Orange County STC Newsletter www.stc.org April 2010 Vol. 49, No. 4 TechniScribe Wins Distinguished Award By Michael Opsteegh, OCSTC Senior Member I t has been nearly two years since I announced that TechniScribe won Best of Show and a Distinguished Award in the annual STC newsleer competi- tion for the 2007–08 competition year. After some considerable delay, the results for last year’s competition are now available. I’m pleased to announce that TechniScribe once again won a Distinguished Award in the 2008–09 newsleer competition. While we did not win Best of Show, we were one of only two publications that received a Distinguished Award, which is the highest honor a publication can receive in the news- leer competition. Ideal: Design for Learning, the newsleer for the Instruc- tional Design and Learning SIG, also earned a Distinguished Award, and additionally won Best of Show. We submied the following issues to the competition (remember, these were for the 2008–09 competition year): August 2008; • hp://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts082008.pdf September 2008; • hp://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts092008.pdf October 2008; • hp://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts102008.pdf TechniScribe has a long history of winning awards and being recognized as an exemplary publication among technical communication newsleers. While OCSTC has been receiving awards for ages, here are the awards your chapter has won over the last five years. Competition Year Award 2008–09 Distinguished 2007–08 Distinguished/Best of Show 2006–07 Merit 2005–06 Excellence 2004–05 Excellence Given its history of achievement, TechniScribe is a publication in which all members of OCSTC can be proud. To understand why earning an award each year in the newsleer competi- tion is no small feat, you need to know a lile about the rules of the compe- tition. Each entry must consist of three issues, and the newsleer must be published at least six times a year. The chapter is not allowed to simply sub- mit the three best issues for the year. They must be three consecutive issues, and they must meet a majority of criteria from a long list. Some of these criteria include specific information about STC, publication frequency and policies, and listing chapter officers and contacts. Additional criteria specify the kinds of articles that are published in each issue. These criteria include, but certainly aren’t limited to, a membership article, a message from the president, jobs information, and articles by Society or regional leaders. It’s very difficult to include all of the recommended criteria in each issue, so the newsleer editor must plan ahead, decide which three issues to submit, and then craft those three issues to meet as many of the competition criteria as possible. Continued on Page 9 > This Issue: TechniScribe Wins Distinguished Award 1 President’s Message 2 Next Meeting 3 Editor’s Desk 4 EduNotes 5 Honing Your Workplace Negotiation Skills 6 2010 Spotlight Awards Winners! 8 Microsoft Retail Store Field Trip 9 Society Pages 10 OCSTC Employment Information 10 Orange Juice— Membership News 11 Orange Slice— Calendar of Events 12 April Meeting Topic 12
Transcript
Orange County STC Newsletter
www.stc.org April 2010 Vol. 49, No. 4
TechniScribe Wins Distinguished AwardBy Michael Opsteegh, OCSTC Senior Member
It has been nearly two years since I announced that TechniScribe won Best of Show and a Distinguished Award in the annual STC newsletter competi-
tion for the 2007–08 competition year. After some considerable delay, the results for last year’s competition are now available.
I’m pleased to announce that TechniScribe once again won a Distinguished Award in the 2008–09 newsletter competition. While we did not win Best of Show, we were one of only two publications that received a Distinguished Award, which is the highest honor a publication can receive in the news-letter competition. Ideal: Design for Learning, the newsletter for the Instruc-tional Design and Learning SIG, also earned a Distinguished Award, and additionally won Best of Show.
We submitted the following issues to the competition (remember, these were for the 2008–09 competition year):
August 2008; • http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts082008.pdf
September 2008; • http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts092008.pdf
October 2008; • http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts102008.pdf
TechniScribe has a long history of winning awards and being recognized as an exemplary publication among technical communication newsletters. While OCSTC has been receiving awards for ages, here are the awards your chapter has won over the last five years.
Competition Year Award2008–09 Distinguished2007–08 Distinguished/Best of Show2006–07 Merit2005–06 Excellence2004–05 Excellence
Given its history of achievement, TechniScribe is a publication in which all members of OCSTC can be proud.
