SOCIETY FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION Society for Technical Communication Sacramento Chapter Newsletter March 2005 Communication Online The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 2 In This Issue Regular Features 3 Editor’s Column 3 Newsletter Staff 4 March Meeting Announcement 4 Chapter Contacts 5 STC Events and Networking Opportunities 6 Employment: Using Online Career Centers This Month’s Theme: Online Communication 7 Resources for Online Communication 8 Turning Online Documentation Into Money Opinion/Humor/Etc. 10 Humor: Just In Time Documentation Management 11 Opinion: I’m Voting AGAINST The Bylaws Change 14 2005 Nominating Committee Candidate Lori Klepfer 14 Free Career Development Seminar 15 Usability: Documents That Work About The Capital Letter The Capital Letter is published ten times a year, September through June, by the Sacramento Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. Subscriptions are available to nonmembers for $10 per year. Advertising rates are $30 per quarter page. We welcome letters to the editor, articles, and information regarding meetings, workshops, and courses pertaining to technical communication. Please submit in MS Word, or plain text format. Articles may be edited as necessary for content and length. The deadline for submission is the 20th of each month for the following month’s issue. Send submissions to the Managing Editor, Jim Collins, jimcol@charter.net or mail to: The Capital Letter 1214 Snow Ridge Ct. Modesto, CA 95351 NOTE: By submitting an article, you implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to run the article and for other STC publications to reprint it without permission. Copyright is held by the writer. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has run elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications. Reprints of any of the original material herein are permissible with the proper attribution (source, including date of issue and name of author). A copy of the publication which The Capital Letter material was reprinted must be sent to the managing editor at jimcol@charter.net. About STC The Society for Technical Communication is the world’s largest professional organization devoted to the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communications. STC’s more than 15,000 members include writers, editors, illustrators, graphic designers, multimedia artists, photographers, videographers, printers, publishers, educators, students and others whose work involves making technical information understandable by those who use it. Society for Technical Communication 901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 904 Arlington, VA 22203-1854 703-522-4114 www.stc.org STC Mission Statement Creating and supporting a forum for communities of practice in the profession of technical communications.The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 3 Regular Feature Editor’s Comments Editor’s Comments Hello Everyone! I hope you all have had a chance to enjoy some of the really nice weather we’ve had for the last few days (as of when I wrote this). When it gets warm like this and everything turns green and new, it’s always a little harder to concentrate on work – at least for me. This month’s theme is online communication and we’re privileged to have a very informative article from Lynda Strauss on page 7 that discusses resources to for learning more about this constantly evolving medium. If you’re interested in making some money from the skills you’ve developed, be sure to read Barry Schoenborn’s article on page 8. While not related to online communication, Barry has written another thought-provoking piece about the proposed STC Bylaws change on our ballots on page 11. Speaking of the STC ballots, there are three candidates for second vice-president, all of whom have had their statements published in The Capital Letter. One of them will be elected and through the automatic advancement procedure, become president in two years. In the interest of providing as much data as possible so our members can make an informed decision for this critical post, the board has developed a short survey (5 questions) that will be sent to them soon. We will publish their responses in next month’s issue and I assure you that issue will be published with time left to read their responses and make your final decision. At its most recent meeting, the board determined to move forward with a revamp of the chapter’s website. Richard Burkhart is our webmaster but his job and other responsibilities have made it almost impossible to do anything but the most basic of maintenance. Several board members volunteered to work on simplifying and reorganizing the site. If you would like to help with this effort, please contact Chuck Petch: cptech@ncws.com. Next month’s theme is Marketing Communication – an area that many probably try to avoid. It is, though, an important sub-group in technical communications and I’m sure there are members who are actively working in this field. As always, I solicit your input, articles or any thoughts on the subject. Please send them to jimcol@charter.net. Our next