Your Election Username and Password

STC members eligible to vote in the 2010 election will be emailed their election username and password on 2 March 2010. A paper ballot will be
mailed to all individuals requesting one and to those for whom STC does not have a valid email address.

If you have not received your election username and password via email by 5 March 2010, please contact the STC Office at stc_election [at] stc [dot] org or call +1 (703) 522-4114 to confirm that your email address is current. If possible, please add stc_election [at] stc [dot] org to your list of approved addresses to ensure receipt of official election information.

Candidates

Below is the list of the candidates, and a line or two summarizing their respective visions for STC (based on their responses to questions posed to them by the current director.) You can learn more about each candidate and their responses – or  ask them a question yourself here>

Candidates for Director (vote for 2)

• Nicky Bleiel – Having served on STC’s Board for the past few years, Bleil said she would like “to continue to serve as a Director” and to complete work already begun.
• Al Hood – Hood wants to help STC to become a source of expertise and information about the industry.
• Makarand (Mak) Pandit – Pandit believes that STC is still relevant but that it needs to stay more focused on carrying out its objectives and living up to its commitments.
• Tricia Spayer – Spayer wants to help STC overcome its recent difficulties and emerge stronger and healthier.
• W.C. Wiese – Wiese wants to help ensure the future of STC by increasing its value and impact. By building external partnerships and affiliations, for example, Wiese says that STC membership will be perceived as a must-have by those joining the profession.

Read more about the candidates for Director here >

Candidates for Secretary (vote for 1)

• Rachel Houghton
• Steven Jong

Read more about the candidates for Secretary here >

Candidates for Nominating Committee (vote for 2)

• Lory Hawkes
• Nathaniel Lim
• Preeti Mathur
• Linda Mikkelsen

Read more about the candidates for the Nominating Committee here >

Are you a technical writer? Do you want to be a technical writer? Then STC-Montreal’s March Meeting is the place to have a drink, schmooze, and learn more.

A special welcome to all of the students who attended the recent job fair at Concordia University!

STC-Montreal President Everett Larsen will give a brief report about the state of the Montreal chapter and the organization as a whole. He will also talk about how to use social networking tools to market yourself.

When and Where

When: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 — 7 p.m.

Where: Pub Alexandre (second floor) — 1454 Peel, Montreal (Google Maps)

Cost: No cover charge.

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Join us at the STC Toronto’s Management Day on February 26 to learn three ways to work and communicate more effectively.

Be Agile

Learn some common strategies for integrating documentation activities into the software development cycle from Agile development advocate and coach, Michael Sahota. Doing it faster can mean doing it better.

Consider users

Learn about user‐centred development and how information developers can help to define the user experience. Qualicom Innovation’s User Experience Manager, Stephen Chalastra, will describe how interface design, the user experience, and technical communication fit together.
Improve content through reuse

Learn how to improve your content through reuse, and what to consider when shopping for technology to support your content reuse strategy. Pamela Kostur (Parallax Communications), Bryan Lynn (ThirtySix Software), and Jacques Fauteux (Front Runner Training) combine their content reuse expertise to help you plan your foray into reuse.

Get free software and win prizes!

All attendees will receive a free trial copy of SmartDocs Lite, an MS Word add‐in that integrates the power of content reuse in the Word environment, and will be entered to win one of three content reuse packages, including a content reuse consultation, a full SmartDocs license for one year, and SmartDocs training. Other door prizes include Agile and Lean software process consulting.

STC Toronto Management Day is sponsored by Front Runner Training. For more info and to register, visit the STC Toronto website.

Friday, February 26, 8:30 a.m.‐ 4:30 p.m.
Estonian House, Crystal Ballroom
958 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, ON

Fei Min Lorente, the president of Southwestern Ontario STC has posted a blog entry about the questions and the responses they garnered:

The presidents of the Canadian chapters agreed that it would be helpful to our voting members if we asked the candidates some questions that are relevant to Canadian STC members. The questions were:

• How would you propose to make international chapters like Canada feel more like they are a part of the bigger organization?
• What would you do to convince Canadian members that they should pay the same membership dues as Americans, when many of the STC services do not apply to Canada?
• Are you aware that the International Affiliation Agreement is currently being reworked, and what do you think it should contain?