To understand why earning an award each year in the newsletter competi-tion is no small feat, you need to know a little about the rules of the compe-tition. Each entry must consist of three issues, and the newsletter must be published at least six times a year. The chapter is not allowed to simply sub-mit the three best issues for the year. They must be three consecutive issues, and they must meet a majority of criteria from a long list. Some of these criteria include specific information about STC, publication frequency and policies, and listing chapter officers and contacts. Additional criteria specify the kinds of articles that are published in each issue. These criteria include, but certainly aren’t limited to, a membership article, a message from the president, jobs information, and articles by Society or regional leaders.
It’s very difficult to include all of the recommended criteria in each issue, so the newsletter editor must plan ahead, decide which three issues to submit, and then craft those three issues to meet as many of the competition criteria as possible.
Continued on Page 9 >
This Issue:TechniScribe Wins Distinguished Award 1
President’s Message 2
Next Meeting 3
Editor’s Desk 4
EduNotes 5
Honing Your Workplace Negotiation Skills 6
2010 Spotlight Awards Winners! 8
Microsoft Retail Store Field Trip 9
Society Pages 10
OCSTC Employment Information 10
Orange Juice— Membership News 11
Orange Slice— Calendar of Events 12
April Meeting Topic 12
2 • April 2010
President’s MessageBy Betsy Malone, OCSTC Chapter President
Happy spring! Aside from the flowers
blooming, things are definitely sprouting at STC and OCSTC, too!
STC’s Leadership Commu-nity Resource (LCR) has begun offering webinars to chapter council mem-bers to assist us in better serving our communities,
whether they be chapters or SIGs. The most recent webinar, Are You Ready for the March Membership Re-ality Check?, was a stimulating forum for community leaders to voice their opinions and to hear feedback from different leaders.
While everyone is not excited about having a zero-based budget, some revenue generating ideas were exchanged: holding employment workshops, get-ting meeting sponsors, selling raffle tickets, selling newsletter advertisements, and so on. If anyone has any ideas that they think we should try in order to generate revenue, please let me know. The council is actively looking for new ways to generate revenue.
The preliminary renewal figures are in, and they look quite promising:
In 2009, 71 percent of STC memberships • were renewed.
Since October, 4,132 members have re-• newed; 650 of which were new members.
STC expects to sign 6,199 members. 1,500 of • which are new members.
To date, these are the current statistics for chapters and SIGs:
577 Members have not joined a chapter or • a SIG
86 percent have joined a chapter•
50 percent have joined a chapter and a SIG•
7 percent joined a SIG•
OCSTC is currently at 185 members, which has remained a consistent number of members over the past two to three years. STC is smartly pushing for-ward in the right direction to stabilize the national budget by offering à-la-carte services such as subscriptions to STC magazines, monthly webinars, and annual conferences. We encourage you to view the STC web site for services that may be of interest to you and your career. And, as always, please feel free to share your ideas and interests for speakers, revenue, and networking for OCSTC.
Next MeetingTopic: Networking 101: The Basics of Professional Networking Online
Speaker: Laura Ann LoCicero
When: Tuesday, April 20, 6–9 p.m.
Where: DoubleTree Club Hotel 7 Hutton Centre Drive Santa Ana, CA 92707 714.751.2400
Cost: Members with reservations $26
Students with reservations $20
STC member, speaker-only $12
Nonmembers with reservations $31
Walk-ins, or those registering after the deadline $35
No-shows billed $26
Reservations: Due by midnight, Sunday, April 18 Registration: Online at http://www.ocstc.org/ dinres.asp
Directions to the DoubleTree Club HotelMap of the I-405 and SR-55 area. The star below indi-cates the hotel location. Parking is FREE.
If you would like to receive e-mail notifications about upcoming OCSTC meetings, visit http://www.ocstc.org/list_redirect.asp.
Click Join. This list broadcasts only meeting notices and STC announcements
Did you know that shopping at Amazon.com is not only a great place to find books and other items,
it’s also a great way to give back to the OCSTC! The next time you shop at Amazon, please access the
site via OCSTC.org. Amazon donates a percentageof your purchase to the chapter.
Thank you!
Cast your vote!Don’t forget to vote in this year’s chapter election.
Visit ocstc.org to cast your ballot.
