Can you believe that the poised and productive leadership of Eagranie Yuh as our STC chapter President has come to an end? I scarcely can, and I have been understudying Eagranie’s inspiring work the entire year. But the July 1 milestone is long past—that date on which the Vice President becomes President and a new VP steps into the line-up. So Eagranie, though still on the executive, now holds the more advisory role of Past President.
Who’s the new President? I am an independent contractor with clients in Web content management and marketing communication. I belong to STC because I have found there is always more to learn about crafting good communication, by which I mean writing and editing aided by tests of user response. Usability has been my focus since my early days as an editor in non-fiction publishing. It was the foundation of my second career—instructional design for distance education—and has remained a touchstone in my subsequent work in social marketing and corporate communications.

The Chapter Executive 2010-2011
STC Canada West Coast has been fortunate to keep our trusted incumbent, Tracey Martinsen, in the role of Secretary and to have Helen Glavina continue as its competent Treasurer. Further good news for the chapter is that a long-time member, Oliver Sterczyk, has agreed to serve as Vice President.

In key committee roles we’ll benefit from the continued service of Heather Sommerville as Volunteer Co-ordinator and Lois Patterson as Programs head, along with Tony Chung as Coast Lines editor. Happily there has been renewed commitment also from photographer Marika Piehler, SIG leader Ben Hechter and education liaison Rob Hughes. Good sense and good humour always abound when these directors and other leaders meet, with Pam Drucker often adding a further measure of creative and sound thinking.

Volunteer power
I hope I’ve painted our seasoned executive team as the fun and stimulating group it is—maybe as a group you belong with. Our meetings are open to members. Whether you’d like to meet us in person or get involved some other way, we’re always looking for more volunteers. A message to volunteer@stcwestcoast.ca will elicit an answer. Guaranteed!

This Year’s Theme: More Value for Members
What benefits does your STC membership bring you? Do you see that value as coming mostly from the activities of your chapter? Could your chapter, or the international organization as a whole, do more to earn your fee? Whatever your answers to those questions, none of us is likely to turn down an offer of more for our membership dollar. STC has been looking hard at how to give more value through its communities—meaning both its chapters and its Special Interest Groups. Greater efficiency is one way. For example, the new zero-based budgeting model means that part of the membership fee does not automatically go to the member’s chapter whether or not it has activities to fund. Consequently, there is no idle money—it’s always doing work! But there are also economies of scale: members of our chapter have suggested, for example, that STC should be able to negotiate a member discount on the software commonly bought by independent contractors in our field.

Last year, the STC Board named a task force to recommend improvements in the funding and support available to STC communities. Tracey Martinsen and I, the sole Canadian participants in the biweekly-or-so teleconferences, were both impressed by the group’s commitment and intelligence as, from February to April, our ideas, controversies and laughter made the circuits buzz from Bangalore to Bangor, Maine.  Our short list of recommendations stimulated a lot of discussion and praise at the 2010 Summit in Dallas.

Although the task force delivered its work before the Summit, many participants agreed to continue their involvement so that there would be conscientious follow-through on the wishes that our community members had expressed through us. Keeping “hands on” is possible many ways, including (for me) being an active member of the Canadian presidents’ group who look out for the particular interests of STC members in this country. I intend to hold myself accountable to the other Canadian presidents and to you for action on those excellent recommendations. As well, our chapter has looked into health and dental plans for self-employed technical writers and is spearheading negotiations for a nationwide rate on behalf of all the Canadian chapters. In return, our chapter is set to benefit from efforts by the other Canadian chapters to establish an annual Canadian salary survey.
Momentum from 2008-2009
I also see us working with the momentum that the executive team gained last year with its strategies for building community. The chapter—especially the documentation competition committee—reached out energetically to employers and gathered a lot of information about the job context for our members. We furthered STC’s reputation for collaboration. We offered events of interest to other professional groups, but we also gave support to their plans, knowing that everyone gains when we pool efforts rather than competing for audience.

As Eagranie mentioned in her last message, the chapter has sought ways of giving its own members the best possible access to program events; last year, for example, we did a successful trial of the webinar format. This year’s officers and volunteers are committed to building on all this work and strengthening connections with employers, related professions, and our own members.

