The STC in Vancouver

- by Sheila Jones, STC Fellow and Past STC Canada West Coast President

The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world’s largest professional organization promoting the practice of technical and scientific communication.

In the mid-50s, a series of like-minded organizations merged to form the Society for Technical Communication—a society that has grown to more than 18,000 members worldwide.

Technical communication affects all aspects of business, industry, and government because it is focused on translating complex information into documents that can be readily understood. These documents usually target a particular group—people who buy products and use services, people who need to understand how a complicated process, operation, piece of equipment, or software works.

About our Members
Our members work in the high-tech industry, in utilities and resource-based companies, in government, finance, engineering, education, advertising, and public relations. We pursue careers as technical writers and editors, corporate and business writers, documentation consultants, managers, and information and public relations officers.

The STC is a resource we rely on to keep us up-to-date. We develop our professional skills by attending STC workshops, meetings, and conferences, and we look for new ideas in the Society’s journals and newsletters.

Benefiting our Clients
As technical communicators, we bring tangible, measurable benefits to clients and to projects we work on. Recent studies have shown the value added by getting the message right the first time. Firms:

produce better quality information, products, and services

increase internal efficiency

improve safety

reduce the risk of liability

increase net revenues

satisfy clients and customers

The main advantage that professional technical communicators bring to a project is a special outlook. We represent the customer’s or client’s point of view. By looking at a project from this perspective, we can ask the questions and search out the clarifying information that insiders take for granted. We bring our skills in interviewing, analysis, and clear writing to every assignment to get the message across simply and directly, with clarity and accuracy.

Building on our Strengths
Vancouver is a wonderful location for people in our industry. It offers varied opportunities in which to use our skills and enables us to have a positive impact on the way information is presented.

Our members have been active in charting new directions in technical communication. Individual members have helped to set up training programs at local colleges and universities and have designed and taught courses that will improve the skills of the next generation. Local technical writing companies have brought experts in our field to Vancouver to explore new directions that keep our work viable and to share insights with students.

We continue to work on the frontier of information design and development, putting Vancouver on the map with new initiatives and educating our members in the changing nature of our fit in the workplace. The STC gives us the opportunity to make our voices heard in this fast-changing environment.