2010Chapter Election
4 • April 2010
Publication PoliciesTechniScribe is published 12 times a year as a benefit to the members of the Orange County Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. The goal of the publication is to reflect the interests, needs, and objectives of OCSTC members. TechniScribe strives to be an advocate for, and an inspiration to, technical communicators by keeping them connect-ed to each other and to opportunities for profes-sional growth.
Articles published in this newsletter may be re-printed in other STC publications if permission is obtained from the author, credit is properly given, and one copy of the reprint is sent to the TechniScribe managing editor.
Submission InformationThe editorial team retains and exercises the right to edit submitted and requested material for clarity, length, and appropriateness.
When submitting material, please remember to:
Include a 25-word biography about yourself.•
Send articles in Word (doc, docx), Rich-Text • Format (RTF), ASCII (txt), or in the body of an e-mail message.
Send material to the managing editor • (techni [email protected]) five weeks before the date it will be published.
Subscriptions$10 a year to members of other STC chapters.
PrinterPrintWorks, Irvine, CA
Editor’s DeskBy Jennifer Gardelle, TechniScribe Managing Editor
Last month, I went to Mad-Cap’s 2010 Road Show
in La Jolla. It was a one-day seminar, packed with sev-eral classes over the course of the day. Mike Hamilton—an engaging and animated speaker—designed the classes for technical writers who use MadCap products. He also tailored the classes for people who hadn’t yet used MadCap
products, leaving no one out. Being in the latter catego-ry myself, I got a lot out of the classes, and I left feeling pleased to have gone.
Mike covered all aspects of content publishing: single and multiple authors, different formats, cascading style sheets, and more. Mike covered the following topics:
Maximizing content reuse for cost-efficient • publishing
Creating print, desktop, web, and mobile: • multi-channel publishing from one source
Working with multiple authors: team author-• ing strategies and techniques
Collecting data: is your publishing effective?•
Controlling your look: the power of cascading • style sheets
As Mike admitted, because we were the first stop—and in MadCap’s hometown—we were a guinea-pig audi-ence. This being the case, he said he planned to finetune his presentations with our help. He encouraged us to ask questions, which would help him tailor his presen-tation for future audiences. He also encouraged us to fill out meeting evaluations at the end and to be bru-tally honest about what we did and didn’t like.
Each session went over the allotted time, which was okay because he spent quality time answering our questions and used the opportunity to show us how MadCap’s programs work. In spite of each session being overlength, he actually covered most of what he had planned to because he extended the seminar to end after the originally scheduled time of 3:30. He said he planned to keep going until they kicked us out. Overall, the launch was a success.
The road show continued on to various locations in the US and Canada in March. In April, it will be in Europe, including at the Content Strategy Forum 2010 in Paris. In May, the road show will be back in the US. For ad-ditional information and US, Canada, and worldwide seminar schedules, visit http://www.madcapsoftware.com/events/roadshow.aspx.
April 2010 • 5
EduNotesBy Bill Darnall, Cochair OCSTC Education
Are You a Professional?
Do you know someone who uses the word profes-sional inappropriately in his or her title? A few
weeks ago, a popular e-mail list explored this topic. The question came up about an intern who referred to herself as a professional writer. Subsequent responses included two major points of view. I found it interest-ing that all of the answers seemed to be from an emo-tional, self-serving perspective. Many junior writers thought the title was fine. Many experienced writers thought the title was out of order. Notwithstanding, not one opinion was supported by standards of use. It occurred to me it might be interesting to do a little historical research into this word.
Eight hundred years ago, the word professional didn’t exist. The word profession comes from Latin and predates the word professional. Starting around 1175–1225, profession meant taking a religious vow, as in “profession of faith.” The original use of profes-sion was as a verb. In later writings, reference to one’s profession meant the act of professing one’s religious vows. Sometime around 1811, the word also became a noun. Because the definitions for profession and vocation are sometimes confused, I decided to see what I could learn about the history of vocation. What I discovered was that vocation also has a religious heritage. In the early 1400s, one’s vocation was one’s “religious calling.” Later, by 1550, vocation frequently referred to one’s secular occupation.