So where’d the President go?
I have travel plans for September and October, so I’m grateful that Eagranie will chair our meeting on September 21—and sorry that I’ll miss a presentation from our highly recommended speaker. But there’s an executive meeting and another excellent speaker to look forward to in November. I hope to see you in the fall.

Best professional regards,

Catherine Kerr

As there have been so many questions as to the history and the process, the STC Carolina Chapter is hosting Steven Jong, Chair of the STC Certification Committee, in a presentation and webinar on August 19, 2010 from 6:00pm - 8pm EDT.

For more details and to register for this webinar, visit the STC Carolina Aug 19, 2010 Invitation

Portfolio-based certification

At the 2010 Technical Communication Summit in Dallas, the decision to proceed with portfolio-based certification was announced to triumphant applause. Finally, after about 20-odd years of discussion, a decision had finally been reached.
 
The interest for STC to develop a technical communication certification program predates my involvement in the field. The six core competency areas suggested in the initial plan are a little removed from my own work experience. However, they sound like tasks performed by the typical technical writer.

At the very least, the topics are competency areas that line up with job description provided in the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook.

• User analysis
• Document design
• Project management
• Authoring (content creation)
• Delivery
• Quality assurance

From a technical writer’s point of view, it struck me that the Commercial Drive organizers knew the success of car-free day was dependent on a careful process of selection. Stretching north to Venables, the eight block party was a creole blend of colour, aromas, energy, sights, and sounds celebrating the ethnic and eclectic diversity of the community.

The contrasts were whimsical—from elegant coif to dreadlock, African drum beat to brass band, earth tones to neon, spandex to Gore-Tex, Birkenstocks to stilettos, healing garden to community health outreach, grilled kebabs to veggie dogs, fine art to dismantled car, local design to chain store, skateboard to street soccer, sustainable to inorganic, recycled to new, and dancing to wiling away hours at streetside cafes. And in the midst of World Cup fever, Brazilians were ubiquitous in their yellow jerseys—either real or body painted onto their torsos.

It also struck me that as tech writers, we often find ourselves immobilized in front of computers for hours, if not days, at a time. While the process of work is subjective for each individual, it appears easy for some of us to miss engaging with our community as we struggle to meet deadlines or agonize in front of a computer screen. Can we really not afford an hour or so on the weekend for some fun?

I personally found the influx of energy on car-free day intoxicating and inspiring. And I am grateful I took time out to smell the incense.

As we become more eco-minded and in tune with sustainability, might events such as these infuse the tech writer with newfound understanding of trends or terms that can be applied to their writing? Or perhaps a new direction in tech writing itself?

The substitution suited my own purposes very well. I was happy with Plan A, having seen success with website content that speaks precisely to well defined user personas—but that same experience made me curious about Agile development, Plan B. I wondered what kind of challenges an Agile team would present to today’s senior managers. And what about their direct reports? Are there sophisticated new ways, I wondered, of harnessing self-managed teams?

Panel teamwork

For Plan B, the chapter owes a debt of gratitude to panelist Susan Patch, whose ordered thoughts about Agile teamwork had been up her sleeve for some time, and also to Lois Patterson for stick-handling the program substitution and for moderating the session.

Susan was joined on the panel by David L. Drucker http://www.drucker.ca/. Whereas Susan is on staff at Galdos Systems, Inc., David is an independent contractor specializing in user interface architecture. David’s blog, loudmurmurs.com, introduces him as a musician-turned-technologist who is interested in certain outcomes from devices and software—not how they can make money but “how they can make people more powerful, creative or connected to others.”

Panelists Tony Chung, David Drucker, Susan Patch, Lois Patterson

Providing a third perspective on the merits of incremental development was Tony Chung “Tony Chung http://tonychung.ca, often viewed in our chapter as the CMS master who always looks under the hood. Tony’s site confirms his interest in systems—he doesn’t just produce and present content through various media but develops systems for this purpose.

After introductions and voicing their answers to Lois Patterson’s first question, the panel went into fishbowl format. Later on, Pam, Helen, Gabriel and Eagranie all took their places in the fishbowl—mostly by inadvertence, but with good grace.

Lois lost no time with easy questions, challenging panelists first to tangle with the central issue raised by Agile techniques:

“How do you reconcile flux in interaction design with flux in code at the same time?”