general meeting will be held at the usual time and place (see notice on page 4) on Wednesday, March 16. See you there! Jim Collins Editor Newsletter Staff Managing Editor: Jim Collins Associate Editors: Ken Umbach Barry Schoenborn Copy Editors Richard Burkhart Christine Wilson Scott Reid Hilary Hawkins Suzanne Davignon Layout & Graphics Jim Collins The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 4 Regular Feature CHAPTER CONTACTS President VP Programs VP Public Relations Cindy Kight OPEN OPEN cindykkight@yahoo.com Past President Secretary Treasurer Jeff Simon Barry Schoenborn Sunny Bishop jeff@jeffsimon-consulting.com barry@wvswrite.com sunny@sbtechcomm.com Membership Employment Education Daphne Engle Chuck Petch OPEN stc-membership@pacbell.net cpetch@ncws.com Hospitality Newsletter Editor Webmaster Cherie Woodward Jim Collins Richard Burkhart cherie_w@direcway.com jimcol@charter.net richard@khanfusion.net Satellite Liaison WIW Conference Coordinator Jeff Simon OPEN jeff@jeffsimon-consulting.com March Meeting Online Communication Speaker TBA Wednesday, March 16th 6:00 pm (speaker starts at 7:00) Coco’s Bakery & Restaurant 7887 Madison Avenue, Citrus Heights Free to STC members (buy your own dinner) Non-Members and Limited STC members – $5 Here’s a link to the map at yahoo.com Guests – First meeting is free. Here’s a link for the map at yahoo.com http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=d2WUlup_0Tq9xEo4qvI9F_tNwoU_.hKNzPyS6Q--&csz=Citrus+Height s%2C+CA+95610&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 5 Regular Feature STC Events & Networking Opportunities Next Sacramento Chapter Meeting When: Wednesday 3/16 Details: Online Communication. STC Telephone Seminar When: Wednesday 3/23 Details: “Breaking into E-learning” with William Horton When: Wednesday 4/6 Details: “Building Brand Into Your Product or Website” with Robert Barlow-Busch. Web and Telephone-based seminars. Visit www.stc.org/seminarsList.asp for more info. Berkeley Chapter Meeting When: Wednesday 4/13 Details: “Macromedia’s Contribute” with Eric Lerner. Visit www.stcberkeley.org for more info. North Bay Chapter Meeting When: Thursday 3/17 Details: “Real World XML” with Mira Wooten and Jennifer Westerberg. Visit www.ebstc.org for more info. Northern Nevada Satellite Meeting When: Thursday 3/17 Details: “Making Sense of Word Templates and Macros” with Tricia Schodowski. Visit www.stcsacramento.org/reno for more info. San Francisco Chapter Meeting When: Wednesday 3/16 Details: “From Tutorials To Programmer’s Guides” with James Bisso. Visit www.stc-sf.org for more info. Silicon Valley Chapter Meeting When: Silicon Valley: Thursday 3/24; Santa Cruz: Tuesday 3/22. Details: “Show Me the Numbers: Avoiding Costly Failures in Business Communications” with Stephen Few. Visit www.stc-siliconvalley.org for more info. Beyond STC Sacramento American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) When: Tuesday 3/15 Details: “Memory Techniques For Trainers” with Michael Green Visit www.astdsac.org for more info. Sacramento International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) When: Wednesday 4/6 Details: “How Politics Affect Public Relations” with Maggie Linden & Mindy Fletcher Visit www.iabc-sac.org for more info. Sacramento PC Users Group (SPCUG) When: Wednesday 3/16 Details: “Buying Wisely on eBay” with Mike Wood Visit www.sacpcug.org for more info.The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 6 Regular Feature Employment Using Online Career Centers Chuck Petch Have you ever wanted a personal advisor to assist you with your career? Someone who could help you write a great resume, prepare for interviews, or provide advice and testing for a new career? Even if you don’t have your own personal career counselor, you can find much of the help you need online at the many excellent career counseling websites. Monster.com hosts an excellent online career center that many people stumble across when doing job searches. Just click on “Get Career Advice” and you’ll be on your way. The Monster career center covers resumes, interviewing, salary surveys, networking, personality and career tests, and relocation advice. It is a helpful general career center with solid, practical materials, and, of course, the famous and very useful Monster job search engine. Acinet.org offers a career center that may be one of the best on the internet because of the wide range of its offerings. It is funded by the federal Workforce Investment act, the same program that brings you local public career centers, such as SETA and Golden Sierra Job Training Agency. The links at acinet cover employment, relocation, financial aid for education and training, skills assessment, starting a business, training and education including licensing and certification information, testing and self assessment, and labor market trends. Some of the resources acinet offers are associated with federal programs, but many are of general interest. CareerJournal.com and Jobstar.org are two job search and career websites sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. CareerJournal is oriented toward professionals and executives, and Jobstar serves