As a word that identified one’s secular occupation, vocation predated profession by nearly 300 years. Ap-parently, there was a period during which the mean-ing of these two words mostly overlapped. However, during the past 100 years, there’s been a gradual pub-lic distinction between vocation and profession. The distinction seems to be whether an occupation is skill-based or knowledge-based. For example, plumbers have a vocation, sometimes called a trade. Attorneys have a profession, sometimes called a professional career. Notwithstanding, in the public eye, confusion remains between the meaning of vocation and profes-sion.
What’s in a Name?There is a meaningful difference when using profes-sional as an adjective and as a noun. For example, I am a professional writer vs. I am a writing profes-sional. Presumably, a professional writer makes his
or her living as a writer. On the other hand, a writing professional suggests a person who is a career-profes-sional who writes, but not necessarily as a profession. This distinction is minor compared to professional engineer vs. engineering professional.
Under no circumstances anywhere in the United States should a degreed engineer arbitrarily refer to himself or herself as a pro-fessional engineer, much less a registered profes-sional engineer. The title of professional engineer has major legal implications. Of interest, California law does not recognize certain licensed professional engi-neering designations that are valid in every other state. California has even attempted to forbid the use of the university-granted title engineer, unless one is a registered professional engineer.
ConclusionIf you want to use an arbitrary professional designa-tion, consider staying within an unregulated job-ap-plication space. If the job title is unregulated, you can call yourself almost anything you wish. For example, you can call yourself a professional basket maker. Al-ternatively, you can call yourself a professional writer, no matter how little writing experience you have. The title is legal. One might argue that such a title for an intern is ludicrous. I believe it is misleading. On the other hand, do not create formal titles, degrees, or certifications that are normally awarded by the government, by academic institutions, or by regulated organizational entities. Finally, based on 800 years of historical precedent, try never to confuse a profes-sional writer with a writing professional.
“But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands,
perhaps millions, think.”Lord Byron
6 • April 2010
By Jack Molisani, President, STC Member
For many people, the term negotiating brings to mind images of unpleasant haggling with a used
car salesperson who’s dressed in a loud, plaid suit. But negotiating isn’t something you do just when buying a large-ticket item such as a washing machine or a used car. Deciding what features will be docu-mented, given the time on hand; getting your kids to clean their rooms before playing video games; even deciding what movie to watch on date night are all negotiations in one form or another.
What is Negotiation? Merriam-Webster defines negotiating as, “Confer-ring, discussing, or bargaining to reach agreement.” Dictionary.com defines negotiating as, “To attempt to come to an agreement on something through discus-sion and compromise.”
I find these definitions lacking. They just don’t cap-ture the true spirit and goal of negotiation. So after reviewing my 25+ years experience as a negotiator (first as a Systems Acquisition Officer in the Space Di-vision of USAF, then as a staff and contract technical writer, and finally as the owner of my own business), I created a better definition:
Negotiation is the art of giving up as little of what you have in order to get what you want.
What should you, as a staff or contract technical com-municator, be negotiating?
Compensation in time and money•
Project scope•
Project deadlines•
Resources•
Support staff•
Training•
What do you regularly give up in order to get what you want at the workplace?
Negotiation BasicsOne negotiates to reach a common agreement. I believe all negotiations have to be either win-win or lose-lose to be considered successful. For example:
A sale: The buyers get a product (or service) • they want at a price they can afford, and the seller makes a reasonable profit.
A war: Both factions split the territory in dis-• pute. Neither side is happy, but it’s certainly better than fighting
Win-lose is not negotiating. When one side forces their terms on the other, there is no common agree-
ment, no meeting in the middle. The other party may accept the offer because they have to, but they sure aren’t going to like it, and they cer-tainly are not going to give 100 percent if they feel they have been cheated.
What do you think • vendors will do if they sold a service for less than what they consider a fair price?
What do you think customers will do when • forced to pay more for something than they feel they should have?
What do you think an employee will do if • they accept a salary that is much lower than what he/she thinks is fair?
Let’s look at some lessons learned and best practices for conducting negotiations.
Before You BeginThe first thing to do before starting any negotiation is to do your homework. Decide before you begin what you would like to achieve. Decide what is a nice-to-have, what is a must-have, and at what point you’ll walk away from the negotiations if you are just not getting what you want.
