From the STC site:
STC is the world’s largest and oldest professional association dedicated to the advancement of the field of technical communication. The Society’s members span the field of the technical communication profession and reach across every industry and continent. In fact, the Society has members in almost 50 countries and is continuing to grow rapidly outside of North America and Europe.
A sampling of P-N Designs projects for STC
Some popular articles
Your Voice Matters – an article about ways to evaluate STC candidates and the importance of voting. Feel free to copy and reprint as needed!
What if I Don’t Want to Write Software Manuals? – an article from Career Woman magazine about non-software types of technical communication
Awards and Honors
I’ve received several awards from the Society for Technical Communcations, including:
- Fellow, 2005
- Distinguished Chapter Service Award, Southern Arizona chapter, 2003/2004
- Associate Fellow, 2003
- Phoenix Chapter Technical Publications Competition – Award of Distinction for “RoboHelp for the Web” (with John Hedtke) 2002/2003
- Distinguished SIG Service Award – for participation in the Management Special Interest Group 2002
- Kachina Chapter Technical Publications Competition – Award of Merit for “RightFax COM Reference Guide” 2001/2002
- International Newsletter Competition – Award of Merit for “Management”, the newsletter of the Management SIG 2001
Volunteer Leadership
I’ve been volunteering with STC for many years, starting with a seven-year stint as newsletter editor for the Management Special Interest Group starting back in 1995. In addition to Management SIG duties, I have also worked at the Society level in a variety of roles, including a couple of years on the Board of Directors, six years on Annual Conference/Summit program committees, and two years on the Society Member Communications team.
One of my more interesting projects was managing the “Leadership Tips Message”, a monthly email available to all STC leaders. Purposely kept short-and-sweet, the LTM contains links to STC and non-STC resources on topics such as recruiting and retaining members, working with volunteer committes, transition planning, and others. This publication is no longer active, but old issues should still be available on the STC site for members. Whether you’re a member of STC or not, if you’re interested in leadership issues for volunteer organizations, check out some of the Volunteer Management resources.
I’m also a Past President of the Southern Arizona Chapter, which was awarded the Chapter of Distinction Award in 2002 AND 2005! This is only given to one chapter in each size category, so we are all very proud. In addition, our newsletter, “The Border Line”, won an Award of Merit. As a community leaders, we’re always trying to develop programs that our members find interesting, fun, and informative. One program that our chapter found particularly successful was entitled “A Night at the Round Table: Contracting and Consulting” . Here’s some program guidelines for what we did and how other communities could do something similar. If it’s helpful, maybe I’ll add more program descriptions later! The STC Southern Arizona chapter officially folded as of May, 2010, but some of us still gather irregularly at non-meetings to catch up and chat about all things tech-comm. Send an email to bphuettner@p-ndesigns.com if you want to find out when the next meeting is.
Special Interest Groups
STC’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are composed of STC members with common experiences and interests who share their skills and knowledge with each other and with other STC members. Here are the ones that I currently belong to (and participate in):
Want to find out more about STC? Visit the STC home page.