September-October 2003
Catch
up on the latest news from the Chapter, Society, and industry.
For more information about STC, the Chapter, and contact information for
our officers, visit our directory
section.
Chapter Financial Report
Chapter Treasurer Ben Lukas delivers an updated look at the Chapter's
financial status.
New Chapter Members
Please welcome new Berkeley members Jerry Franklin and Elliott Stewart.
Jerry is a Brooklyn native who, after a handful of careers, a couple dozen urban addresses, several brushes with fame, and (thankfully) just one wedding, has finally settled down in the Bay Area. He's spent most of the last decade providing new media content for a variety of failed high-tech startups and voracious corporations. He's now happily engaged as the lone tech writer for ZANTAZ, a small private software company in Pleasanton. His specialty du jour is end-user software and system documentation.
Jerry graduated from Northwestern University, lives in Alameda with his wife, two dogs, and two cats, and has had the good fortune of enjoying many memorable temporary occupations, including, improvisational comedy in Chicago, singing at Carnegie Hall with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, and working at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles directly for Hugh Hefner.
Elliott is returning to STC. Elliot has lived in Alameda and been a technical communicator for almost 20 years. He now works as a consultant for web design and development, graphic design, and technical writing/editing/illustration.
In addition to Jerry and Elliott, William Abernathy, Karen Brothers, Eileen Drapiza, Mark Dugger, Beth Lamont, Kelly Lang, Anthony Mancuso, and Richard Wallis all joined the Berkeley Chapter this Summer.
Some of our new members are new or returning to STC and others have transferred from another chapter. I'll be highlighting other new chapter members in the next edition of the Ragged Left.
50th Annual Conference Report
Susan Harlan from the East Bay Chapter shares
her experiences and lessons learned at the 50th annual STC national conference
in Dallas. Check out the full
story.
STC Rakes in Awards at APEX
STC took four awards in this year's APEX 2003
publications competition. Russ Bombardieri, STC's webmaster, won a Grand
Award for STC's Web site in the "Web and Intranet Sites" category;
George F. Hayhoe, editor of Technical Communication, earned Awards of
Excellence in the subcategories "Magazines and Journals-Online and
Electronic" and "Columns and Editorials"; and Intercom
received an Award of Excellence in the "Magazines and Journals-Printed
Four Color" subcategory.
The APEX awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and overall communication effectiveness. APEX 2003 received close to 5,000 total entries in eleven major categories; of these, 100 (about 2 percent) won Grand Awards, and 1,541 (about 31 percent) won Awards of Excellence. The APEX competition has been conducted annually since 1989 by Communications Concepts, Inc., the Springfield, Virginia, publisher of Writing That Works: The Business Communications Report.
51st
Annual Conference
The 51st annual conference will be held
May 9-15, 2004 in Baltimore, Maryland near the Inner Harbor. There are
a number of hotels and restaurants in the area. The closest airport is
BWI, which is known locally as the best value of the three airports in
the area (Dulles International and Reagan National being the others).
For more information about the 51st conference
website.
Membership Fee Hike for 2004
The STC Board voted at their May meeting to raise
membership dues for 2004. Regular membership will be $140, and student
membership jumps to $56.