Continue reading Lorente’s posting at stc-soc.blogspot.com for the full replies to the questions.

STC-Montreal President Everett Larsen said, “STC’s financial crisis during the past year highlighted some real and perceived inequities in chapter funding, both in the US and in Canada. This year saw a significant increase in our dues cost, and all members are understandably re-evaluating the new membership value proposition.”

Larsen said that the key issues facing Canadian chapters include the following:

• STC operates a central job bank, but hardly any job postings are for Canadian positions.
• The Society has been actively lobbying the US Department of Labor to change its official job classifications pertaining to technical communication. This may be of benefit to US members, but has little direct impact on wages and employment in the profession in Canada.
• STC also publishes annual salary survey data, but again it is for the US only. When asked about including Canadian data from Statistics Canada, the STC Office replied that such data was not offered for free and was overpriced.
• STC’s annual conventions are always US-based, and are expensive for Canadians to attend.
• Group health insurance is an offering of great interest to US members, but is not relevant to Canadians.
• STC no longer supports regional representation on its Board of Directors, and when approached, stated they were not interested in having dedicated Canadian representation at board level.

The full replies to these issues from the candidates for the STC board can be found linked on the STC Southwestern Ontario Chapter blog.

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

The following are a series of workshops presented by the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Click the titles for more information about each workshop and workshop leader.

Eight-Week Evening Workshops

(Workshop fee: $170, $150 for QWF Members)

Starling Voice/Lyric Ear – A Poetry Workshop

Mondays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 1 to April 19
Led by Peter Richardson

Fiction from Start to Finish

Mondays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 1 to April 19
Led by Saleema Nawaz

Tales for Teens: Writing YA Fiction

Tuesdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 2 to April 20
Led by Monique Polak and Lori Weber

The Art and Craft of Blogging

On-site four Wednesdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 3, March 10, April 7 & April 21
Led by Dana Bath

Have I Got a Story for You: The Craft of Writing Short Fiction

Wednesdays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 3 to April 21
Led by Neale McDevitt

Drawing from Life: Memoir and Personal Essays

Thursdays, 6 to 8 p.m., March 11 to April 29
Led by Robyn Sarah

Creative Non-Fiction: The Art of Fact

Thursdays, 8 to 10 p.m., March 4 to April 22
Led by Elaine Kalman Naves

Intensive Workshops

See each workshop for fee

Non-Linear Narratives & Multi-Media Poetics: An Introduction to Electronic Literature

Saturday, March 6 and Saturday March 13, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Led by J. R. Carpenter
Workshop fee: $140

Projecting on the Audience’s Imagination—A Spoken Word Workshop

Saturday, April 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday April 17, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with an evening performance
Led by Ian Ferrier

Workshop fee: $140

Writing for New Media

Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Led by Sam Wendel

Please contact the QWF office to register or for more information.

www.qwf.org

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

Maya Assouad, marketing manager for Véhicule Press, will discuss the benefits of marketing on the web at the next event hosted by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec.

Is your website doing its job? How can you use your website to its best advantage? Are you finding or creating new ways to market your books using new technology? Do you use social network websites (such as Facebook and Twitter) to market your books? Find out how to combine tradition with innovation and smoothly incorporate new marketing practices.

Schmoozing and coffee from 5 pm on; presentation will begin at 5:30.

Please RSVP aelaq [at] bellnet [dot] ca

Monday, February 22, 2010
5:00 to 7:00 pm
Atwater Library Auditorium
1200 Atwater, Westmount

AELAQ members free
Non-members $10

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

For the first time, we will be broadcasting the Israeli FrameMaker User Group meeting (#27), for the benefit of members who are unable to attend in person, and in order to open the event to other users world-wide.

