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It is gratifying and a result of wonderful volunteers in our chapter that we have been recognized as a Community of Excellence once again this year.
The citation reads:
“For providing exceptional value to members through the use of technology, innovative programs and conferences, and community service opportunities.“
This award will be presented at Leadership Day at the STC Summit in Philadelphia, PA. Thanks to all of our volunteers and our wonderful members. Keep up the great work!
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The Atlanta Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) is proud to announce new officers for the upcoming fiscal year. The officers are:
- President - Howard Speck
- 1st Vice President - Robert Armstrong
- 2nd Vice President - Jennifer Collier
- Secretary - Kathleen Baine
- Treasurer - Jane Wilson
- Immediate Past President - Al Hood
These officers assume their duties effective June 1, 2008, and will serve through May 31, 2009.
They will be officially installed at the Chapter’s meeting on June 17, 2008, at Mirant Corporation, 1155 Perimeter Center West, Atlanta, GA 30338.
STC is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. It is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 14,000 members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators - anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it.
The Atlanta chapter numbers more than 400 members from all over Georgia.
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Each year thousands of patients in the economically developing world cannot receive medical aid because no resources exist. At the same time, U.S. hospitals discard hundreds of millions of dollars worth of surplus medical supplies every year. MedShare International helps bridge the gap between surplus and need.
On Saturday, June 7, volunteers from STC Atlanta will help MedShare package surplus medical supplies to ship to overseas healthcare facilities in need. If you joined us last year at MedShare, you remember how great it felt to be part of this group. If you didn’t join us last year, ask someone who did. They’ll tell you how important the work is, and how your presence makes a real difference.
MedShare relies largely on volunteers to help sort medical supplies. Join us this year as we donate a few hours to further this worthy cause.
Location: Decatur, GA
Time: 9 a.m.–noon
Date: Saturday, June 7
How to sign up: e-mail Julie Brock
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At the banquet on April 22, the Distincguished Chapter Service Awards (DCSA) were announced. These awards are from the Society Board. Each chapter has to submit recommendations and, if they are accepted, they are submitted to the BoD for approval or disapproval. This year we were happy to learn that all four of our recommendations were approved!
Receiving the DCSA for the Atlanta chapter were:
Julie Brock
The citation reads, “In recognition of your outstanding leadership in commuity service for the Atlanta community in general and the Atlanta chapter in particular.”
Holly Harkness
The citation reads, “For outstanding leadership of the Atlanta chapter - For your inspiration, enthusiasm, creativity, dedication, and never being afraid to try new things. You have made the Atlanta chapter better through your outstanding service!”
Chris McRae
The citiation reads, “For unfailing willingness to initiate and wholeheartedly support innovation and successful Atlanta chapter activities.”
Joe Scardina
The citation reads, “In recognition of your sustained contributions to the Atlanta chapter - for your willing attitude, your experience, and your dedication to success.”
If you should work with these members, or if you should just see them, please congratulate them!
Great work!
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On April 22, 2008, our chapter banquet was held at Maggiano’s Little Italy Restaurant in the Perimeter Mall area. This annual affair is held to recognize the winners of our competitions and to recognize those chapter leaders and volunteers who were instrumental in the success of our chapter this year. Also presented is the David C. Leonard Scholarship Award to a student enrolled in a technical communication program. The following competition awards were presented:
Technical Publications
Distinguished
Ryan Belding for Machine Detail Cleaning Job Aid
RaceTrac Petroleum, Inc.
Robert R. Schultz for Series 9000 RF Signal Manager Installation & Operation Guide
Scientific Atlanta, A Cisco Company
Excellence
Joe Berry for 1GHz GainMaker Broadband Amplifier Platform Reverse Segmentable High Gain Balanced Triple Node Installation & Operation Guide
Scientific Atlanta, A Cisco Company
Bruce Beverly for Bounce, Bounce Baby Supreme Activity Zone
Perceptive Media, Inc.
Stacy Cash, Cheryl Dennis, and Kathy Thompson for Prologue Fixed Assets User’s Guide
IPS-Sendero
JoAnn Clymore for Vantage Installation Guide
IPS-Sendero Taunya Conte for MapCap Flare V3
MadCap Software, Inc. Julian Hacker and New Media Design for PMINZ 2006 Conference - The Insiders’ Guide to Project Management
Hacker Enterprises Jacque Henson for The Hogan Guide: Interpretation and Use of Hogan Inventories
ProEdit, Inc.
