May Program Meeting: Agile Documentation and Chapter Awards

by Karen Rempel

Being Agile With Documentation

May’s program, with Susan Patch describing Agile development, encouraged us to get involved early and often in the product development process. This might be a stretch for writers who prefer to be working alone, writing from specifications. It requires a new skill set (white boards, digital cameras, and post-it notes are the new tools of the trade!), and a new way of writing documentation, with a very short turnaround time and less concern about putting documentation through a lengthy production process. But the end result is intended to help users, both by making the product easier to use, and by providing smaller documentation pieces that describe the task at hand.

Towards our aim of serving members as a virtual chapter, Susan’s presentation was recorded for remote members and for those who could not attend the program on that particular evening. You can listen to Susan’s presentation and follow along with the slides she used.

We would appreciate your feedback in the forum about how viewing the program this way works for you! Please comment in our discussion forums. http://www.stcwestcoast.ca/index.php/forums/viewthread/87/

Awards Night

The May program was also Academy Awards night for the chapter, with awards going to the full gamut of chapter members, from the newest to the most senior:

• Rahel Bailie was honoured for achieving the distinction of STC Fellow; our chapter’s other Fellow and co-founder, Sheila Jones, welcomed Rahel into this elite echelon with an entertaining talk about Rahel’s accomplishments and contributions to the chapter and the profession.
• Heather Sommerville won the award for Volunteer of the Year, for her dual role as programs team lead and volunteer coordinator.
• Two Print Futures graduates shared the prize for the Julia Broderick Scholarship. One student, Amanda Lee, who received honourable mention, was at the program meeting to graciously accept the award in memory of Julia. The other student, Crystal Auffray, showed great enthusiasm for technology and technical writing and currently works in Victoria.
• The chapter won the STC Pacesetter award for our use of technology to enhance all functions of the chapter.
• Karen Rempel received a beautiful gift in appreciation for her contributions as chapter president 2008-2009. The presenter was Eagranie Yuh, incoming chapter president 2009-2010.

Congratulations to all award winners, and to the entire volunteer team, whose combined work contributed to winning the Pacesetter award.

Be sure to check out the Photo Gallery of the May meeting: http://www.stcwestcoast.ca/index.php/gallery/category/C6/

Thanks to the programs team for this terrific wrap-up to our program year, especially James Lee, who was in charge of the May meeting, and to Liessi Haussler of Cyberscribe Solutions for providing the yummy refreshments.