Topics:

• Language-Related Aspects of FrameMaker (brief overview) — Shlomo Perets.
• Localization of FrameMaker Source Files  — Marva Roth, Net-Translators.com. Tips from a translation company on how to make your FrameMaker easier to localize, best practices and pitfalls.

Starting time: 12pm EST, 5pm UTC, 7pm Israel
Duration: approximately 75 minutes

To register, please visit
https://student.gototraining.com/4b34y/register/2503139699677230336

Shlomo Perets, www.microtype.com

It is true that if you’re no longer an STC member, you’ll be unsubscribed eventually. But this is not an automated process. It can take SIG managers hours to sort through listserv membership lists in order to figure out who needs to be unsubscribed.

On the other hand, it takes you only a few moments to send an unsubscribe request to the SIG list server.

This is a trying time for everyone at STC. But if you’re not renewing this year, remembering to send that unsubscribe message makes things a little easier on the volunteers who served you.

If you would like to participate, please email event coordinator Charles Roburn at vp [at] stc-montreal [dot] org

When: February 4, 2010
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m
Atrium (1st floor) of the McConnell/Library Building (LB)
1400 de Maisonneuve West (corner Bishop)
SGW Campus

What other organizations will be attending? Find out on Concordia University’s career services web site >

Please note: the raffle prize will be awarded at the next STC-Montreal event (date TBA).

Results

SURVEY RESPONSES  [44 completed the survey.]

1.    Are you currently an STC member?
Yes    65.9%    (29)
No    34.1%    (15)

2.    Do you read the Technical Communications or Intercom magazines?
Yes    63.6%    (28)
No    36.4%    (16)

3.    If you are currently a member, are you also a SIG member?
Yes    52.3%    (23)
No    15.9%    (7)
N/A    31.8%    (14)

4.    Have you ever attended an STC international conference?
Yes    38.6%    (17)
No    61.4%    (27)

5.    Have you attended a local STC event in the last year?
Yes    65.1%    (28)
No    34.9%    (15)

6.    If you are currently a member, does your employer subsidize your STC membership?
Yes    25.0%    (11)
No    38.6%    (17)
N/A    36.4%    (16)

7.    If you are currently a member, do you intend to renew your STC membership for 2010?
Yes    36.4%    (16)
No    25.0%    (11)
N/A    38.6%    (17)

8.    Would you be willing to pay a substantially lower membership fee for access to local events and content only?
Yes    79.1%    (34)
No    20.9%    (9)

Section 2 of the survey invited respondents to provide general comments about membership-related issues, most of which are are posted below.  Among the top concerns: the cost of membership and the value provided by the STC parent organization.

Comments

1.    Value I receive from the parent is limited to occasional searches for techcomm articles, competitions, and single-source sig. Don’t have to be a member to be involved in competitions. I have attended local seminars, and usually go to presentations and social events. Not entirely sure if I want to give up my membership to the parent, but it seems that supporting the parent reduces monetary support to the chapter, and the chapter gives better value. So the best arrangement would be membership in SIG and chapter without membership to parent. I would like seminars to be on weekends rather than on weekdays. (Not that my company would not let me go, but I’m usually just too busy to miss a couple of days of work.) Also, I cannot see going to an STC conference, they are much too expensive.

2.    From what I have seen, STC-Montreal brings together a core of generous, like-minded individuals dedicated to sharing their experiences and promoting technical writing in the area. STC-Montreal provides valuable resources for beginning and established technical writers. The workshops and social gatherings connect otherwise isolated freelancers. I’ve had little real exposure to STC, but what I’ve heard does not inspire confidence.

3.    I think the STC HQ does not support the chapters. I would like to see more financial support for the local organization. I think STC-Montreal does a fine job of “surviving” without the the support of STC HQ and can do even more.

