STC Connecticut Chapter Blog

Our Connecticut chapter is experiencing renewal of previously-lapsed members this year, even with the membership rate increase. This is most likely due to the conference in Philly. If your chapter is experiencing a similar increase, we should be asking ourselves, “what will entice members to renew next year?” Thoughts?

Region 1 conferences, New England conferences, or both have been discussed occasionally over the years and then just fade away. (I remember going to Interchange years back.) Would anyone like to discuss the feasibility of a regional conference next year, either in e-mail or on our chapter blog? If so, post away or send to presidentatstc-ctdotorg.

I suppose I ought check the status of regions within the STC, as they have been deemphasized and might no longer exist. However, for this discussion, Region 1 includes chapters in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, along with the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. So, any Region 1 conference would be located to serve those regions.

So, fire away. Thoughts on promoting membership renewal next year? Thoughts on a Region 1 conference?

If you haven’t renewed your STC membership yet, you’re late.

That being said, I’d like to hear why people are renewing and why they are not renewing their STC membership. You don’t have to tell whether you are or not (though you may), just discuss pros and cons to letting your membership go or renewing.

Also, please post your questions, suggestions, comments, and even complaints and comments about the STC membership process here.

If you need it, there are some helpful links for managing your membership here: http://stc-ct.org/membership.htm.

There’s an ongoing discussion within the Connecticut Chapter on how to better serve the needs of members, make the chapter more relevant, and ultimately increase membership.

The Connecticut Chapter, like other Chapters and the Society, has been slowly losing members, and many who remain do not attend meetings regularly. Several board members work very hard to put out the newsletter, arrange meetings, set up training (such as our recent Adobe Flash training and previous Dreamweaver classes), and set up annual events, such as Professional Day at the University of Hartford.

Training and meetings have been moved around the state, from the southern end of Route 8, to Orange, to New Haven, to East Windsor, and other locations. Meeting agendas have been planned to address a variety of interests, most recently at Honeywell Tech Pubs in Northford, including a tour of the manufacturing facility. Additionally, we have offered door prizes, such as gift certificates to bookstores and iPods to draw those who needed a little extra ROI.

It’s not working. What can we do?

Some reasons for meeting attendance have been put forward:

• There is a general apathy towards the STC in general.
• There is apathy towards technical writing in general.
• There’s a move towards  Webinars, and Webinars would be more successful.
• There’s an idea that the STC had become increasingly focused on software documentation and Web site development and that many publication articles, conference presentations, Webinars, and other offerings held little relevance for folks who work in defense, aerospace, manufacturing, medical, and scientific fields (although our board has actively contacted technical writers in these fields to offer meetings tailored to their interests and promote their participation)

So, please blog your thoughts. Some ideas:

• Are you a member? Why? Why not?
• Did you let your membership lapse? Why? Why not?
• Are you coming to Professional Day? Why? Why not? (Non members are welcome, btw.)
• Do you go to Chapter meetings? Why? Why not?
• Are you willing to help host a meeting? Please let us know.

And so forth. Please, communicate and blog. What can the Connecticut Chapter do to motivate you to be more active? What can we do to help you professionally? How can we get you to renew your membership or, if you are an inactive member, become active?

Blog away!

The plans for our annual Professional Day have been finalized for Saturday, April 5 from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m at the University of Hartford. Please read on for details about sessions and registration.

Sharing Ideas & Strategies

At a time when the media is throwing the big R Word around on a daily basis, and companies are being more conservative with their budgets, everyone is having to find new ways to do their jobs for less (or at least the same that they’ve had for the last year or two). And tech writers are no exceptions.

This year’s chapter event pulls together several speakers who have found ways to work more efficiently and more cost-effectively in their employers’ technical publications operations. These sessions will offer strategies and lessons learned that any organization can draw from, as well as insights into working with new tools that many tech writers are interested in.

Additionally, Dave O’Meara of TekSystems will be on hand to talk to folks about the job market in Connecticut. In addition to talking to the group at large during lunch, he will be available to talk with folks one-on-one from 11 to 1:30.

Schedule

8:00 - 8:50 Registration & Networking

9:00 - 9:45 Using SharePoint In A Tech Pubs Department

Two years ago, Honeywell implemented Microsoft SharePoint to maintain a reference library of user documents and data sheets. The site is now being used for: PDF file distribution; electronic document review and approval; sign-out of part numbers for data sheets; product label library; department-only documentation; and self-service document/file retrieval by other groups (e.g., Purchasing, Webmasters). Mary Sheahan will share how the Tech Pubs group is using SharePoint to help streamline processes, and how Honeywell plans to expand this implementation in the near future.