Don’t try to decide these things during the negotia-tion. There is usually far too much stress or emotion in a negotiation, and you don’t want to make a snap decision that you will later regret.
Also, Chellie Campbell, author of Zero to Zillionaire, talks about doing business with “Your People.” You recognize Your People when you meet them. They value your services and are happy to pay your rates for a quality product or service. They want to strike a deal that is good for both parties.
So the next step after doing your homework is to find Your People and negotiate with them.
At the StartWhen opening a negotiation, don’t just jump into price negotiations. Take time to get to know some-thing about the person with whom you are negotiat-ing, and for them to get to know you. This individual will be more open to negotiating as “birds of a feath-er,” so look for shared values and common ground.
Also find out what’s important to them, and let them know what is important to you. (More on this later in the article.)
Honing Your Workplace Negotiation Skills
Continued on Page 7 >
April 2010 • 7
Opening Offers: TheirsWhen possible, let the other side make the opening offer. That is the first insight you get into what they have in mind as a fair price, and you can decide if the deal is even worth pursuing.
So, when a company comes to me looking for a con-tract technical writer, I usually ask: “Compensations can vary widely based on the amount of education and experience. Do you have a particular range in mind so I don’t send anyone too expensive…?”
If a client tells me they want someone for a ridicu-lously low amount, I assume they’re telling me the truth—they really are looking for a writer for $x/hour. In that case I don’t even try to negotiate. I just say, “Sorry, there is no way I can find someone at that rate and still include a margin to cover my overhead.”
But if the number is not too far from your target, you can ask to split the difference, or even just agree to their number if it is not too far from your own.
Opening Offers: YoursThere will be times when you will have to make the opening offer, such as stating your bill rate or salary expectations in an interview. I have a rule of thumb: The better the interview went, the higher the number I quote when they asked my bill rate.
However, I always add a qualifier in case I needed to back pedal. I say, “My normal bill rate is $x/hr…” and then watch their reaction.
If they accept my rate without hesitation, I make a mental note to raise my rates!
But if they react negatively, I can quickly add, “…but I’m flexible given that this is a long-term contract [given the state of the economy, etc.].”
BUT—if they react negatively and I have to back-pedal, I also add, “What bill rate did you have in mind…?”
Justifying Your NumbersFor bidding projects (no matter if you are an internal employee or external contractor), you must be able to show how you came up with your estimate.
The best way is to support your numbers with histori-cal data. “The last time we did a project just like this it took….” If you can show exactly how you came up with your numbers, the negotiation will swing away from your hourly rate and toward the scope of the project.
For more information on how to justify numbers in a workplace negotiation, see “How to Build a Business Case,” Molisani/Graham, Intercom, July/August 2008.
For more information on how to track historical data, download the session slides and view a sample database from Bonni Graham’s presentation, “How to Create a Historical Database and Bid Future Jobs” from www.lavacon.org/2006/Graham_Creating_a_Database.zip.
Negotiating: It’s Give and TakeRemember, most people consider making and receiv-ing concessions as part of the negotiation process. So knowing that the other person expects me to give up something as part of the negotiation, I always add things to my “wish list” that I am willing to negotiate away.
At the start of the negotiation, ask the other party what is important to them at the start of the nego-tiation. That way I can say if you give me what is important to me, I’ll do what I can to give you what is important to you.
When I do that, I find negotiating a deal is much closer to a dance than a tug-of-war.
SummaryTo recap:
Realize that negotiation is the art of giving up • as little of what you have in order to get what you want.
Find and negotiate with your people.•
Take time to build rapport with the other • party.
Decide before you start what you want, what • you are willing to give up, and when to walk away.
Let the other party make the opening offer • when possible.
Be able to back up your numbers and esti-• mates.
Go for a win-win agreement.•
Editor’s Note: For more information, see Jack Molisani’s 90-minute web seminar “Honing Your Workplace Negotiation Skills” at http://www.stc.org/edu/.