Susan, who has always done software documentation as part of an engineering team, addressed the value of positioning technical writers in an interpretive or middleman role. Interaction design is always in flux, said Susan, whatever the teamwork style: problems come up, and in Susan’s view Agile teamwork is well named for its ability to apply specialized skills to problems as they arise. Take the example of engineers finding they can’t build what designers envision. Have the interface designers grasped what engineers can do and what they want and need? Fingers could be pointed in both directions, putting the sprint off track. Contributing a third perspective, a writer can help the team define the obstacle impartially and surmount it together.

David responded with a contrast to the Agile process, namely establishing a metaphor that gives the final product life and shape in its developers’ minds so that they don’t become too immersed in process. David also spoke of the overall concept as a point of rest for the software, in itself a strong image that suggests the opposite of obsessive tweaking. Confirming the benefit of a broad schema, another participant pointed out that without one, designers may have to sit through many sprints wondering, “Where can I fit this new feature in?”

And yet there are payoffs for building and documenting something that is “,good enough,” production-line style, even if it is a simple project like one of Tony Chung’s early websites. The client told Tony to construct the site as if he were building a summer cabin: the result of Tony’s work would not be worthwhile unless it was ready when the users needed it, but it wouldn’t be perfect, either. “Some walls may have to come down.”

Gabriel Gosselin, Eagranie Yuh, Helen Glavinas, Pam Drucker

Waterfall versus Agile

There was general consensus that the “waterfall” method of development is better in theory than practice. Competitive pressure compresses the available time from conception to market, and that pressure is ever greater. There will never be enough time to define all the features and attributes of a project in advance, detailing the subordinate steps, and then do the work in strict order with the technical writer bringing up the rear.

User feedback can spring surprises, too. There’s slippage between what users really want and what they state they want when asked in advance. In any development process, code has to be thrown out. Sometimes that is because the developer has a different definition from the user’s for a field that is pivotal to the design product. (When a fridge user wants her food made cooler, does she turn the control up or down? An engineer’s logic may not yield the right answer.)

Tools and supervision

Susan made the case for sprints that incorporate user feedback, especially supported by mock-up tools. These, in Susan’s opinion, are now advanced enough to mediate good communication with users. Susan cited Balsamiq in terms that had audience members scribbling on their napkins. Conversely, that old standby, Visio, got a reasoned endorsement from Tony Chung, who saves drawing time by programming connections in advance to create a pull-down list.

Whatever their tools, it is axiomatic that in Agile teams, the different specialists must collaborate. How much supervision does that take? Maybe none. Susan described the merits of a self-organizing model for teams, though she admitted that the idea is a hard sell to any but the most sophisticated managers and owners. On that point, there was general assent.

“Does the Agile process increase the number of bugs?”

Pam Drucker weighed in on the next question—“Does the Agile process increase the number of bugs?” In Pam’s view, working in sprints with user input won’t necessarily help speed up the remedial cycle. Pam’s experience is that if there’s a bug, the engineers can tell you before the users will. Many glitches are preventable if team members don’t specialize too narrowly but instead show interest in each other’s work; for example, if UI designers are aware of languages engineers are using.

The next entrant to the fishbowl, Gabriel Gosselin, contributed the perspective of a project manager working in the cauldron of electronic game design. Originally a technical programmer, Gabriel appreciates that game development requires “paring down the parts.” There’s also a great need for intermediation, something writers can do. On one of his teams, for example, the artist had great vision and a superior command of Flash but, without guidance, could not give engineers something to work with. As a debugging programmer, says Gabriel, he didn’t stop at patchwork correction. His instinct was to trace problems back to source—if X doesn’t make sense, then something is wrong with the structure of Y files. Like Susan, he now sees his function as “integrator,” smoothing communication between designers and engineers. “Territory is always an issue—our job versus my job.”

Collaborative reflexes

The excitement and huge gratification of polished teamwork under deadline pressure was captured in Susan’s story about a weekend of tag-team labour before a shipping date. Problems fell like dominoes, as she described it. One reason, seemingly, was that pride no longer prevented any group member from signaling when he or she was stuck. Another was that, over a year’s time, the team had developed collaborative reflexes, becoming ready to drop everything and huddle around the one with the show-stopper problem.

