Killing two birds with one stone (I probably could have found a better cliche'!), I've created a live blog at ScribbleLive for the upcoming STC Technical Communication Summit, which is taking place in Philadelphia from 31 May through 4 June. Stay tuned!
OK, I'm in. Now what? PS I sent you my slides for the collaboration session. Only a couple of weeks late...
Now we blog about the conference and then we tell folks :-) Think of it as "Twitter Extended" ;-)
Getting set up
I have a new smart phone and I want to be sure this is set up before I go. I'll be in Philly tomorrow for the board meeting and conference. Let me know uf you want to blog about the Summit!
Today I learned that Adobe is sponsoring "cover shots" at the Exhibition on Tuesday. Get your picture taken and then published on the TechComm magazine cover as a souvenir to bring home. Very cool :-)
The 2009 conference is May 1-3 in Atlanta; the 2010 conference is in Dallas; the 2013 conference is in Atlanta again. I don't know the dates for the last two or I'd tell you to mark your calendars!
At today's board meeting, directors heard presentations on People-to-People (22 people have signed up); Giving Program; IRS policies for non-profits (lots of changes coming...the office will have templates for the chapters to use); the STC Knowledge Portal (which is the framework for the Body of Knowledge), and the results of the Knowledge-based Governance and web surveys.
BTW, it turns out that there was a technical glitch in the knowledge-based governance survey and the question that just about everyone wanted on the salary survey ("members get it free and non-members pay for it") got dropped.
Tomorrow is Leadership Day and the day is packed with informational sessions and then the presentation of the community awards.
I should probably start packing. Flight at noon. Am liking the East Coast location for easy access.
New bloggers are signing on soon. They're currently at Leadership Day and there's no wireless in the room! Stay tuned :-)
STC Suimmit 2008
I am @ Leadership Day. Very interesting. I have never heard the acronym WIIFM. Cool!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Someone just asked who the chapter advocate is (because there's a SIG advocate). The answer is that the LCR manager is the (tactical) community advocate, because eventually that position will lead the support team for all STC communities (chapters, SIGs, and student chapters). However, when the director-sponsor position was changed to director-at-large and the LCR took over the community support role, three regions of chapters needed support. The Board at that time thought that it wasn't fair to expect someone in a brand new position to support three regions worth of chapters and student chapters (approximately 50 in total) and the 21 SIGs, so the temporary SIG advocate position was created. In addition, the (strategic) community advocate is the Community Advocacy Committee Chair, who is the 2nd vice president. This person (Cindy Currie for 2007-2008 and Mike Hughes for 2008-2009) works with the LCR manager, SIG advocate, and others, and tells the board the latest community news as gathered from reports and other sources to provide strategic oversight of communities.
Today's keynote speaker was John Castagna, who spoke on Enabling a Productive World Community in a Single Membership Organization. The content was fascinating and directly targeted to STC and community leaders. A fair amount of the initiatives that he called for are already underway (which made the present board members feel really good). His slides will be made available from the LCR site after the conference.
Membership rms include a referral section. Some kind of bonus will be awarded for membership renewals. More official announcements will take place tonight when the conference opens.
Hey, I'm sitting in the back of the room at Leadership Day and I was able to find a tmobile hotspot.
Speaker's Bureau goes live by July 4th. STC chapters will be able to look for a speaker by subject, location, etc., and speaker information includes name, contact information, compensation (if any) and expenses, topics, and more. Check it out (when it goes live, of course!) and if you have any suggestions, let me know and I'll get them to the right people.
I love the Speaker's Bureau idea. It's crazy for every chapter program manager to have to scrounge around for suitable speakers on their own. This will be a welcome tool for US and Canadian chapters. We've enjoyed having Jack Molisani from California speak in Atlanta each year for several years now.
STC is switching to a calendar fiscal year (that is, moving from July 1 to June 30, to Jan 1 to Dec 31). This makes accounting easier and more accurate. However, it means that communities have to do the same thing. The Board adopted a short fiscal year this year (July 1 to Dec 31), and will start the next full fiscal year on Jan 1, 2009. Communities will have to file two financial reports this year, one in September 2008 for the "current" fiscal year and one in March 2009 for the short fiscal year. Watch for more information.
Chapters need to follow a document retention policy for their financial information and history for IRS reasons. New IRS form is 990N.
Jackie Henson, STC's attorney, is speaking now about legal requirements because of the IRS and the new 990. Lots of impact on both the organization and the chapters. I'm not sure if it affects the SIGs or not.
The Board has been undergoing a governance review for the last two years. A new Conflict of Interest policy is now in place and must be signed by all Board members. There's also a new Duty of Loyalty policy in place.
Shari Gray is talking about motivating, collaborating, and retaining virtual volunteers.
Ask people.
It's amazing how often we forget this simple step. Don't expect people to step forward on their own.
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is rumored to appear during the Welcome Reception this evening!
What to look for this year from Mark Clifford:
Body of Knowledge
Redesigned Web site (woo hoo!)
Tiered membership dues will be analyzed by the Stategic Planning Assessment (SPA) Task Force and reviewed by the board at the September 2008 board meeting. The Strategic Plan slides will be made available to all chapters ASAP.
Strategic Plan was announced & discussed.
Exciting goals for the society for this year and beyond: 1) define the profession, 2) communicate the value of TCs and STC, 3) establish strategic partnerships, 4) globally improve the practice of our profession, and 5) ensure the long-term viability of te organization.
What a hoot it was to introduce Governor Rendell! I heard he might be on the list of possible Dem VPs. Another unexpected perk from STC. So far, two board meeting days and one Leadership Day done. Already have connected with many friends and loving it. Two speeches done; two to go. Hope everyone is happy with the 2008 STC Penn experience!
Uploaded pictures to my Flickr Pro account
I've uploaded my pictures of Leadership Day to my personal Flickr Pro
account. You can see them here:c
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhoughton/sets/72157605169829633/
Heading out to get to caffeine at the hotel Starbucks before starting my long day!
OK, figured out the linking thing (thanks to Indiana!). Just include the full URL somewhere in the paragraph, and the paragraph then becomes the link.
Packed room at opening session in the PA Convention Center. Free wireless!
Twitter is down . . . again.
George Hayhoe is given the President's Award for his work as editor of Technical Communication. An Atlanta chapter member, I'm proud to say! Go George!
Hillary Hart is also awarded President's award for her efforts in forging ties between the industry and academe.
Linda is talking about the STC's failing infrastructure and steps taken to fix it. Significant investment this year in membership database. Members can update their records online. Also new phone system and new accounting system.
Susan Burton announced that senior labor economist from Bureau of Labor Statistics is attending STC Summit. With STC economist (didn't know we had one!) they will unveil the 2007 STC salary data.
Mark is explaining the STC's Strategic Plan. I blogged onthis during Larry Kunz's presentation yesterday at Leadership Day. Hmmm can't get link to work.
Snippets from Howard Rheingold's keynote: Because Finnish people carry their mobile devices in their hands, the word for mobile device in Finnish is "little hand."
Rheingold's "About" page begins with this sentence: "I fell into the computer realm from the typewriter dimension, then plugged my computer into my telephone and got sucked into the net." Cool.
Management SIG members: Here are our tables for the networking lunch: 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 18, 25
I will be speaking at the Management Progression session at 2 PM. Then I hope to catch Saul Carliner's presentation on business models for tech comm depts.
AmandaCross
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