About the AuthorJack Molisani is an STC Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency specializing in staff and contract technical writers: www.Pros-pringStaffing.com. He also produces the LavaCon Conference on Online Branding and New Media: www.lavacon.org. Follow Jack on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JackMolisani.
Honing Your Workplace Negotiation Skills< Continued from Page 6
Southern California Technical Communi-cation Competition
Members from eight Southern California STC chap-ters were invited to enter this year’s Southern
California Technical Communication Competition—and the winners are (drum roll please)…
Best of Show/Distinguished AwardElizabeth Babcock, Magnificent Mavericks. History of the Navy at China Lake, California. Volume 3, Technical Publications
Distinguished AwardGail Van Landingham, Cheryl Nemeth, Kristian DelaCruz, Speech Recognition Quick Start, Technical Publications
Karen Bergen, Burt Courtier, Chris Botelho, Randy Davidson, Connecting Your Epson Printer to a Wireless Network, Online Publications
Chris F. Willis; Laura Sample, Media 1 Project Man-ager; Aaron Schaut, Media 1 Multimedia Developer, Hewlett-Packard Large Format Signage Portfolio, Online Publications
Merit AwardsBonni Graham, Jeri Foster, Electronic Paper, Class Climate CD Case set, Technical Publications
Deborah Gill-Hesselgrave, Art Armendariz, Credit Card Holder and Approver Rules for Assigning Account Categories, Technical Publications
Deborah Gill-Hesselgrave, Lynn McDaniel, Art Ar-mendariz, The OPA Handbook—How to be a High-Performing Organizational Prop-erty Adminsitrator, Technical Publica-tions
Rosemary Rooks, Beth Peisic, HP Ser-vice Manager Process-
es and Best Practices Guide, Technical Publications
Jay Maechtlen, Operating Instructions for Custom Sealer, Technical Publications
Kate Tinklenberg, Active Memory Sharing (shared memory), Online Publications
Bonni Graham, Tracy Kosirog, Scantron Achievement Series and Performance Series API Guide, Online Publica-tions
The awards were presented on Saturday, March 6, at the Spotlight Awards Banquet in San Juan Capistrano. The evening featured a panel discussion about the competition moderated by the competition committee and a presentation of all of the award-winning entries.
Congratulations to the winners—we hope you’re enjoying the spotlight!
PhotosLance-Robert took photos of the winners and present-ers at the banquet and of Elizabeth Babcock being presented her Best of Show Award by Alison Butler, Judging Manager, at the March San Diego STC meet-ing. They are available here (no registration neces-sary): http://www.flickr.com/photos/23942573@N06/sets/72157623607811446/.
April 2010 • 9
Microsoft Retail Store Field TripBy Bruce Giddens, OCSTC Immediate Past President
Last October, for the first time in history, the giant software maker, Microsoft, opened its first retail
storefronts. One in Mission Viejo, and one in Scotts-dale, AZ. Last month, the Orange County chapter visited the store in Mission Viejo. Nobody wanted to go to Scottsdale.
About thirty STC members showed up. The box lunches were ready for us as was the store staff. As small groups of five or six finished scarfing down their food, we were oriented to the store by Microsoft staff: Product Advisors, Technical Advisors, Customer Advisors, and Trainers.
Microsoft Retail Store TourJust inside the entry is a display of small notepad computers—not manufactured by Microsoft, but preloaded with Microsoft operating systems and ap-plications. Moving around clockwise, we visited the following sections:
Living room section featuring a large screen • Microsoft Surface display unit that can func-tion as a computer, TV, or video display that can also see your fingers or respond to voice commands
Tower computers•
Laptops arranged according to size•
HP TouchSmart computers•
Personalization section, where technicians • will build and load a computer to your speci-fications while you wait
Games, accessories, and applications, to be • had right off the shelf
Answer desk or diagnostic test bench where • you can bring your existing computer for a free diagnostic check up
Xbox and Zune games and hardware—the • only hardware manufactured by Microsoft
Introductory Demonstration of MS Win-dows 7After everybody had a tour of the store, we all gath-ered in the presentation area at the rear of the store for an introductory demonstration of Windows 7, the suc-cessor to the ill-received and oft-maligned Windows Vista operating system. Many attendees commented that this was the main thing they came to see.