Merit
Bruce Beverly for Automotion Product Capability Brochure
Perceptive Media, Inc.
Diana Ellswood and Cynthia Rocker for Sunrise Access Manager 4.5 XA SPA Configuration
Eclipsys Corporation
Brian Fleming and Discrete Wireless for Marcus GPS Fleet Management Web Application
HelpWrite
Brian Fleming and Kennesaw State University Continuing Education for Web Site Design with Web Plus
HelpWrite
Brian Fleming and Air2Web for Content Gateway XML API Reference Guide
HelpWrite
Michael Hughes for Flattening the Long Tail Through Progressive User Adoption
IBM ISS
Bernice Hunter for Adobe Contribute Software Guide
Emory University - Human Resources
William Sansbury for Ending the Threat of Weak User Passwords
Ipswitch
David Stratford for Automotion Product Capability Brochure
Perceptive Media, Inc.
Online Communication
Best of Show & Distinguished
Cindy Kashi for Relationship Profitability Manager Help
IPS-Sendero
Excellence
Dr. Carol Barnum for IDC Information Design and Communication Graduate Studies
Southern Polytechnic State University
Merit
Jeff Albers for Inovis - EDI 101
Inovis Roger L. Bell for Introducing Pointwing Front Office
VCG Software, Inc.
Nikii Bond for Self-Service Admin Utility Help
Ceridian
Jeff Haas of Haas Consulting,
Denise Montroy of DemandBridge, Inc., and
Jesse Bryan of DemandBridge, Inc. for DemandBridge Order Processing Online Help
The following chapter award presentations were made by chapter president, Al Hood:
Member of the Year - Howard Speck
President’s Award - Robert Armstrong
Newcomer of the Year - Lina Piao
Behind the Scenes Award - Dirk Bender
Cornerstone Award - Kathleen Baine
Continuing Service Award - Eugene Larson & Michael Hughes
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Several years ago the STC Atlanta Chapter established a scholarship in honor of Dr. David C. Leonard.
Dr. Leonard was Assistant Dean and Director of Engineering Graduate programs at Mercer University. He also taught at Georgia Tech, the University of Maryland, and the University of Tennessee. In addition, he worked as an innovative technical communication consultant for a wide range of companies experimenting with the development of online help, usability testing, knowledge bases, and distance-learning long before others in his field had even considered such concepts. He was an active STC member and served two terms as president of the Atlanta chapter. When Dr. Leonard passed away in 2002 after a battle with cancer, the chapter established this scholarship to honor this man who represented the ideals and values of the STC Atlanta chapter.
Each year we invite undergraduate students in the state of Georgia to apply for the scholarship. Students who apply for this scholarship must demonstrate that they are pursuing a career in the field of technical communication—through their academic studies, jobs, special projects, career goals, and/or STC membership. Each application must be accompanied by recommendations from teachers or employers. It’s a very rigorous process. This year, the Atlanta Chapter of STC was pleased to present the David. C. Leonard Scholarship for Technical Communication to two students from Southern Polytechnic State University.
Yina Li
and
Qianying Liu
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And the nominees are . . .
The Atlanta STC Chapter is hosting its first New Media Awards in an effort to promote new media in our profession. We solicited nominations in three categories: blog posts, videos, and podcasts. The only requirement was that nominations had to be related to technical communication in some way.
Now it’s your turn to vote.
Podcast Nominees
Prioritizing for the Reader
By Harry Miller, 3:17 minutes
Is Technical Writing Boring?
By Tom Johnson and Heidi Hansen, 22 minutes
Six Tips for Effective E-mail
By George Hayhoe, 5:04 minutes
Technical Communications and India
By Scott Nesbitt and Aaron Davis, 18:29 minutes
Blog Post Nominees
Can help authors afford to ignore Google?
From HelpScribe by Craig Haiss, March 7, 2008
The technical writer’s resume - a view from the other side of the desk
From Technical Writer, September 30, 2006
Technical Writing in Transition
From User Advocacy, by Chris Borokowski, November 20, 2007
Encyclopedias do not user assistance make
From User Assistance by Mike Hughes, July 16, 2007
Video nominees
In the video category, the nominees are in two categories this year: Comedy and Technical Information and Instrution. You can watch the videos below.
Click this link to cast your vote!!
Comedy video nominees�
(Click each title to view the video.)