But teams always take time to jell. Do company dynamics give teams the necessary time in constant meetings to master Agile technique? How many managers are even willing to see meetings as an investment rather than an expense?

The biggest challenge in Agile development, panelists suggested, is writing the business case for the approach. Due diligence would seem to require a business case, but the measurements behind the business case for Agile teamwork fall outside accounting traditions. Can you quantify the results of early meetings? They are probably too intangible. Can you trace results to synergies between individuals? Those synergies probably change from meeting to meeting. Can you project if the team’s problem-solving ability will accelerate, and if so, by how much?

To foretell how an Agile project will go, specialists have to achieve a degree of mutual trust that usually comes only after intensive teamwork. If trust is a precondition of teamwork, but only team experience forges the needed level of trust, how can a company foster an Agile team? I was left thinking that the emergence of Agile teams must resemble how Web teams got their start as skunk works in companies with a rigid IT culture. Indeed, someone described the impetus for Agile team formation more as grassroots rebellion than business case management. In that respect, there is continuity from the earliest of Web geeks to the nimblest new Agile team.

Programs and professional development

• Darren Barefoot, discussing social media faux pas and how to avoid them.
• Doug Burns, offering advice on how to find that elusive work-life balance.
• Karen Rempel, leading us in office yoga for stress reduction.
• Rahel Bailie, sharing her expertise on content strategy.
• Ben Hechter, educating us on project scheduling.
• Susan Patch, Tony Chung, David Drucker and Lois Patterson in an impromptu panel discussion about agile methodology.

We also held two professional development sessions:

• Takuro Ishikawa led a very effective session about conflict resolution.
• Rahel Bailie taught technical communicators how to use social media for an online brand.

Technology

After two years of planning, research and discussions, we held our first remote program this year. Rahel Bailie’s content strategy session was held via Genesys webinar, and nearly 40 people participated from all over the province, plus a few folks from Alberta. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a while, and it’s wonderful to have such great attendance. We’ll definitely look at holding more webinars in future. Many thanks to Bruce Sharpe and Lois Patterson for helping put this together, and to Rahel Bailie for being our webinar guinea pig.

We’re also hooked up with social media outlets. The chapter is on Twitter and Facebook. We also have a LinkedIn group for members; just search for “STC Canada West Coast.”

State of the Society

There has been a lot going on behind the scenes this year. To quickly recap, our local chapter is affiliated with STC International Office (IO) in the United States. With the economic downfall in 2008, STC IO found itself in some financial trouble. The past year has been one of audits, budget and conference calls to stabilize the Society and continue to provide value to members. STC IO requested funding from the chapters to stabilize its finances, and STC CWC donated $5000 in good faith and to ensure the viability of STC IO.

Rest assured that the local chapter is not in any trouble. We have a comfortable cushion in the bank account and will continue to provide quality programming and support for our members. While we’re affiliated with STC IO, we’re a registered non-profit in British Columbia, and are subject to provincial—not American—laws. STC IO has, for the most part, stabilized its finances and is now looking at strategic planning moving forward. A significant part of this strategic planning will be based on the recommendations of the STC Task Force: a group of chapter leaders from all over the world who discussed issues ranging from chapter relations, logistics, finances and education. Our chapter participated on this task force, and I am very grateful to Catherine Kerr and Tracey Martinsen for donating their time and energy to this project.

As unfortunate a situation as this has been, it has resulted in some opportunities for the chapter. As a result of the STC Task Force, we have a better understanding of how STC IO works. And I have been speaking with the presidents of the other Canadian STC chapters—which is, to my knowledge, the first time that a Canadian discussion has occurred. These discussions have been very fruitful, and I feel like it’s the beginning of a Canadian perspective of technical communication.

Membership

With the tumult of this year, coupled with a raise in membership fees, membership in the Society has taken a hit. In Vancouver, especially, there were a series of large-scale layoffs right before STC memberships were due for renewal. While we have seen a drop in membership (from approximately 225 to 130), this is also an opportunity for us to really look at how we bring value to our members and to make that membership worth your while. We continue to make all program meetings free for STC CWC members, and offer reduced rates on our professional development sessions.

This year, we offered a grant for one member to attend the STC Summit. We’re also investigating options for health insurance or medical plans for contractors. If you have any suggestions for other things we can do to bring value to your membership, please let us know.