Windows 7, suffice it to say, is packed with helpful utilities and applications—many prefixed with the word, “Live.” There are Live Essentials, like Messen-ger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family
Safety, Toolbar; plus additional programs like Micro-soft Office Outlook Connector, Office Live Add-in, and Microsoft Silverlight, a web application frame-work kind of like Flash.
Then there is OneNote—a $99 handy application that can do a lot of things plus record and transcribe audio and video. Google it for more details (or Bing it if you wish).
Jump Lists is a feature of Windows 7 that is designed to make everything (based on lists of recently opened items or pinned items) no more than two clicks away.
The Search feature in Windows 7 searches everything on your computer, files, folders, documents, metatags, and emails.
Everybody had positive things to say about the fieldtrip. In spite of the dearth of chairs to sit in, and the high level of ambient noise in the store, this event brought us much more than a simple presentation of one topic by a speaker at one of our monthly dinner meetings.
It’s not enough, however, for a newsletter to meet a laundry list of objective requirements; it must also meet a plethora of important, yet subjective, require-ments, including attractive design, editorial tech-niques, good typography, and innovation. Each issue submitted is reviewed by at least one statistical judge, who determines that each issue meets the minimum number of objective requirements, and by three qualitative judges, who evaluate each newsletter on its subjective elements. To qualify for a Distinguished Award, a newsletter can only miss a few points.
Judging chapter newsletters is a fun and engaging ex-perience. It happens once a year and doesn’t take too much time. Generally, judges’ names are posted on the STC web site and printed in Intercom and you get the added benefit of seeing what chapters around the world are doing with their newsletters. If you have questions about the newsletter competition or you would like to volunteer to be a judge, contact the com-petition manager, Elizabeth Bailey, at [email protected].
Finally, a significant portion of the credit for Techni-Scribe’s success in the 2008–09 newsletter competition
TechniScribe Wins Distinguished Award< Continued from Page 1
Continued on Page 11 >
OCSTC Employment InformationOur job listing is entirely online at the OCSTC web site. Pages are updated as jobs are submitted.
InquiriesIf you have an inquiry, e-mail our employment manager, Betsy Malone, at [email protected].
Society-Level Job ListingsSTC maintains job listings on the Internet. You can download the listings from the STC web site at http://jobs.stc.org.
10 • April 2010
Society Pages
STC Mission StatementSTC advances the theory and practice of technical communication across all user abilities and all media.
Positioning StatementSTC helps you design effective communication for a technical world through information sharing and industry leadership.
The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world’s largest organization for technical com-municators.
Its members include writers, editors, illustrators, printers, publishers, photographers, educators, and students.
Dues are $75–215 per year. Membership is open to anyone engaged in some phase of technical communi-cation, interested in the arts and sciences of technical communication, and in allied arts and sciences.
Society for Technical Communication 9401 Lee Highway, Suite 300 Fairfax, VA 22031-1803
703.522.4114 (voice); http://www.stc.org
TechniScribe Copyright and Trademark StatementOCSTC invites writers to submit articles that they wish to be considered for publication. Authors retain copyright to their work and implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to publish the work once in print and to publish it once online for an indefinite period of time. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has appeared elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications.
Some articles might refer to companies or products whose names are covered by a trademark or regis-tered trademark. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Reference to a specific product does not constitute an endorsement of the product by OCSTC or by STC.
ColophonTechniScribe is written using Microsoft Word, and laid out using Adobe InDesign CS3 for Microsoft. Gill Sans and Palatino Linotype are used for heading and text fonts. PDFs are produced using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.
TechniScribe relies on the following editorial refer-ences for style: American Heritage Dictionary, Chicago Manual of Style, and Words into Type.
April 2010 • 11
Society PagesOrange JuiceBy Pat Olsen, 2nd VP of Membership
Chapter Renewal Challenge 2010
STC’s 2010 Membership Re-newal Challenge ran from
February 4 through March 19. Chapters with the highest renewal percentage rate in each category were declared the winners and received the following prizes to raffle off to their members:
One 23” Full HD LCD Monitor•
One Terabyte (TB) Desktop External Hard • Drive
One 2010 STC Summit Registration•
One 2010 Basic Membership Upgrade to Gold•
One 2011 Basic Membership Renewal•
To be eligible to compete in the challenge, a chapter had to reach a qualifying renewal rate of 60 percent. Winning percentages included all members who renewed for 2010. Winners were announced March 26 (after this printing).