The First Help Desk Call
PC vs. Mac: Music
Technical Writer Song
Technical Information and Instruction video nominees
(Click each title to view the video.)
Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us
RSS in Plain English
Information R/Evolution
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The STC Atlanta Chapter Competition Awards Banquet will be held at Magganio’s Italian Restaurant on April 22, 2008.
Maggiano’s Italian Restaurant is located at Perimeter Mall, 4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30346 Map to Maggiano’s
The Atlanta STC Awards Banquet honors our chapter competition winners for printed and online user assistance. We also recognize chapter members who have made significant contributions over the past year. This year we will also announce the winners of our 1st Annual Technical Communications New Media Awards for podcasts, blog posts, and online videos.
For more information on the 1st Annual Technical Communications New Media Awards see NewMediaAward
Schedule: 6:00 p.m. Reception and Cocktails
7:00 p.m. Dinner (see below for Maggiano’s Family-style Menu)
7:30 p.m. Awards ceremony
Cost is $40/person, $20 discount for students, groups of four or more from the same company: $30/person.
Make your reservations now!
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It is that time again: Time to vote for your officers for the new chapter year. You should have received an email from me with a link to the ballot. I hope you will take a few minutes to cast your ballot. It has been a great year for me but it is coming to an end. I have really enjoyed serving as your chapter president. I have experienced a lot in this year. I believe we have accomplished much. Just the fact that I am writing this and you are reading it on our CommLink blog is a tribute to the council. The council took a chance and, here we are. Hopefully you will contribute to this blog over the next few weeks and months. We want this blog to be representative of our membership. So, please, submit your articles right now.
We have a new CommLink editor, Tiffany Portewig. Tiffany comes to us from Auburn University where she was a professor of technical communication. She was also the Managing Editor of the Birmingham Chapter newsletter. So she comes to us with much experience and many ideas. I am looking forward to what she is going to bring to this position. If you have an idea for an article or you just want to submit one, contact her. She will be contacting some of you with a new feature for the newsletter. She will be talking to members and getting answers to some questions so she can feature a different member each month. It will be a way for us to get to know some of our members. If you would like to be featured, or if you know someone with an interesting story, contact Tiffany.
We have much going on this month and in months to come. My last few months as your president will be a busy time for me. This weekend is the Currents conference. I hope to see many of you there on Friday and Saturday. We will have many wonderful presenters. Jean-luc Duomont, a world-renowned expert, is holding a workshop Friday on Visual Design. On Saturday the incoming president of the Society, Mark Clifford, will be our keynote speaker. During Saturday sessions there will be 12 different speakers with 12 different presentations. These presenters represent all aspects of our profession, from academia, to technical communication management, to technical writers to students. I hope to see you there. On March 18, we have the chapter meeting with a wonderful speaker, Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler. And, in addition to a wonderful presentation (Leveraging Software Tools To Help You Ensure Content Quality), Scott will be giving away registrations to some great content management conferences. You must be present to win, so come join us! On Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29, the International Competition consensus judging will take place right here in Atlanta. This is where the Society determines the international awards for all of your competition entries that received Distinguished Awards in local and regional competitions. I, along with several of your fellow Atlanta chapter members, will be participating. On April 22, we will have our annual awards banquet. Come and see your friends and colleagues accept their awards for excellence in technical communications. We will also be recognizing our chapter volunteers, officers, and council members. This year, in a big change from year’s past, we will be holding the awards banquet at Maggiano’s Italian restaurant in the perimeter area. So for the price of admission, you will get a great meal and some wonderful networking, in addition to the awards. So go to our website right now and register! June 1st through the 4th, I will be at the 55th annual Technical Summit. I hope to see you there. If you come, look for the 56th Annual Technical Summit 2009 booth. We will have the booth staffed by some of our members handing out materials about what to do in Atlanta when the world of technical communicators comes to our backyard! As you probably know, the STC conference in 2009 is right here in Atlanta. No excuse not to go since there will be no travel and no hotel expenses. All of our bosses should let us go to that one!
The June Summit will be my last official act as your chapter president. At the June meeting I will hand over the reins to Howard Speck. It will be at once a relief and a saddening event for me. I have so enjoyed serving as your president. But it has been hectic and challenging. If you ever want to have the most exciting, aggravating, enjoyable, difficult, and challenging “job” that you could ever have without pay, run for an office in your local STC chapter! It really has been worth the effort!
Until next time …
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