just plain folks. As you might expect from an outstanding business publication, both sites offer fine career centers with helpful resources. CareerJournal provides links to resume services, career counselors, executive recruiters, executive contact search engines, and information about overseas careers. Many of these are fee services geared to the “upper crust.” At Jobstar, the resources for the rest of us include job searching tips, resume tips and examples, career guides and free online career tests, links to public career centers, and good resources for locating local companies in specific industries. You’ll also find links to small, local job search engines for major cities, including Sacramento. Some are duds, but others are worth a look, and you may just find a job that isn’t on the beaten path. Careermag.com offers unique tools, including a search engine for local job fairs and employment events, online career videos, guidance on building a portfolio, job-related email management, links to industry magazines for many industries, assessment tools and tests, and an instant online background check ($24.95) so you know what employers will find out about you. Careerkey.org is great for students and career changers who would like to go a little deeper into personality and career. Click “Continue” and “You” to see the Career Guidance page. Jobhuntersbible.com is the site run by Dick Bolles, the author of What Color Is Your Parachute. You owe yourself a visit to this outstanding site. As one of the founders of modern career counseling, Bolles knows just about everything there is to know about job hunting and shares it here and in his book. The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 7 This Month’s Theme Continued on next page Resources for Online Communication Lynda Straus As recently as ten years ago, online communication was a fairly rigidly defined subset of technical communication. There was online help, some work done on the few web pages in existence, online newsletters published as PDF files, and PowerPoint presentations. Most of our work was created for print, and it was a career benefit (although a minor one) to have some experience with anything being done online, since it wasn’t the norm at the time. By contrast, today almost all work (certainly mine and that of most of my peers) is primarily created for online presentation. Often, it’s created exclusively for online. What is it, really? Using the broadest definition (i.e. online is “not print”), that work includes “paper” manuals delivered as PDFs. The PDFs are delivered on CDs or over the web. It’s the assumption of the corporation that the end user is satisfied with this medium, the premise being that the user is content to view “books” on a screen, and if pressed, will act as his/her own print shop, and print the book if necessary. The traditional “native” or “pure” online products were online help and PowerPoint training presentations. Online help was (and is) most likely to be bundled with an application. PowerPoint presentations were always assumed to be presented “hot,” not read; printing class notes was an extra. Today, our newest crop of online products includes web pages (of course), online training, fill-in forms, help over the web, and XML-based guides. And more types are coming. The key indicator that a communication product is an online product is when it’s delivered over the Internet. What are the resources? There are a number of resources that can help writers transition to an online world, including web sites, conferences, classes, user groups and listserv groups, STC publications, and our own Sacramento chapter members. In particular, the WinWriters (now called WritersUA) web site is totally devoted to online communication http: //winwriters.com. The annual conference is coming up March 20-23, in Las Vegas this year (well worth the bucks for the bang you get!) Some excellent articles on this site are: • Bill Horton talking about software simulations and demonstrations • Dave Gash discussing “smart help” and conditional text • Joe Welinske on trends and opportunities in software user assistance (a new broader term for various forms of help) If you believe (as many of us do) that a good GUI is the user’s first form of “help,” check out Jared Spool’s website, User Interface Engineering. www.uie.com It’s an excellent source for information about user interface analysis and design. There’s also this human factors site: http://www.humanfactors.com/home/default.asp You will find many, many links to articles and additional web sites from both of these sites. It’s well worth your time to explore and discover.The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 8 This Month’s Theme There are some “not to be missed” user groups. The most well-known is the Yahoo group for Help Authoring Tools & Techniques, HATT. And the old Winhlp-L is excellent, too. You can learn HTML, XML, CSS, all for free, at W3Schools. And for abundant help in web page design (and the real reasons web pages exist) don’t forget the Vince Flanders web page: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/What about schools and conferences? ARC