Odds and ends

We’ve continued to see great attendance at the monthly Contractors Special Interest Group (SIG) meetings, handily led by Ben Hechter. Though the group is on hiatus for the summer, they’ll be kicking off again in September. While the group used to meet at St. Augustine’s on Commercial Drive, they’re looking for a new meeting spot. If you can think of something easily accessible by transit from all directions (suburbs and downtown), let Ben know.

We also saw the revival of the documentation competition, led by Pam Drucker and Liessi Haussler. Find out more about the winners. Thanks also to Liessi Haussler of Cyberscribe Solutions, who provided food and beverage for our fall meetings, and continues to provide a meeting room for our volunteer meetings.

Thank you

This chapter is an entirely volunteer-run organization. A heartfelt thank you goes out to everyone who has donated time and effort to the chapter this year. Every little bit counts. We’re always looking for new volunteers, so if you’d like to get involved, please contact Heather Sommerville, our volunteer coordinator. Also check out this Coastlines article about STC CWC volunteer appreciation.

It has been a real honour to serve the chapter as your president. Was it a challenging year? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. When I started as president, the Society was in danger of collapsing—and now, a year later, things have stabilized and we’re looking at next steps. Stepping into this role, I worried that I wouldn’t be up to task. But the thing with daunting challenges is that they force you to face those worries and exceed your own expectations. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunities that I had this year, to meet the people that I did, and to have led this chapter through a very difficult time. I couldn’t have done it without the support of the volunteers, especially Catherine Kerr, Helen Glavina, Tracey Martinsen, Heather Sommerville, Pam Drucker, Lois Patterson and Karen Rempel.

Most important, I certainly couldn’t have done it without the trust of the members. Thank you.

So now, I pass the torch to Catherine Kerr, who has been an invaluable support through this difficult year. Her wisdom and expertise is immense, and I can’t wait to see the great things that she’ll do.

So long, and thanks for the fish!

Best wishes,

Eagranie Yuh
STC CWC President 2009-2010

Liessi, as president of Cyberscribe Solutions, has been a great support to the chapter, officially sponsoring the food and beverage for the September 2009 and November 2009 meetings, and providing a boardroom for our volunteer meetings.

She wrote this letter that was read out at the May program meeting as part of the volunteer appreciation. It’s such a touching letter that it needs to be shared.

Thank you, Liessi, for your kind words and continued support.

~Eagranie Yuh | STC CWC immediate past-president

I apologize that I am unable to be here in person to accept on behalf of the 14 volunteers and interns who participated in the efforts associated with this year’s tech pubs competition so, with thanks to Eagranie for making it possible, I’m taking advantage of the technology that catapulted our industry into its present state.

Last summer, Cyberscribe turned into an outbound call centre, hosting wave after wave of volunteers to write phone scripts, survey questions, gather contacts and get the word out about the competition. Although last summer’s project resulted in fewer submissions than what we had hoped for, I believe the unseen outcomes were the ones entirely worth the effort. As some of you may already know, our team reached out through direct calls, emails, news releases and a mini website to roughly 800 companies across BC, some of whom had technical writers who were learning of STC for the first time and many who had no idea that the materials they were producing were even considered technical publications. There were also several companies who were—unbelievable though it may seem to us—hearing of the concept of technical writing for the first time.

I believe that the best, though least expected, benefit to arise out of this first-ever approach was the idea that STC could (and should) be promoting our industry to business at large, as well as the services of STC and the Canada West Coast chapter in particular, to isolated technical writers, many of whom are unaware that the work they are doing for their organizations is important enough to be considered a career, let alone an industry unto itself.

The folks who participated in our project literally came from around the world: Mexico, France, Colombia, Korea and one even came from as far away as Coquitlam. Armida from Chihuahua, Mexico was blown away to discover that she had been a technical writer for years without knowing it. Gabriel, former HR director for the Paris police, was excited about returning to France with a brand new job description, vowing every organization he worked in from here on would have a technical writer. Crystal, who left her full-time job to intern with us as the campaign coordinator, went on to immediate success as the public relations manager for the Vancouver International Dance Festival, earning them front page spreads in several leading entertainment publications – for the first time ever in the festival’s 10-year history. Although she is working tonight (and is now with VIDF full-time), her heart is fairly bursting with gratitude at the doors of opportunity that opened for her because of our chapter. Along with the graphic artists, web designers, survey writers, data collectors and very nervous cold-callers who made up our team, all of these people will go on to speak with enthusiasm about STC, about our chapter, and about the importance of technical writing in the world at large.