The following chapters were in the top three for chap-ters in our category (151 to 300 members):
Philadelphia Metro 42.06%•
Chicago 41.61%•
Willamette Valley 37.19%•
As of March 6, the OCSTC had 71 members renew with our chapter. Michael Opsteegh even won a GPS with his renewal! We also had at least two of our members receive a recovery package covering their STC membership. Remember, you can set up a pay-ment plan. So, don’t let your membership lapse. It’s during times like these that it is important to network and stay current with your skills and knowledge.
Meet Virginia ButlerVirginia Butler has been in the technical communica-tions field for over 20 years. Starting her career with an English internship for the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, she devel-oped writing samples that eventually helped her land a job at QSI in Tustin, CA. Over the years, her tech-nical writing skills have taken her to companies
like State Of The Art, Macro Educational Systems, AmerisourceBergen, Volt Delta Resources, and Teletrac.
Virginia is in the technical communications field because she enjoys explaining how to do things and how things work. She has applied these tal-ents through writing report white papers, software release notes, online help systems, and user docu-mentation.
Virginia lives in Lake Forest with her two dachs-hunds, Noble and Lucy, and a male lovebird, Hap-py. In her free time, this multi-talented lady enjoys playing the folk harp, piano, soprano recorder, flute, guitar, and viola. In fact, I remember when Virginia once played her harp at a holiday OCSTC meeting a long time ago! Virginia is not the only talented per-son in her family. Her sister, Rosemary, once sang backup for Jackson Browne on his Running on Empty album.
Virginia also likes the Star Trek movies, having been a fan since the original series. And when it comes to food, chocolate wins out—along with cookies and ice cream.
Virginia recently won a free round trip flight to New Zealand. When she was 10 years old, her father passed away and she lived in New Zealand with her mother’s family for three months. She’s looking forward to revisiting the country as an adult.
goes to our dedicated editorial staff. These are the truly unsung heroes in our chapter because they put in so much effort in to making our newsletter a qual-ity publication, and they have done so for years with so little recognition. Thank you to our newsletter staff, Teresita del Sol, Jennifer Gardelle, Suzanne Madison, Sima Staav, Anne Stratford, and Barbara Young. Only with your help is TechniScribe an award-winning publication.
TechniScribe Wins Distinguished Award< Continued from Page 9
Virginia Butler, OCSTC member
April Meeting TopicAbout the PresentationHow well do you network? Do you want to learn more about it? Do you need to polish your networking skills?
Networking is now accepted as the best method for finding a job. Online networking sites enable you to con-nect with extensive networks of people for business and career purposes. Because of its global reach, using the Internet to network lets you connect with more people who share your interests and goals, forming the founda-tion of your network and a resource for job leads.
Many Internet tools are available to facilitate your networking efforts. Attend this presentation to learn about a variety of online networking tools to get you connected, including:
School and employer alumni networking groups•
Employment-issue discussion groups•
Business, social, job networking, and online communities•
About the SpeakerLaura Ann LoCicero has been in the technical communications field for three years, but has been writing busi-ness content for 20 years. In addition to being a technical writer, she’s also a document and information de-signer. In August 2008, she started her own consulting business. Laura Ann writes and designs countless types of documents. She’s been a member of STC since 2008.
Orange Slice: Calendar of EventsDate Event Location TimeApril 6 OCSTC Council Meeting Airport Executive Suites, Irvine 6 p.m.–7 p.m.
April 20OCSTC Chapter MeetingLaura Ann LoCicero, “Networking 101—The Basics of Professional Networking Online”
DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400 6 p.m.–9 p.m.
May 4 OCSTC Council Meeting Airport Executive Suites, Irvine 6 p.m.–7 p.m.
Saturday,May 22
OCSTC Chapter Progression-Style WorkshopMultiple speakers, “Writing For Regulated Industries”
DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA, 92707, 714.751.2400 9 a.m.–noon