and CSUS both offer technical communications courses with online communications focus (CSUS now offers the entire technical communication program “online”). Our own Writer in the Workplace has focused mostly on topics and issues related to online communication over the past several years. And, the about to be revived Touchstone has an online division which has grown from very few entries to completely overshadowing the print entries. Consider volunteering to be a judge just to see what’s new and what’s happening in this field. And in conclusion It should be no surprise that while there are “live” classes about online communication and printed books about online communication, the bulk of the information you need about online communication is available, well, er…, online. Turning Online Documentation into Money Barry Schoenborn “Online documentation,” “online communication,” and “online information” are very broad terms—so broad that they embrace just about everything that isn’t printed, sung or sent by smoke signal. That much breadth won’t help you get and execute online work. In order to make some or all of your living from online documentation, it’s up to you to give the term definition. Since employers do a great deal of defining for us, you should be prepared to go along with their definitions of online documentation. Our purpose today is to spot the ways you can be paid for doing online documentation, with minimum learning and expense on your part. Here are the basics: 1. You are probably doing it already. You may not believe it, but I don’t know a single technical communicator who doesn’t make PDFs out of text. These PDFs go on CD or on a company’s public website. If you’ve got a job, you are already being paid to make online documents. 2. Let your company come up with bright ideas. Resources For Online Communication, continued Continued on next pageThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 9 This Month’s Theme You are wasting your time “selling” online docs to those who won’t listen. Despite what you read in STC pubs, it’s up to management, not you, to get a “bright idea” about online documentation. Then you can miraculously fill the need. 3. Get into online help only if you’ve got the courage. Online help is a specialty, for sure, and you can become a specialist. If you study hard, you may find yourself working with only one package, and that (unfortunately) may cost you during a job change. It’s an odd thing, but I’ve not met any help developers who make more money than “conventional” writers. This includes three friends of mine who worked at a giant lending institution. If your company wants online help, it’s a great chance for you to learn a package and develop your skills on company time. 4. Get into web work only if you’ve got the courage. All of us can do web content. Most of us are clear on how to organize websites and ensure accessible web pages. And a great many of us have a decent design sense. Just the same, we limit our web work to “brochure” style sites, where there’s not a lot of hard work. Why? Because if we want to get good at the “back end” stuff, we’re off to college classes. They cost money and take time, and the career results are not always satisfying. You can form a little web design business or, at some companies, they’ll let you do some HTML, if they’ll trust you. I know of no rule that says competence in this form of online documentation is a passport to prosperity. 5. Be prepared to leverage your skills and change titles. By now, you’ve probably documented a bunch of terrible screens in your step-by-step procedures. Well, the first time somebody asks if you could design a better screen, by all means say “YES!” With some luck, you can call yourself an Interface Engineer, and make the title stick. 6. Don’t confuse the message with the medium. Before online, there was paper. Before that, parchment. Before that, papyrus, clay tablets, and cave walls. In all media, there was content to convey. Today, the presentation method is linear, or hyperlinked, or some combination of the two. We haven’t seen much yet in “predictive” online information (except for the famous MS Word paper clip saying, “It looks like you’re typing a bomb threat. Want some help?”). But in all cases, there is content. Delivering content is likely to be valuable, no matter how fast the media change. 7. Don’t fail to appreciate the ironies. I’m grateful to Dr. JoAnn T. Hackos and Dawn M. Stevens for writing “Standards for Online Communication” ($54.99 retail, $34.64 Amazon). There’s a lot to be learned form this book. The biggest lesson to be learned is that Hackos wrote a book about online communication. So what do the experts do when they want to make some royalty money? They write a book on paper! Turning Online Documentation into Money, continuedThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 10 Humor, Opinion, Etc. Humor Just in Time Documentation Management Barry Schoenborn Granted, Dr. JoAnn T. Hackos (STC Hall of Famer) and others have made an honest dollar describing the details of managing a documentation project for quality. At $55.00 retail ($34.65 Amazon) you can be darned