STC RMC Launches New Website

Today STC RMC launches its highly anticipated, new website! This site includes social-media elements designed to bring members closer together as a community regardless of the miles that separate them. Check it out today by visiting www.stcrmc.org. It’s the same URL, but an entirely different look!

Following is a list of features that are exclusive to STC RMC members who create a website account:

  • User Profiles – This is your face to the chapter. Complete as much or as little information as you want to share with your STC RMC community. Profiles are not shared publicly. Items added as Interests become clickable links when separated by commas, so you can locate other users with those interests.
  • Images – Upload a profile picture and/or chapter photographs you want to share with others. Profile pictures can be seen publicly on the Home page, but individuals are not identified publicly. Only chapter members who sign in with their website accounts can view a profile associated with a displayed picture.
  • Messages – Send private messages directly to any chapter member with a website account. These messages are delivered via the website, and e-mail is sent to alert the recipient when a new message arrives.
  • Friends – Search for people you know and add them as friends. Friends get updated via email when any of their friends updates their profile, uploads images, or creates a personal blog entry.
  • Groups – Create functional groups for committees, special interests (those who are freelancers/consultants, use the same tool, or develop with Agile, etc.) and more. A group can be restricted by the owner of the group or open to all who wish to join. Groups can create their own calendar events, image library, and conversations (message boards viewed via the website). While only the members of the group can participate in the conversation, the conversation itself is visible to all chapter members with website accounts.
  • Blog – Users can create their own personal blogs. This feature does not replace our chapter’s blog newsletter, Technicalities, but should be used with discretion as an additional communication option that can be viewed by the public. Please see Technicalities vs. the personal blog for more details on this subject.
  • Voting and Commenting – While only chapter members with website accounts can vote or comment on the personal blogs of other members, voting results and comments can be viewed by anyone.
  • New Jobs – To add value to the chapter membership, the New Jobs page (jobs posted within the previous 14 days) is now restricted to chapter members with website accounts. After 14 days, these jobs are posted to the Current Jobs page, which is available to anyone, for the remainder of 30 days. This policy emulates the policy used by STC.

Huge thanks to all the members of the web team (Kristy Astry, Joel Meier, Martha Sippel, and Becky Williams) for their dedication and time. We’re off to a fabulous year!

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Interview with Claire Schram, September 2010 meeting panelist

Meet Claire Schram, Senior Technical Writer and panelist at our September 2010 meeting.

How long have you been in the technical communication profession?
CS: Ten years.

How did you get your start as a technical communicator? If you made a career change, how did you go about it?
CS: I completed a Master’s degree in Technical Communication at University of Colorado, Denver (UCD) in September 2000 and was fortunate enough to find a job (through networking) in the IT department of a financial institution. This was a career change for me – previously, I had worked in sales.

Have you had other professional jobs outside the technical communication field? Did you learn anything from those jobs that has been useful for in your technical communication career?
CS: Yes. Experience in sales teaches you not to be discouraged by rejection, (i.e., failure). In IT, for example, it’s been my experience that approximately 30 percent of projects are canceled before they are ever completed. So, even if your project is one that “fails” and your work seems wasted, you have still used your skills and grown in the effort. This is also useful to know as a job seeker in today’s job market!

What is your favorite thing about being a technical communicator?
CS: The variety of deliverables you can create.

If you weren’t in the technical communication profession, what would you be?
CS: I’d probably be a conservation biologist. I’ve always been an advocate for the environment and for the conservation policies and practices we need to sustain the biological diversity of the planet.

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Interview with Ruth Gaulke, September 2010 meeting panelist


Ruth Gaulke, STC RMC Past-President, works for the USDA Forest Service as Public Affairs Specialist, and recently completed her master’s degree in environmental policy and management.

How long have you been in the technical communication profession?

RG: More than 10 years. :)

How did you get your start as a technical communicator? If you made a career change, how did you go about it?

RG: I received a master’s degree in professional writing, and one professor promoted STC. I joined the Atlanta Chapter and have been involved since that time. This was a career change for me. I was an information technology manager and then decided to go back to school for my master’s in professional writing.

What was your first technical writing project? Describe some of the challenges you faced and successes realized as you completed it.

RG: My first experience was with writing training scripts for electrical engineering courses. When I say scripts, I mean words for a DVD that went along with graphics to depict these educational topics for people studying the electrical engineering field. The challenge for me was that I knew very little about the topic and had to get up to speed on it first. Then I had to write for these words to be spoken. This is a very different approach to writing, and it becomes very apparent once you hear the voice talent reading your words.

Have you had other professional jobs outside the technical communication field? Did you learn anything from those jobs that has been useful for in your technical communication career?

RG: Yes! My undergraduate degree is in computer science and journalism. So I worked in the IT field for years before starting as a technical writer.

What advice would you give to people who want to begin a technical communication career?

RG: I would encourage folks to not think of this profession as only document writing or help screens. My journey has been very different — writing training scripts, handbooks, web content, and much more. I have not had a “normal” technical writing career, and I don’t think that it is necessary. I would encourage folks to not be too defined and to branch out to be more marketable. Stretch your skills and learn all you can.

What tools do you use to do your job?

RG: Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your opinion), all the Microsoft products, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Adobe PDF, and online survey creation tools.

If you weren’t in the technical communication profession, what would you be?

RG: A well-published children’s writer who creates from her beach home in Hawaii :)

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Interview with Lynnette Reveling, September 2010 meeting panelist


Lynnette Reveling, Quality Specialist at OppenheimerFunds, began her career as a technical writer with her company in 1994. After converting all printed information to online resources (three conversions), she then helped move all documentation to a web-based intranet. Eight and a half years ago, she began her quality work with the company’s outgoing correspondence, editing and coaching writers. She will be presenting an overview of her company’s Go Green efforts to show how grass-roots, employees’ efforts can be implemented to help meet corporate economic goals. Ideas that may not have been economically feasible a few years ago are revisited today and found to be quite workable.

Lynnette has been active in the Rocky Mountain Chapter since 1997. She coordinated corporate sponsorships and hospitality (catering) for STC RMC competitions for four years, and worked on the Hospitality committee for the 1999 Region 7 conference. Lynnette was the STC RMC Seminars Manager from 1999-2001, and was awarded the chapter President’s Award of Service and Achievement in 2001 for planning and implementing successful and popular seminars for chapter members. She was chapter treasurer in 2001 and edited articles for the STC RMC newsletter, Technicalities. She received the Distinguished Chapter Service Award in 2008.

In addition to these responsibilities and accomplishments, Lynnette has written several newsletter articles and helped in volunteer recognition activities. Lynnette frequently attends meetings and mentors people along the way.

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Technical Communication Certification by Steven Jong

Here is a link to a PowerPoint presentation from Steve Jong.

Technical Communication Certification

Joel

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