News
November 2002
Catch up on the latest news from the Chapter, Society, and Industry

Chapter News
Member Volunteer Orientation
The value and relevance of any STC chapter to its members is closely related to the contribution of time and talent from those members. With that thinking in mind the Berkeley chapter is pleased to announce the initiation of Member Volunteer Orientation sessions beginning on November 13, 2002. Sessions will be held on a quarterly basis from 6:00-6:30 PM on the 2nd Wednesdays of the month, just before the chapter meeting. Whether you have recently joined STC and the Berkeley chapter, or find yourself interested in taking a more active role in the Society and chapter, this Orientation may be of interest to you. Each session will include an exploration of the services and resources available to STC members, a summary of the initiatives sponsored by the Berkeley Chapter, and a review of the volunteer opportunities available to you at a Society and chapter level.

The Orientation is also an opportunity to learn about you, your goals as a technical communicator, and how the chapter might be relevant and valuable in your professional growth and development. Ideas about how to improve your experience with STC are welcome. Take advantage of the opportunity to get a first look at the job tickets for Society and chapter volunteer jobs. These opportunities can provide you with invaluable contacts, unique additions to your resume and portfolio, and expansion of your leadership or technical skills. Email Richard Mateosian, VP-Membership to let him know you plan to attend the inaugural session on November 13 at 6:00 PM.

Northern California STC Chapters Host Free Leadership Day Event
The Northern California STC chapters will come together for a day of exchange and information sharing on Saturday, December 7, at Northern California STC Chapter Leadership Day: Sharing Successes and Confronting Challenges.

The free, day-long event is co-sponsored by the STC Berkeley, San Francisco, East Bay, Silicon Valley, North Bay and Sacramento chapters. The event will be held at Mills College in Oakland from 9AM to 4 PM, and will feature our regional sponsor/director Bonni Graham as keynote speaker. A continental breakfast and lunch are included.

This is a prime learning opportunity for anyone who has thought about taking on a leadership role or working as a volunteer with his or her chapter. Come learn what volunteers and members of the executive committee do. Learn what other chapters are doing. For further information about this event, contact your chapter president.

 

Society News
Region 8 Conference
Mark your calendars for the upcoming Region 8 Conference, to be held January 12 through 14, 2003 at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Las Vegas. A conference web site is under development and will be available soon with all the details about conference programs, exhibits, hotel rates, registration instructions, and fees. The conference tracks include:

Passport and Maps (content and knowledge management)
Exploring the Countryside (writing and editing)
Understanding the EURO (localization and usability)
From Writing at Your Favorite Bistro to Teaching at the Sorbonne (your career)

Call for Papers
The Call for Papers is now open! If you are interested in presenting at the conference, consider submitting a proposal for either a workshop or a breakout session. Proposals are due by November 30, 2002; visit the regional Website for instructions on how to prepare your proposal.

Volunteers Needed
The planning effort for the STC Region 8 Conference has been infused with new energy and vision with the appointment of Patrick Morrissey from San Diego as Conference Manager. Patrick is recruiting a team and looking for volunteers to create a great program in a fun setting. Sound interesting? This is a great opportunity to get involved with STC members throughout Region 8 and make a contribution to your profession. Volunteers are needed for big and little jobs including:

For a complete list and description of each job, please contact Volunteer Committee Chair, Kathryn Munn.

STC Phone Seminar Series
STC is offering 10 telephone seminars in 2002-2003. Beginning November 7th, two seminars will be offered each month through March 2003. Telephone seminars have been very successful in bringing cost-effective training to STC members and others seeking to improve their skills and knowledge. This year, STC is offering online registration, or registrants can complete the registration form in the October 2002 Intercom.

In the first seminar, Constance Billé will discuss Getting Into Instructional Design. The seminar will be held on November 7th, from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For details, including an explanation of how telephone seminars work, please visit the STC site.

The second November seminar is scheduled for November 19th, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Entitled Looking, Finding, Searching...How Users Do It, it will be led by Whitney Quesenbery.

Other seminars scheduled for 2002 - 2003 are:

December 13, 2002, Finding Work in Troubled Times. Douglas Florzak will lead the presentation.

December 17, 2002, A Brief, Comprehensive Indexing Primer. The seminar leader is Seth Maislin.

January 8, 2003, Organizing and Leading a Software User Interface Design Team. Diane Feldman and Carla Merrill will conduct this seminar.

January 15, 2003, Using Personas to Bring Your Users Into the Development Process. Whitney Quesenbery will lead the presentation.

February 5, 2003, Creating Persuasive Executive Summaries. The seminar leader will be Stacia D. Kelly.

February 13, 2003, Fast and Easy Time Management. John Hedtke will conduct this seminar.

March 12, 2003, Making the Complex Clear and Pretty. Phylise Banner will lead the presentation.

March 19, 2003, Evaluating an Index (even if you only have five minutes). The seminar leader is Seth Maislin.

The cost for each seminar is $145.00 USD for U.S. sites and $160.00 USD for Canadian sites. Overseas participants should contact the STC office. An additional $10.00 will be charged for registration received less than five days before the seminar.

As cost-effective and time-efficient ways of improving your skills and knowledge, telephone seminars are much like a large conference call, but in a more controlled environment. Simply dial the 800 number from your telephone, enter the provided personal identification number, and you're connected. Then sit back and listen to the presentation and join in the discussions.

For one registration, several employees at a company may benefit from the seminar presentation and develop their own interactive discussions.

 

Industry News
3rd Annual Worst Manual Contest
Just a reminder for the holiday season, when all else fails, read the manual. Have you ever been so frustrated with a manual or set of instructions that you cursed the author and wished you had never bought the product in the first place?

Does this sound familiar? How about $100 for your frustration? Technical Standards, Inc. (TSI), a Southern California documentation services company, is offering $100 for the winning entry in their third annual 'Worst Manual Contest.' Send a manual or set of instructions that is hard to understand, poorly written, or just plain wrong. Send it if it has bad grammar, too much legalese, is poorly translated, or has missing steps. If it is the worst entry, you will win $100. "We thought we would have fun with this contest. Everyone has had trouble with a manual," says Michelle Wier, Director of Operations of Technical Standards, Inc. "That's why we started our company. People like products they understand how to use, and good technical documentation reduces the need for technical support. That's why good manuals are so important."

You don't have to send the whole manual; excerpts of the worst parts are okay. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2003, so check those holiday gifts for potential entries. Entries must be in English. For complete contest rules, see the TSI Web site. The winner will be announced on the Technical Standards web site on February 28, 2003.

Technical Standards, Inc. specializes in contract technical writing projects, technical writer staffing, and training. Since 1993, TSI has provided writers and editors to the high-tech community who produce printed documents, online Help, and Internet documentation.