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By Kathryn Poe
As the New Year begins, I see many folks making profound resolutions. For the record, I have never been a resolution kind of person. While I admire the fortitude of some people for making and keeping a promise each year, I know myself too well to try that route. How many times have we said we'd eat better, exercise, and slow down to enjoy life? Now, how often do these earnest plans wind up on the back burner while we get on with life in the real world? If you are one of the few and gifted who can reconfig your life for the better, more power to you. I'll be the one over here writing emails, on the phone, looking something up, and surrounded by empty Diet Dr. Pepper bottles strewn about every surface in sight.
Coming Soon to a Meeting Near You
In terms of what the New Year brings to the LSC, you have only to peruse the website or your personal calendar card to see the future. We'll kick off the New Year out in Las Colinas with the Annual Competition Awards banquet. This event is always worthwhile since you get to network with your peers and see the best of what we do. It seems as if many of us work in a vacuum on a daily basis. For this reason in particular, it helps to see the documentation and design that are working for others. I hope you will get by to see all the entries and briefly get your hands on the winners.
We resume dinner meetings in February with our Region 5 Director-Sponsor Linda Oestreich talking about Understanding Careers in Changing Times. I've had a peek at this one, and I think you'll find that Linda has you doing some real evaluation of yourself and your career. In March, please join us for the amazing Carol Barnum in Getting Started in Usability. I hope we'll see some of our friends from the UPA that evening as we come back to Addison for the rest of the program year. April brings local hero Bob Hurst and his team from everyone's favorite airline to cover From Writing Documents to Meeting User Information Needs. Bob and his folks have a process that is working at Southwest and I, for one, am looking forward to hearing the gory details. We'll wind up in May with single-sourcing guru Ann Rockley, just before the conference begins. Remember that this is also the night the new board is installed. I don't know if we can match the spectacle of last year's coronation, but you'll have to wait and see.
Big "D" in 03
The big show comes to town in May when the STC International Conference is held at the Wyndam Anatole in Dallas. I know several of you have talked about volunteering for the conference and shortly I will begin contacting folks to fill the many opportunities we will have in May. I also know the many LSC members have had sessions approved for the conference, so we will indeed be everywhere. I will ask you all ahead of time to be helpful to our out-of-town guests, and be patient with me as the details come together at last. If I look a bit glassy-eyed by mid-April, I can assure you that it won't be due to the company.
We have a great 2003 ahead and the board and I hope that you will enjoy and participate in all the fun to come.