| Meeting
Notes
October 17, 2006—
Whine and Cheese III
This meeting was held at the airport Radisson hotel in Salon
E.
6:40 Chapter Business
After a period of networking, the meeting began with the following
chapter business:
1. Mark your calendars and plan to attend these future MTC events
- October 25, 2006 WEBINAR, “Ten Ways to Increase Your
Value as a Technical Communicator,” from 12:00 to 1:30
PM CST.
- Nov 2 – Lunch n' Learn: User's Perspective of the New
WebWorks for FrameMaker. Brian Wilkins and Kay Mann, Technical
writers with Square D-Schneider Electric.
- Nov 14 – Pros and Cons of Certification for Technical
Writers. Dan Wise from the Birmingham, AL chapter.
- Competition Update – Judges should have received entries
in the mail by now, or should receive them soon. Your team leader
should be contacting you to plan consensus meetings. Any entries
up for the “Best of Show” award will be displayed
and judged at the November 14 STC meeting. Judith has emailed
instructions to each judge regarding the judging process.
- A new chapter of the Usability Professionals' Association
is forming in Middle Tennessee. UPA is an international nonprofit
organization that supports usability specialists and persons
from other disciplines who have an interest in promoting the
design and development of usable products. (For more information,
visit http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/.) Their first ever
meeting is Oct 26, 6:30 – 8:00 PM at the Deloitte &
Touche USA LLP PracticeServiceCenter in Hermitage.
2. Don’t forget to renew your STC membership.
- Dues renewal – You will be receiving notices about dues
renewal in the next couple of months. The renewal deadline is
January 1 for the following membership year.
3. Take advantage of opportunities in surrounding regions.
- Regional Five Conf – Houston, TX - Registration is
open for the Region 5 conference, The 50 Facets of Technical
Communication, hosted by the Lone Star Chapter on November 2-4,
2006. Get details on the home page of our chapter’s website.
4. Get your company involved with this new initiative.
- STC offers a new Corporate Value Program (CVP) with compelling
value for organizations to support their technical communication
staff by paying for employee membership. Through the CVP, organizations
can purchase and own “bulk” membership for employees
at a reduced rate. Mary Kubza is heading this initiative up
at the national level if you need more information.
5. Check out the newsletter if you haven’t already.
- Sept Newsletter - Elaine’s first in new role
6. Volunteer your time to help the chapter.
- Employment Director Officer position is available. See Steve
or any officer if you’d like to serve in this capacity.
We provide a handbook to help new officers!
7:00 Presentation: Let the Whining Begin
Rita Johnson facilitated the first half of the whine and cheese
with information about becoming a “Distinguished”
chapter. Our local chapter has a diverse group of members from
the Middle Tennessee area. We have been a strong chapter blessed
with members who volunteer time to improve and grow the chapter.
Rita Johnson, a past president and STC Associate Fellow, discussed
the benefits of being a distinguished chapter. Beth Tanner graciously
provided a chapter history lesson during this portion of the presentation.
During the second half of the meeting, Kathleen McDowell facilitated
a prelude to Dan Wise’s visit next month. Technical communication
can be a very rewarding and interesting field in which to work.
It is also an easy profession to select "by accident".
In many professions in which professional degree programs are
not common, certification is used to establish minimum competencies.
The discussed the potential impacts of certification on technical
writers, with a very lively debate on the pros and cons of this
process.
For a concise summary of the discussion that occurred during
the two whine and cheese sessions, read this document.
(Posted October 28, 2006)
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