So, more than just saying thank you for the chapter’s recognition of our efforts, on behalf of everyone involved, it is we who would like to thank the chapter for allowing us to move ahead with our idea and open up so many minds to the value we bring, collectively, as technical communicators and that, moving forward, there will be even more opportunities to recapture and build on the enthusiasm and momentum we felt this past year.

To ALL the chapter volunteers, and especially to our executive for having the courage to lead with vision and embrace fresh, bold ideas, thanks for turning this chapter into the thriving community it has become. We’re thrilled to be part of you.

Cordially,

Annelies (Liessi) Häussler
President, Cyberscribe Solutions

We do our best to thank our volunteers throughout the year, including a formal mention at the May meeting. Last weekend, we also had the volunteer luncheon, which is a chance for incoming and outgoing volunteers to get to know each other and to celebrate another year gone by. These aren’t nearly enough to make up for the countless hours that most volunteers put in, but it’s our way of saying thank you.

Volunteer of the Year Award

We also recognize those volunteers who contribute above and beyond what’s expected, and give them the lofty title of Volunteer of the Year.

The Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the chapter throughout the year. The chapter wishes to honour exemplary volunteers whose generous contributions of time, energy and ideas demonstrate sustained commitment, enhance the chapter’s service to its members and inspire other to help the chapter thrive.

This year, we were fortunate enough to have TWO recipients of the Volunteer of the Year Award.

• Takuro Ishikawa joined us to be part of the programs team. He went on to lead—and single-handedly organize—a professional development session on conflict resolution, and take on a leadership role with a chapter communications project.
• Tracey Martinsen was already our wiki and forum gardener, but futhered her role as she came on as secretary. Aside from taking immaculate minutes, she also led the chapter efforts to get our financial and legal ducks in a row, and joined the STC Task Force to discuss high-level Society and chapter relations.

Join us!

We’re always looking for new volunteers, so if you’d like to get involved, please get in touch with our volunteer coordinator, Heather Sommerville. Whether you’d like to take on a few discrete tasks, join a team or spearhead a project, we’ll find something for you to do. It’s a great way to connect with people in the field, develop your skills and make new friends.

STC CWC Volunteers

Many thanks to everyone who has volunteered this year. We couldn’t have done it without you.

• Ariel Vergara
• Ben Hechter
• Bruce Sharpe
• Catherine Kerr
• Christine Grimard
• Crystal Kwon
• Dawn Stewart
• Degan Beley
• Eagranie Yuh
• Florence Vandermeer
• Greg Watson
• Heather Sommerville
• Helen Glavina
• James Lee
• Jeff Rabinovitch
• Jim McCullough
• Julian Worker
• Karen Cooper
• Karen Rempel
• Kari Hass
• Laura Misko
• Liessi Haussler
• Lisha Li
• Lois Patterson
• Marian Buechert
• Marika Piehler
• Mary Metzger
• Mike Parviainen
• Pam Drucker
• Rahel Bailie
• Rob Hughes
• Sharon Twiss
• Susan Patch
• Takuro Ishikawa
• Tamara Bailey
• Tony Chung
• Tony Yip
• Tracey Martinsen

The 2010 Summit offered more than 90 education sessions, with subjects touching on every area of technical communication. Over 80 of the sessions in the program have been captured and will be available starting this summer for those who did not attend in person.

STC’s SUMMIT@aClick offers these conference sessions as MP3 files, audio synched to PowerPoint, or video synched to Powerpoint. The purchase of SUMMIT@aClick also allows access to speaker materials where available.

Pre-purchase the 2010 edition of SUMMIT@aClick at the special preliminary rate of $149 for members or $299 for nonmembers. This discount rate is only available until 1 June 2010. After that date, the price will rise to $249 for members and $499 for nonmembers.

See http://www.stc.org/edu/special-advance-offer.asp (external link) for more information.

Thanks to @AndreaJWenger and the STC Carolina Communiqué Newsletter