sure there are some wise tips in books on the subject. However, reality tells us that the techniques described in such books rarely, if ever, work. But don’t worry! You don’t need that sort of study and planning anymore, thanks to the miracle of Just in Time Documentation Management. The roots of JITDM Just in Time (JIT) was first adopted by Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan as part of its Toyota Production System (TPS). JIT is a set of techniques to improve the return on investment of a business by reducing in-process inventory and its associated costs. As with any manufacturing process, a documentation project has an in-process inventory. By reducing in-process inventory (the books we’re working on and how much time we spend on them), we reduce waste. JIT is driven by a series of signals, or Kanban, that tell production processes to make the next part. Kanban are usually simple visual signals, such as the presence or absence of a part on a shelf. In the case of a document, it’s a missing chapter. This is followed by the signal of the manager running around, hair afire, waving his/her arms. Fundamentals of JITDM 1. No plan survives the vagaries of product development. It’s a waste of time to make plans and change them constantly. Do not plan anything until you must, and even then make only the simplest plan. 2. Appearance is primary, content secondary. The end user needs something that looks like a book at delivery time. Keep a supply of empty book “frameworks” or “skeletons.” As long as you deliver a product that resembles a useful book, no one will complain. If the end user complains, no one will listen. 3. Rigid uniformity pays. You can produce multiple books faster if they all have the same chapters. Adopt a book structure that never requires thinking about. 4. Use common content. Whenever possible, use the same content. People will marvel, commending you on how the books speak with “one voice” (as if your end users every laid two of your books side-by-side for comparison. XML and content management systems will really help this in the future. 5. Do not worry about SMEs. Information from subject matter experts will always come later than expected. Don’t let a lack of information affect your delivery plans. When information does come, you can insert it at the last minute (“just in time”) – if you’re in the mood. 6. Keep planning foremost in your mind. That is, never start a book before you have to. Never write a word you don’t have to. Never deliver a book before you have to. 7. Remember: A book is “done when it’s delivered” NOT “delivered when it’s done.” Continued on next pageThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 11 Humor, Opinion, Etc. Benefits Your management will marvel at your efficiency. Unfortunately, you will be told “We’re having a bad year, and can’t give you a salary increase. In fact, we’re going to ask you to do more with less.” So you can’t necessarily expect to see financial rewards. You will, however, be allowed to keep your job. You will be the personal beneficiary of having more time, less to worry about, and a certain confidence in the uniformity of your output. Also, you’ll get personal satisfaction in knowing that you’re doing more (for yourself) with less (for the company.) Humor, continued I’m Voting AGAINST the Bylaws Change Barry Schoenborn The Society is proposing a bylaws change, and we members will vote on it in the upcoming Spring election. The board of directors has approved the change and encourages you to vote “yes.” I’ve studied the change and read what STC officers have to say about it. My conclusion: their arguments don’t carry enough weight to justify a “yes” vote. I’m voting “no.” Here is what’s being proposed. The text is from the STC website. Bold red is mine. Proposed Amendments to the STC Bylaws The board of directors has approved the placement of the following changes to Article IV of the STC Bylaws. Changes to Articles I, II, IV, X, and XI of the bylaws require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the votes cast by the membership. The board has recommended a vote of YES to these changes, in order to establish parity among chapters and SIGs in representation. More information will be provided with the ballot sent out in February for the regular STC elections. Voting on this referendum will take place at that time. Proposed Amendments 1. Change: Article 4, Section 3. Duties of Board Members, Item C. Second Vice President. The second vice president acts for the first vice president when the occasion arises. The second vice president also performs such other duties as the president or the board may assign. [Current text of Article 4, Section 3, Item C. The second vice president acts for the first vice president when the occasion arises and serves as coordinator of the Society’s chapters by assigning the directors to sponsor specific chapters and by such other means as is deemed advisable. The second vice president also performs such other duties as the president or the board may assign.] 