LSC Notes and Committee Reports
In this section, you'll find the following committee reports by scrolling down:
- Competitions Committee
- Member Recognition
- Mentor Program Committee
- Scholarship Committee
- Web Committee
LSC Competitions are on the Mooove!
by Kathryn Poe, Competitions Manager
By now
you may have seen the Competitions Cow in your mailer and on the Web
site.
The LSC Competition theme for this year is our bovine friend asking, Can You Make the Cut? This design, borrowed from our friends in Phoenix, is not just an excuse for cheesy puns but a reminder that the point of our competition is to find the “best of the best” in Technical Communications and reward that effort.
Once again, we are offering the categories of Online Communication, Technical Art, and Technical Publications. Entries in all categories must contain sufficient technical, scientific, medical, or similar content to qualify as technical communication. Entries must have been produced or substantially revised within 24 months preceding September 1, 2007.
Awards. In terms of awards, three levels of recognition are awarded in each competition category. These awards, in descending order, are:
- Distinguished Technical Communication (DTC)
- Excellence
- Merit
One Best of Show award is presented for each competition. Winners of the DTC and Best of Show award in each category qualify for automatic submission to STC's international competition.
Everything Old is New Again. The only real change to LSC competitions this year is behind the scenes. Instead of trading our entries with another community, we decided to return to the “old ways” if you will. We will keep our entries. We will assemble a blue-ribbon panel of STC Fellows, Associate Fellows, and senior members from our own community to judge your entries.
I hope that using our most experienced, honored folks will dispel any worries about conflicts of interest or ethical conduct. There are a few ground rules:
- A judge may not evaluate any entry from a current or prior employer (whether permanent or contract).
- A judge may not evaluate any entry from a competitor company.
- A judge may not evaluate entries in categories in which the judge’s company has submitted an entry.
Deadlines, Forms, and Fun. The deadline is October 10, 2007 for the STC Lone Star community competition.
Make checks payable to LSC STC Competitions in the amount of:
- $75 per entry for professionals
- $25 per entry for students
You must pay the appropriate fee for each submission that you enter into the competition regardless of category or competition. Visit the LSC Competitions page at www.stc-dfw.org to find the forms and more info about the LSC Competitions.
Send your entries and forms to:
Kathryn Poe
c/o Corprasoft, Inc.
7557 Rambler Rd.,
Ste 1000
Dallas, TX 75231
Member Recognition
by Mel
Haughton, LSC immediate past president
Nominate a Bright LSC Star for the BALA!
Do you know an LSC member who displays enthusiasm, seeks difficult challenges, inspires others, and enhances the reputation of LSC? Then get ready to nominate this person for the Binion Amerson Leadership Award (BALA).
The BALA recognizes LSC members who provide great leadership and service to the LSC. Any member in good standing with the LSC may nominate another member.
Nominate someone today!
November 14 is the application deadline. We will announce the winner at the Awards Banquet on January 10.
Questions?
- Visit http://stc-dfw.org/pages/awards_Amerson.htm for more information.
- E-mail volunteers@stc-dfw.org .
Are you a Superstar?
Do
you like making a difference and stepping up to help? Do you need a
few more samples for your portfolio? Do you want to work on your networking
skills? How about get your head around a new piece of software?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then dive in and start volunteering today. You’ll be on your way to becoming a Superstar!
You automatically receive points each time you participate in LSC activities. Points are based upon the activity and its point values and are listed in the table below.
LSC Activity |
Points |
Attend a monthly meeting |
1 |
Attend a council meeting |
1 |
Volunteer at an event |
2 |
Contribute to a community service effort |
1 |
Judge competitions |
3 |
Contribute an article to newsletter |
1 |
Bring a guest to meeting |
1 |
Be a mentor |
5 |
Present at an STC event (Local, regional, or international) |
2 |
Speak to a student group about Technical Communication and STC |
2 |
Convince a guest to join |
5 |
Our Volunteer Wrangler will keep score from August 1, 2007 to June 1, 2008. Collect a total of 20 points to become an LSC Superstar. All Superstars will be recognized at the September 2008 meeting.
So, start volunteering today and become a Superstar and become part of the Superstar team. Winners receive a unique LSC Superstar shirt. The only way to get this shirt is to get involved and earn those points.
Send an e-mail to volunteers@stc-dfw.org to learn more about volunteer opportunities.
Mentor Program
by Ann Balaban, Associate Fellow
and Manager, Mentoring Committee
Do You Need a Mentor?
Early in their careers, technical communicators in corporate environments often find that technical writing is perhaps the easiest and quickest of the many tasks they perform.
Probably the most difficult, time-consuming chore they face is locating the information needed to perform the writing task. First, the writer needs to find the person with the required knowledge and then find the right way to interact successfully with this individual while navigating within corporate cultures and politics.
How do new technical communicators find the best mentors to help them solve these problems? One way is to take advantage of the Mentoring program from the STC Lone Star community. As a new technical communicator or as a student in technical communication, you have valuable resources available to you through STC.