10:00 - 10:45 Trimming Documents For Greater Usability & Lower Localization Costs

To reduce translation costs, a documentation team at Oracle (formerly Hyperion) embarked on an initiative to reduce the number of words in documents. This effort quickly lowered translation costs by an average of 24%. The team is extending the effort by distinguishing between categories of information that users need and those that can be deleted. The goal is to deliver clearer, more concise information while decreasing costs even further. Cheryl Morrison will demonstrate how her team has accomplished word reduction and is pursuing minimalism.

11:00 - 11:45 Adventures In Single-Sourcing In AuthorIT

The help files produced in RoboHelp were not pretty — the topics were too long, the software was under-documented, and the help system was about as user-unfriendly as one could get. What began as a project to expand and improve the help file became a a project to change the entire documentation process. Whitney Potsus will describe how one client migrated from RoboHelp to AuthorIT, and how single-sourced documentation was started in a group composed mainly of non-writers.

12:00 - 1:30 Lunch

RSVP Now!

Cost is $15 (chapter members and non-members), payable at morning registration on April 5. Registration includes lunch. Please RSVP to Donna Ford, Chapter President, at donna[at]evolve[dot]net or (860) 255-3849. RSVPs need to be received by March 31, 2008.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This information was sent out by the STC and is paraphrased here as an FYI.

Evelyn McCamey, Manager of Community Relations, has accepted a new position and her last day at the STC is Friday, February 22.

In light of Evelyn’s departure, the STC is taking the opportunity to reexamine the position of Manager of Community Relations, including the scope of the position and skill set needed to provide the highest level of services to the communities. The hope is to fill the reformulated position as quickly as possibl, by May at the latest.

While the search is underway for a new Community Relations staff member, the Board of Directors and the STC staff are eager to ensure that any concerns are resolved in a timely and effective way. The following STC leaders will be available to help communities:

Jackie Damrau, Chair, Leadership Community Resource (LCR), will be the main contact for chapters regarding services for chapters. If she can resolve the inquiry directly, she will do so. Otherwise, she will forward the request to the appropriate person at the Society office. Her email address jdamrau3 at airmail dot net, and her phone number is +1 972-464-3162 (M-F 8am-5pm CT) or +1 214-505-0100 (5-9pm CT).

Judith Herr, SIG Advocate, will be the main contact for the SIG leadership. If she can resolve the inquiry directly, she will. Otherwise, she too will forward the request to the appropriate person at the Society office. Her email address is herrj at comcast dot net, and her phone number is +1 925-443-4514.

Their goal is to respond to you within 24 hours during the business week, and by the following Monday if the request is made after noon on Friday or over the weekend.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact either of Susan Burton (see http://stc.org/about/staff01.asp for contact info.) or Cindy Currie (see http://stc.org/about/board01.asp for contact info.).

Mark your calendars — the chapter’s annual Professional Day is set for Saturday, April 5!

The event will be held at the University of Hartford in West Hartford. Speakers have been lined up for several slots, and more are in the works. We have a couple of sessions already scheduled on writing strategies, as well as a local recruiter. Ann Wiley of the Central New York (CNY) chapter will be our keynote speaker.

Watch this space for more details coming in February.

Post questions or discussions about attendance, et al., here!

We wanted to let you know that an electronic issue of Imprints, the chapter’s newsletter, rolled out last week.

Some folks discovered that Imprints was auto-routed to their spam/bulk/junk mail folder, which could be for any number of reasons. One easy fix is to make sure your mail client or Webmail tool recognizes the address that the newsletter came from. You can typically do this by adding the address to your address book. For now, the chapter newsletter and assorted announcements are coming from newsletter [at] stc-ct [dot] org. 

Also, Constant Contact’s tracking tools tell us that several copies bounced because of “non-existent address” notifications sent back by ISP servers. If you’re a chapter member and know that your e-mail address changed after Oct. 1, 2007, please drop an e-mail to newsletter [at] stc-ct [dot] org.

And, lastly, if you want the newsletter to go to a different e-mail address:

1. Go to the bottom of the newsletter, and look for the Update Email/Edit Profile link. This will open a new browser window.
2. Look for the line that says Your Email Address.
3. Click the Edit Email link. This will open a new page.
4. Enter your e-mail address in the New and Confirm fields.
5. Click Submit.

Join us on Wednesday, February 20 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to hear first-hand from Mary Sheahan how Honeywell has incorporated SharePoint into its operations.

