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STC Toronto - Communication Times
September 2004

In the September 2004 Newsletter:

News and Events:
-October General Meeting: Ethics, Technology and the Technical Communicator
-Your Help is Needed: Treasurer and Web Master Volunteers Wanted
-Single Sourcing SIG Meeting on Oct. 18th
-The Morgan White Award: Students Should Apply Now
-Upcoming Courses at Front Runner
-Call for Papers to IEEE Conference in Ireland
-Workshop: Beyond Usability (Discount for STC members)

Technical Communications Competition 2004:
Deadline for applications is October 6th. Hurry!!!

Starting a Web Business:
Alison Johnson has just started a web design business, and had written about her experiences.

From the President's Desk: Welcome Back!
STC Toronto President Robert Milkovich talks about STC Transformation and what it means to Toronto Chapter members. When you next renew your STC membership you will be able to choose from several membership options... it is important you read this before you make your decision.

The Wandering Eye: Writing Documentation for Developers:
Keith Soltys' popular and useful column returns this year with more useful resources for technical communicators.

A Writer's World: The Info-Terrorist War:
Andrew Brooke has a new column this year and even more attitude than before...

7 Leadership Qualities:
An STC President from Texas talks about leadership and the STC Transformation.

A View from Below:
Our Sponsor Director Jonathan W. Baker talks about the state of our profession and the STC Transformation.

About the STC:

The Society for Technical Communication 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 25,000 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 STC Toronto Chapter was founded in 1959 (then the Society of Technical Writers) and is the largest chapter in Canada.

About this Newsletter:

This newsletter is produced monthly by the STC Toronto Chapter and is sent to all registered members. We will not share nor sell our address list and will only send e-mails with information we believe to be useful and relevant to our members.

Our mailing list comes directly from the STC, so if you want to receive the newsletter at another address you will need to login to their members profile section and update your information.

From the President's Desk:
Welcome Back
by Robert Milkovich, STC Toronto President

Welcome back from your summer... what little we had of it! I hope you had an opportunity to take time off and relax with your loved ones, and that you’re now ready for another exciting season at STC Toronto.

There are major changes coming soon to the STC membership structure. Starting in January 2005 there will be new categories of membership, including:

  • Receive Intercom and Technical Communication online and belong to a chapter (E-Membership)
  • Receive Intercom and Technical Communication on paper and belong to a chapter (Classic Membership)
  • Receive Intercom and Technical Communication online, but do not belong to a chapter (Limited Membership)

There are other categories to choose - for full details and the prices of all new membership categories, visit the STC Transformation page click on New STC Membership Categories, or download the pdf.

The purpose of this Transformation, as it is called by the STC, is to provide greater value to STC members. It will do this by:

  • Giving members more choice when joining chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
  • Giving members a choice of receiving publications online or on paper

As part of our mission to provide greater value to STC Toronto members, we will be introducing some changes of our own:

  • The job bank will be available only to members of STC Toronto in early 2005.
  • We will launch a searchable, online member directory in early 2005 - STC Toronto members will be able to publish their own listings that employers will search by skills categories, keywords, and other information to find qualified candidates to fill their jobs

You will be receiving your STC membership renewal notices some time this autumn. To take advantage of STC Toronto’s member-only services in 2005 and on (job bank, newsletter, telephone seminars, online directory), you will need to choose the E-Membership, Classic Membership, or Student Membership category, and select STC Toronto as your chapter affiliation. Monthly meetings will still be open to everyone regardless of membership status.

Please feel free to contact anyone on our Executive Committee to talk about the Transformation and how it affects you.