Research literature shows that mentors provide vocational and psychosocial support to protégés. One researcher found a link between these functions and the career mobility of protégés. Research also shows that technical communicators have relatively high job satisfaction, but that their corporate mobility and career development is relatively low. Mentors can help technical communicators become aware of additional avenues for career advancement because they often know what is required for other positions and how to prepare for assuming them.
Having a mentor can improve your skills in organizational communication and management, as well as increase your overall productivity and job satisfaction.
Attend an information session on September 6 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. before the monthly meeting if you are interested in learning more about the benefits of having a mentor. Ask for the Mentoring program session location when you check in at the Registration desk. See you there!
Resources:
- Henrietta N. Shirk and Howard T. Smith, “Developing Effective Mentorships for Technical Communicators,” STC 1994 Annual Conference Proceedings.
- Gordon, Thomas, Leadership Effectiveness Training, Wyden, New York, 1974.
Why Mentoring Matters
STC is always looking for new leaders. One way to locate and retain our next generation of leaders is by mentoring.
Mentoring can help STC develop new leaders while enhancing your career development and improving your technical knowledge. Besides all these great benefits, it really improves your self-esteem! The mentor’s growth occurs right along with the protégé’s.
The purpose for mentoring is to encourage growth of a less experienced person in their profession and within STC. Your experiences learning about and working with others qualifies you to be a mentor. If you had a mentor when you were starting out, imagine what a difference it would have made—if only I knew then what I know now! This is your chance to share your experiences, your enthusiasm for your work, and your interests with someone just starting out in technical communication.
In a mentoring relationship, the mentor and protégé:
- Identify objectives, goals, and development needs
- Define and establish a plan to accomplish goals
- Meet regularly in person, by phone, or through e-mail to review and evaluate progress
Mentoring is all-inclusive—no one is excluded who wants to participate. You do not have to be a student to be a protégé. Whether you are new to technical communication—just starting out or making a career change—or you have been a technical communicator for awhile and need guidance to jump-start your career, you can be a part of the mentoring program. Success is based on what you want to do. A mentor can suggest methods for advancement, recommend books and other resources, and offer résumé assistance and career guidance. As a protégé, you have requirements to fulfill, too. You should ask questions, listen and be open to suggestions, and keep the lines of communication open.
The STC Lone Star community is continually looking for mentors and people who need mentors. This is a wonderful program that benefits all involved.
Join an information session on September 6 from 5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. before the monthly meeting if you are interested in learning more about the benefits of having a mentor. Ask for the Mentoring program session location when you check in at the Registration desk. See you there!
Resources:
- About.com: www.about.com
- The Mentoring Leadership & Resource Network: www.mentors.com
- The Resources Agency Mentor Program
- Catheryn Mason and Elizabeth Bailey, “Benefits and Pitfalls of Mentoring,” STC 2005 Annual Conference Proceedings.
Scholarship Committee
by Robert
Carr Harris, Manager,
Scholarship committee
Are you a technical communication student or professional interested
in some financial help to get you into that extra course or workshop?
A Society for Technical Communication, Lone Star community scholarship
could be the help you're looking for! The Scholarship committee has
set the Fall 2007 deadline for our Traditional Education Scholarship
and Continuing Education Scholarship.
October 26 is
the scholarship application deadline.
The Lone Star community’s Traditional Education Scholarship is for students who are pursuing a degree in technical communication. Our relatively new Continuing Education Scholarship helps both students and professionals who are interested in furthering their professional development by enrolling in technical communication courses or workshops. Both of these scholarships have provided technical communication students and professionals great opportunities to advance in their field.
Visit www.stc-dfw.org/schol_main.htm to find out more about requirements for scholarships.
The Scholarship committee strives this year to continue our tradition of honoring excellence and promoting the success and education of technical communicators. We need your help to make this one of our most successful years. We welcome your donations, your volunteer participation, or whatever you can provide to help raise money for this year’s scholarships.
end e-mail to scholarship@stc-dfw.org to become a part of what we expect to be a fantastic scholarship year. You make it possible for us to offer these scholarships. Not only do members like you receive these scholarships, but you also help us provide these awards. It is through your contributions that we can help our Lone Star community members.
Web Team Committee Report
by Alan Oak, LSC Webmaster
In the last issue of Technically Write, I alluded to great schemes in the making for the Lone Star community Web site. Things are moving along quite nicely.
Our immediate past president, Mel Haughton, has made an arrangement with the University of North Texas technical writing professors to have students compete in a contest to design new graphics and information architecture for the Web site using all the latest doodads in the Joomla! content management system (CMS). We’ll have blogs, wikis, RSS feeds—the works!
During this project, you can help by participating in ongoing planning discussions on the Help Desk in the “Admin Topics” section. The Lone Star community is a community of experts, and if one of you has the missing key to a glorious outcome, the Web committee needs to hear it.
Don’t hesitate to e-mail me if you have comments or find any errors or omissions on the Lone Star community’s Web site.