Mary tells us…

In 2005, Honeywell Tech Pubs in Northford, Connecticut, started using Microsoft SharePoint to maintain a reference library of user documents and data sheets. In Honeywell speak, we’re using a SharePoint “teamroom” — what the rest of the world calls a WSS site. Our writers have since begun releasing PDFs directly to this teamroom. We are using the site for electronic document review and approval, and for signing out part numbers for our data sheets. Recently, we added a library of product labels for use by Purchasing & Manufacturing departments. We have a department-only section with internal “help topics” and are experimenting with a collaborative online SOP in a department-only section.

This site has almost eliminated requests for specific documents, the exception being that Tech Support sometimes needs obsolete product materials and we post items scanned from our cabinets. Webmasters use it to check that they have the most recent copy of their PDFs. Users can sign up for automated alerts to learn when a document changes. Purchasing no longer requests replacement files when changing vendors. Our off-site writers swear by it…although sometimes we all swear at it. We have found a lot of uses for the tool, and we’ve created workarounds for some of SharePoint’s limitations. We’re also looking ahead to Honeywell’s rollout of the next (current) SharePoint edition later in the year.

Our teamrooms are used by writers and reviewers in 4 U.S. states, translators in 3 countries, and readers on 5 continents.

There is a possibility of a factory tour. If you are interested, call Mary directly at 203-484-6350 before February 8.

NOTE: Due to after-hours building security, RSVPs are needed for this event. 

DIRECTIONS
Honeywell is located at 12 Clintonville Road (Route 22) in Northford, CT 06472.  

I-91 from Hartford

1. Take I-91 South to Exit 12, Washington Ave. Exit in North Haven.
2. Take a left onto Route 5 and follow it about a mile to the intersection of Route 5 and Route 22 (Church & funeral home on the left).
3. Take a left onto Route 22 East (Clintonville Road).
4. Travel through two more traffic lights and over a set of railroad tracks. At this point, the area is mostly residential.
5. Honeywell is about a mile further on the left-hand side of Clintonville Road, near the Northford Ice Pavillion.

I-91 from New Haven

1. Take I-91 North to Exit 11. 
2. At the exit ramp, take a right onto Route 22 (Clintonville Road).
3. Stay in the right-hand lane and continue straight through the first light onto Clintonville Road.
4. Travel through two more traffic lights and over a set of railroad tracks. At this point, the area is mostly residential.
5. Honeywell is about a mile further on the left-hand side of Clintonville Road, near the Northford Ice Pavillion.

The Merritt-Wilbur Cross Parkway (SR-15) from Fairfield County

1. Take SR-15 Northbound.
2. Take Exit 63 to the traffic light at the end of the ramp and go right onto Route 22.
3. Stay in the right-hand lane and continue straight through two traffic lights onto Clintonville Road.
4. Travel through two more traffic lights and over a set of railroad tracks. At this point, the area is mostly residential.
5. Honeywell is about a mile further on the left-hand side of Clintonville Road, near the Northford Ice Pavillion.

The Merrit-Wilbur Cross Parkway (SR-15) from Meriden

1. Take SR-15 Southbound.
2. Take Exit 63 to the traffic light at the end of the ramp and go left.
3. At the very next traffic light, go left onto Route 22.
4. Stay in the right-hand lane and continue straight through two traffic lights onto Clintonville Road.
5. Travel through two more traffic lights and over a set of railroad tracks. At this point, the area is mostly residential.
6. Honeywell is about a mile further on the left-hand side of Clintonville Road, near the Northford Ice Pavillion.

This year, Imprints — the chapter’s newsletter, is going online and will be delivered directly to members’ in-boxes.

To make sure you don’t miss an issue, please keep us abreast of any e-mail address changes by sending them to newsletter [at] stc-ct [dot] org. We’ll also be continuing to lean on e-mail (in addition to the chapter’s Web site and blog) to publicize chapter news and events, so it’s especially important that our contact list stays current.

E-mail address changes communicated to the newsletter editor will be shared with Rob Bernobich, our chapter’s database manager, so one simple e-mail will accomplish two tasks.

Thanks!

Just a quick final reminder about the all-day Flash - Level I class on January 12 at the New Horizons facility in Bloomfield. The course fee is $50 for STC members (no…that’s not a typo), and $120 for non-members. You’ll receive all the same learning materials you’d get if you took New Horizons’ regular class at its commercial rates — plus you get the right to retake the course for free whenever it is offered.

Class starts at 9 a.m., with one hour for lunch and a short break mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

Having taken the CSS class that Rob Bernobich arranged for us a year ago, and some Dreamweaver courses that my employer sent me to several years ago, I can tell you that the New Horizons instructors pack a lot into their courses and provide ample in-class exercises to practice what they teach.

If you’ve been wanting to learn, or get a better handle on, Flash, this is the learning opportunity you don’t want to pass up!

Contact Rob at robert@stc-ct.org with questions or to sign up.