2. Change: Article 4, Section 3, Item G. Directors attend all board meetings, serve on Society committees, and perform such other duties as the president or the board may assign. [Current text of Article 4, Section 3, Item G. Directors attend all board meetings, serve as director-sponsors of chapters and Society committees, and perform such other duties as the president or the board may assign.]Continued on next page OpinionThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 12 Humor, Opinion, Etc. 3. Delete: Article 4, Section 5. Regionalization. [Current text of Article 4, Section 5. Regionalization. The Society is divided into eight regions; each region includes all chapters, members-at-large, and other affiliations that exist in that region. Those members assigned to a region elect one director who represents that region.] To get the board’s rationale for proposing this change, I encourage you to read Andrea Ames’ recent pieces on the STC website. http://www.stc.org/transformation/directorship.asp http://www.stc.org/transformation/PDFs/jan_05.pdf Objection #1 – Proposal Adds No Value The proposed change wants to make Director-Sponsor elections an “at-large” proposition instead of a regional thing. OK, that’s the way many organizations work. Many City Councils are elected that way. By contrast, however, County Boards of Supervisors are elected from districts. Ames writes: “The change in the bylaws that the Board of Directors is recommending will ensure that every STC member has the opportunity to vote for every position on the Board: every officer and every director. And volunteers interested in running for Director will be considered every year, instead of every three years in their own regions. All members will vote for all directors every year.” OK. It’s little like the entire nation electing the entire Congress. Both the “district” and “at-large” methods of electing representatives have advantages and disadvantages. So what the point? I think that there’s no successful argument advanced as to how this change improves the quality of your membership. Objection #2 – Proposal May Diminish Value The proposal looks to me like a step to diminish the position of chapters in favor of SIGs. Consider those words “in order to establish parity among chapters and SIGs in representation.” Now why would you want to do that? The folks on the board have been SIG-happy for a couple of years now. There has been some thinking that SIGs are the future of the STC. I think it’s a delusion. If you prefer chapters, and I do, you can’t much agree with the “SIGs are hot” premise. The fact is that some SIGs are dead and dying (The Online Information SIG, for example). Healthy SIGs have a useful, but limited, role in our lives. The fact is (if I’m reading the SIG manual right) that SIGs don’t get dues rebates, as do chapters. They have budgets that the headquarters approves and expenses that the headquarters pays. The fact is that SIGs are an artificial construction, while the members/chapter/region is our established organizational mode. Traditionally, a member has been affiliated with one chapter. SIGs are places where one drops in or out as interests change. Anyway, there is no “parity” to be established. It’s the member who votes, not the chapter or the SIG. The “poor neglected SIG” proposition strikes me as baseless. In the absence of convincing arguments to the contrary, I’m inclined to think that this is a move to dilute the importance of chapter membership and erode dues rebates. Until the Society adequately explains how raising my dues $5.00/year while lowering my chapter dues rebate $12.00/year “added value” for me, I’ll have to remain skeptical. Continued on next page Opinion, continuedThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 13 Humor, Opinion, Etc. Objection #2 – Muddy and Misleading Thinking It is characteristic of the board or directors to advance arguments that are unsupported, unrelated, or don’t support their points. Consider this: Ames declares that directorship and sponsorship are different things, and says: We typically elect volunteers with sponsor qualities and they are surprised at their first board meeting with the news that they do not represent the chapters in their region, which is the job they believe they were elected to do. Well, geez. We must learn to elect brighter Director-Sponsors—those who have taken a high school class in civics or read an STC document. County Supervisors, Congressional Representatives, Senators, and board members on just about every non-profit everywhere face the same concern. Ames goes on: The director role (representing the membership as a whole) and the sponsor role (advocating for a particular community) are often in direct conflict, sometimes requiring a director to make decisions that benefit the Society and the membership as a whole but that might not benefit one or more communities in his or her region Another “So what?” What is the evidence of conflict? Am I being told that my Director-Sponsors (who said they’d do a good job) have done a bad job? Have they misrepresented themselves to me in past elections? I think not. When Lance Gelein from our chapter ran for and won the position of Region 8 Director-Sponsor, we believed he would contribute to the success of the