4.    More training opportunities.

5.    Very happy with local chapter, good events, good network. Would like to see more talks from members outside of Montreal chapter (if they are in town)

6.    I enjoy reading your STC-Monteal website. For the local chapter, I would like to some more information about how to improve writing skills and grammar for technical writers. For the parent organization, I wouldn’t change anything.

7.    I would like to see some events held in Quebec city. OR
I would like to see more events held in Montreal on Saturday to have more time for travelling from Quebec.

8.    I rely on STC to help maintain my tech writing skills and knowledge up to date through publications and, to a lesser extent, through SIGs. STC Montreal has many interesting conferences, workshops etc – however, I live in Quebec City and find it hard to make time to attend activities in Montreal. Being part of STC is more important than STC Montreal, I’m sad to say. Already my employer has remarked for the previous 2 membership fee renewals that the fees were rather high. So this year, unfortunately I’ll probably renew only with basic membership and not added costs to be part of STC Montreal. I’m not happy about this situation because I know STC Montreal relies on a critical number of members to balance the budget and survive. However I can’t do any better this year, nor can I at the time afford to pay the extra cost myself.

9.    An STC-Montreal newsletter with relevant articles on topics of interest, especially information that is relevant to Technical communicators in Canada. More seminars or mini-conferences given during the day as opposed to short presentations in the evenings. Although this is not strictly an STC-Montreal concern, it would be great if we could have a Canadian salary survey since the STC only provides US data in their salary survey.

10.    2010 fees are way too high.

11.    I live and work in Quebec City. It could be nice to have some events here…

12.    I am a medical writer, and I’ve been subscribing to STC-Montreal’s RSS feed for about a year now. I’ve attended several workshop’s hosted by the STC, most recently, 8-Step Editing, which was fantastic. I’ve considered becoming an STC member, but to be honest, as a recent grad, the membership fee is a little daunting, especially since I’m not exactly a technical writer in the first place. A lower fee for access to local events would be a perfect fit for me.

13.    STC Montreal is strongest at organizing social events. Wish STC had more programming for experienced members.

14.    Question 7 didn’t offer an ‘undecided’ option. I’m seriously questioning the value I receive from both the parent and the local organizations.

15.    Re: Question 8. It is not clear whether it applies to STC members (i.e., people who answered Yes to Question 7) to non-members, or both.
This is a tiny window. There is hardly room to express an opinion on the weather! I am very satisfied with the local chapter, its activities, and its leadership. I am baffled by the international leadership’s disinterest in chapters, and concerned by its suicidal strategies. You can’t build an organization around online communities: no one will pay hundreds of dollars to join a forum, when they can find free ones elsewhere. Yet, for many years, people have paid well over a hundred dollars, essentially for access to the local chapter.

16.    I like the local chapter, and regret that STC Headquarters doesn’t support it well.

17.    HQ can go to the Devil. I am willing to write a procedure to aid them.

18.    I think that a renewal is underway which is very interesting and refreshing. I don’t give a hoot about the parent STC organization and am happy that the Mtl chapter is finding its footing to perhaps standalone some day.

19.    I am sick and tired of them lobbying for US-centric concerns. I don’t feel the Chapters receive enough funding from the Head Office.

20.    I haven’t attended many events so can’t really say, except that I’ve found the seminars useful and the social events fun and good for networking.

21.    I’ve been a member for two years now and I don’t have any major complaints. However, I would like to see the local chapter offer more workshops on current authoring tools used in technical communication.

