see more direct benefits, you’ll need to see in what ways you can help STC survive 2009. Fortunately, STC has indicated that they plan to release periodic progress reports that let us know how they’re doing in reducing the shortfall. But now is the time to step forward and offer your input. Your voice will be heard.

One of tech comm’s current challenges is showing value to employers. It’s ironic that STC finds itself trying to demonstrate value, not just to the world, but to many of its members. Thus, many members find themselves trying to justify both their jobs and their STC membership.

The Value in Communities

Being a chapter president, I have realized that a lot of the responsibility for providing direct benefits to members falls on the chapters and special interest groups (SIGs); as the STC bylaws state, “Communities are a signficant way that STC provides value to its members.” I think there’s a disconnect between this statement and the whole money issue. The STC site quotes a bunch of people who talk about how much the networking has benefited them. For a lot of people, this networking happens on a chapter level.

I admit that for me, the most value comes out of participating in the chapter. Some of the main benefits STC names are the salary survey and the job bank. But those help us only when we’re looking for a job or negotiating pay. And I would guess that many of us aren’t doing those things most of the time. (Though right now, there are probably many more doing this than eighteen months ago.) Other benefits, like webinars and the yearly conference, cost money beyond annual dues.

A video by Carolyn Kelley Klinger and Mary Fletcher Jones illustrates my point by discussing the value of belonging to the Washington, DC chapter, while glossing over membership in the overall organization.

I think one of the answers to STC’s mission to prove its value to its members is to enable the communities to do more. I sincerely hope that STC won’t cut off the pass-through funds to the chapters that come from member dues.

How about an Idea?

Few people like someone who criticizes yet doesn’t step forward with solutions. Though my intent isn’t to criticize, I still would like to pitch an idea of the way STC could assist the communities in providing more benefits.

There has been a little discussion on the presidents’ listserv about having more local or regional conferences. I think these could have more strength and benefit if the STC offices pitch in. STC has contracted with certain hotels for the next few summits, but after that, they could go to having the international conference every other year. On the off years, they could help organize and execute a few regional conferences around the world. This means that out of every four years, a given chapter has perhaps two or three STC conferences to participate in: one or two summits and a regional conference.

I see regional conferences as having a few benefits. First, they would be closer to the members, so they could be cheaper and easier to reach. It would be more affordable for employers to send members within the state/province or to the neighboring state/province.

Second, the organizing committee could find smaller venues that cost less to rent, saving STC, the communities, and the members money.

Third, it may be more feasible for smaller, local vendors to participate in local conferences, in addition to the larger vendors’ participation. This could gain STC more sponsors and allies.

Fourth, STC and the local communities who participate could divide the revenue from the conference. If STC is trying to reduce its financial reliance on the yearly conference, perhaps going to every other year won’t hurt the pocketbook. And multiple conferences in the off year potentially means more money for STC.

Note that I’ve never run a conference and am not intimately familiar with what goes into it. So I’m making a few guesses here for the sake of getting an idea out where it can be scrutinized. But I think that the main STC office (with people like Lloyd Tucker) could provide valuable oversight for regional conferences, increasing their success.

I understand that the yearly summit provides a location for the business meeting and other society-level events. So maybe having them only every other year won’t work. Or maybe on the off years, these activities can be virtual.

I realize that my ideas focus on chapters and geography, and they kind of leave out the SIGs. But I’m a chapter president, so I think in those terms. Perhaps there are some ways to adapt or take advantage of these ideas for the SIGs.

Change Is Coming

It is impressive that STC is over 50 years old. But though I don’t agree with everything Seth Godin said in Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, I think of his assertion that age can be a detriment to rather than a strength of an organization. This argument is based on some organizations’ reluctance to step into the future, innovate, and change. If STC wants to survive long term, we are going to have to make some big changes. And I admit that I’m one of those people whose initial reaction is to resist substantial change.

I see it as a step in the right direction and a willingness to change that has caused STC leadership to ask for ideas. And the response has come. If you have ideas, please send them to stc(at)stc(dot)org. (Or if you’re an STC member, contact Bill Swallow through his site, techcommdood.com, and ask for an invitation to join the Ning STC Ideas group.) The board is listening and will develop a plan based on the input they receive. Time will show what the final effect of this collaboration is, but I believe STC can come out of this a much stronger, more beneficial, and more influential organization than before.

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