entire organization, not just the region. And that was further born out when he became Society President. Anyway, Andrea Ames should relax. In my 15 years of STC membership, I’ve never seen a Director-Sponsor do anything that favored a regional constituency. In Region 8, I don’t think we are in any great danger of receiving special benefits from STC. More: As part of the transformation work, the Board of Directors is updating the Director-Sponsor Guidelines to separate the sponsorship role from the director role. Like the Bylaws referendum, this action worries many community leaders. They are concerned that separating the sponsorship role from the director role means the end of chapter representation and their chapter's voice on the Board. She goes on to say, “The transformation team believes we can provide better community support outside the Board, and the way we will do that is through the leadership community/resource.” Well, Barry Schoenborn says, “That’s bull.” All she’s got is “belief,” and a promise that “we’re working on it.” If you want to support the members in chapters, you keep chapter interests on the board, and you don’t relegate them to some jive “resource.” Wrapping it up If you believe in conspiracies (and I don’t), you can conclude that this is a money and power grab. You should vote AGAINST the proposed amendment. If you believe that people want the best and want to do their best (and I do), you will consider the merits of the proposal. At best, the arguments are muddy and weak. It’s not a convincing case for change, and the 2/3 majority needed to pass is likely to be hard to get. You should vote AGAINST the proposed amendment. Opinion, continuedThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 14 Humor, Opinion, Etc. 2005 Nominating Committee Candidate Lori Klepfer Greetings STC members! I’m Lori Klepfer, and I’m a candidate for the STC Nominating Committee. STC is on a momentous, exciting journey—akin to 50 plus years ago when two professional societies merged to form STC. Years from now, our members will look upon us pioneers in the organization. STC has and always will adapt to the changes in the industry. That’s why I joined STC 15 years ago. We led the taming of the desktop publishing bonanza, defined online help and web site design, and now are pioneering usability and information architecture. As a senior member and the Immediate Past President of NEO STC, I believe I can represent you at the national level by helping to identify our future leaders from among our very talented global membership. Over the years, I’ve held various positions at the local level, including leading NEO STC’s re-chartering committee. Under my leadership last year, NEO STC won both a Chapter of Excellence and a Chapter Pacesetter award. You can read more in my candidate bio in Intercom and on the STC web site. My only career has been the various aspects of technical communication, and for the last four years, I have built and run my own technical communication company. I’ve been fortunate enough to have assigned projects to other technical communicators. With this experience, I believe I know what it takes to succeed in this profession and the qualities that our future STC leaders should possess to help lead us into our shared future. You’ll be electing two nominating committee members. I humbly ask for your vote. Free Career Development Seminar Saturday, April 23, 2005 from 1-4 PM Placer County Library, Beecher Room 350 Nevada Street Auburn, CA Join certified Career Development Facilitator Chuck Petch for a relaxing and informative Saturday afternoon seminar in “Making Career Decisions and Plans.” Topics for lecture, group discussion, and practice will include the following: • Personality testing • Career information gathering • Mapping out a career path • Rational decision making • Intuitive decision making • The role of serendipity in career planning The seminar is free to members and the public. Everyone is welcome. RSVP cpetch@ncws.com by noon Wednesday, 4/20/05. Because there is a fee for the room, we need to ensure at least a few people plan to attend. Confirmation of the seminar will go out via email Wednesday evening. The Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 15 Humor, Opinion, Etc. Documents that Work Barry Schoenborn Product: Columbian Home Canner Manufacturer: Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co., Inc. Terre Haute, Indiana, USA Place of manufacture: USA Date of manufacture: 1950’s ? Price of product: Unknown Dimensions of documentation: 3.25” x 6.0” Three-fold, two-color, bleed Notes: Columbian introduced enameled steel siding for houses to the US in 1924. Columbian was the scene of America’s third general strike in 1935. UsabilityThe Capital Letter Sacramento Chapter STC March 2005 16 Humor, Opinion, Etc. The instructions are complete and accurate. They include: • Use of the device, with photo illustrations • Step-by-step instructions for canning • A chart with details for canning 21 kinds of fruits and vegetables • A warning about the fragility of porcelain enamel The typography and layout are good. Terminology is consistent. Usability, continued