22.    Lower fees to make it possible for free-lance people to join.

23.    Information on technical communication in the aerospace industry

24.    STC-Montreal has almost invariably impressed me as well-organized, with a competent and welcoming membership and useful events, usually even for soft-core borderline-technical writers. I am not sure, however, what advantage Montreal members gain by affiliation with the U.S. STC — except use of the logo and possibly job bank breadth? From what I’ve seen on its website, the U.S. STC seems to be reducing affiliation benefits. Might membership fees be more reasonable (for those of us without an employer to pay them) if the Montreal chapter went independent and a chunk of them didn’t go into U.S. coffers? Also, on several occasions I’ve wanted to join via the web site, only to find that it wasn’t possible for (ironically) “technical” reasons. Not a big issue, but a bit unexpected. I’d like to see, as a non-member who might become a member, mention in the STC-Montreal emails of the number and type of Montreal-area opportunities currently being announced in the job bank. That could be an inducement to joining if the number of announcements is significant. Last, for at least one event this year, parking (on a hockey evening) was so scarce that I chose to continue on home. I often come by métro, but sometimes that isn’t possible, and it would be nice if event announcements included parking advice. Anyway, thanks for all the hard work making STC-Montreal as good as it is!

25.    Free publications in pdf – More training sessions on more technology subjects, not only software – International Adoption of the TW BOK     [Body of Knowledge]

26.    I’ve enjoyed and benefited from interesting local courses and events. However, between higher STC membership fees for 2010 (already high for a freelancer) and minimal job-bank opportunities, this writer won’t be renewing. I would love to keep taking local courses. I don’t feel I get any benefit from the parent organization.

28.    Meetings on the weekend so members who live outside of the city could attend. At the moment, the last VIA train from downtown leaves at 1815.

29.    What can I say that you do not already know? About Questions 6 and 7: In the past, I paid for it myself. This year my new employer will pay for it or for a prof. membership of my choice (and independent STC Montreal would not cut it though as it will have to be a long-established and recognized organization). I am still conflicted as to what to do.

30.    STC international: not of much use to me; would rather pay-as-I-go for training webinars, etc. STC-Montreal: like the people and the dedication; makes more sense to have a local group like this since our job markets are not as mobile as that of the US; STC-Montreal needs improvement, but given its size and know the good intentions of the execs, I think it’s a good little organization.

Note: This event is not sponsored by STC-Montreal. Please contact the event organizers for more details.

The American Medical Writers Association invites you to an open roundtable discussion – Professional Uses of Social Media (6:30-8:30 pm, Thursday, January 28, Stash Café, Old Montreal)

How many remember the good old CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy or other proprietary dial-up days? 9600-baud modems? Audio couplers? Those ISP services are the rudimentary forms of the social media we use and mostly take for granted today. The AMWA Canada chapter hosts a moderated discussion of some social networking tools/environments in current use.

Especially useful for medical writers are AMWA’s own listserves, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. We’ll also mention the free, self-administered network creation tools Ning and Yahoo Groups.

Bring your own experiences, tips and ideas to share with other medical writers on successfully using social media to enhance your professional context and generate business. Discussion will be moderated by AMWA member Everett Larsen, who also serves as President of STC Montreal.

Where? Our favourite Polish restaurant…

200 Rue Saint-Paul O
Montreal, QC H2Y 1Z9
(514) 845-6611
www.stashcafe.com

Please RSVP to medicalwriter [at] videotron [dot] ca by 5pm, Wednesday, January 27th so I can let the restaurant know how many people to expect.

Any technical questions about the content to be covered should be addressed to Everett Larsen at larsene [at] primelink1 [dot] net.

The various agencies operating in Haiti have said that the most useful form of aid is not in the form of physical supplies, which are hard to coordinate and transport, but in the form of money. If you are unsure where to make your donation, here are some suggestions:

• The Red Cross
• Médecins Sans Frontières
• The Montreal Gazette has a comprehensive list of agencies that are taking donations for Haiti. if you prefer different charities.
• Montreal blogger Fagstein has posted a list of activities in the Montreal area over the next week related to raising funds for Haiti.

The BBC has an interactive map describing how aid is getting to Haiti.

Some of the most dramatic photos of the devastation in Haiti have been posted at The Big Picture from Boston.com: The day of the earthquake, two days later, and six days later. ]]> http://stc-montreal.org/en/2010/01/19/stc-montreal-encourages-you-to-give-for-haiti/feed/ 0 http://stc-montreal.org/en/2010/01/19/stc-montreal-encourages-you-to-give-for-haiti/