Membership Spotlight:
Ann Adams

By Melody Brumis

The East Bay STC Chapter is known as the friendly chapter. What does that mean? It means you get to meet new people and network with them at every chapter event. It also means we're all interested in one another, both professionally and personally.

In this column you'll get to know more about one of our members in each issue of the DMV.

This month I had the opportunity to get to know Ann Adams more during an email interview.

Ann Adams

How did you get into technical communication? How long have you been in it?

In 1983, I took a two week assignment to modify the billing system for a tech pubs group. They were publishing translated material for the first time and wanted to track products by language. Things just kind of grew from that and I'm still finding things to do.

What kind of work do you do? Enjoy doing?

A job is most attractive to me if I have the opportunity to increase productivity by streamlining and improving processes. Computers are machines, so they should do the boring stuff and leave the interesting parts for the humans.

In my current position, I do some writing, editing, planning for DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture, XML-based design principles for creating "information-typed" modules organized by topic) authoring and implementing a content management system - Manages "chunks" of information. Many do this through XML and most now support DITA authoring.)

What would you be doing if not technical communication?

Running a bed and breakfast in the North Bay.

What brought you to STC? To the East Bay Chapter?

Reflecting my pattern of backing into things, I first published an article in the Journal of the STC and spoke at a local conference. Then I realized I should join
officially.

I moved to the East Bay from Los Angeles to work for Frank Kelly at Kyocera Technology Development in Concord. I applied for the job through the "career center" of stc.org. My dues were definitely an excellent investment that year.

As a new member, what have you learned about our chapter?

Your reputation for friendliness is well-deserved.

What STC experience do you have? Volunteer work?

I was a member of the Los Angeles chapter for about a year. I volunteered to be membership chair, but then I moved to northern California almost immediately. So my volunteering there was over before it started. Prior to that I was a member of the Rochester, New York chapter for several years. I was membership chair there and one of the organizers of an XML workshop.

I always enjoyed judging the writing competition. My background is in service manuals, so I got the hefty box of thousand page books on how to repair forklifts, medical devices and, since it was Rochester, big printers. The most interesting part was getting together with the other judges and hearing their opinions. Each individual judge looks at the material from a different perspective, so the authors get very balanced feedback. Submitting your documents is a valuable exercise, even if you don't win a prize.

I guess I should mention that I am m a senior STC member, although I'm getting to be a "senior" everything these days.

I inherited the hospitality job from Gwaltney. It's very easy, thanks to her extreme organizational skills. I'm the keeper of the nametags, the meeting signs, the raffle tickets, and the prizes. Chief responsibilities are greeting people, running the raffle and making sure everyone returns their nametag at the end of the meeting.

What is the biggest challenge for technical communicators?

Keeping current with the latest tools and technologies and staying informed of changes within our particular industry while not forgetting our main goal of helping our readers get the information they need.

What do you do in your spare time?

Right now, shop for cheap furnishings for my apartment. As a fairly recent transplant to California I am finding lots of new places to explore.

What is your favorite book?

Life and Death in Shanghai by Nian Cheng. Her account of her imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution and life in China after her release is harrowing and fascinating.

What is the last book you read?

The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman, one of the funnymen (funnypersons?) with ties to "The Daily Show."

What is your favorite movie?

Midnight Run, with Auntie Mame a close second.

CD?

Neil Young, Heart of Gold. A survivor who is still creating after all these years.

What is your favorite Web site?

My umpteen RSS feeds on my.yahoo.com. Aggregators like my.yahoo.com let you add as many of these as you like. They are a very good way to view little snippets of the latest developments in a subject that you are following. If a headline catches your eye, you can click on it to see the entire article in more detail on the original site.

(Editor's note: An RSS feed, Really Simple Syndication feed, is an XML feed of the information on a particular Web site. With an RSS reader, you can monitor the changing headlines on multiple Web sites.)

What was your best vacation?

My family and my sister's family spent a week together on Cape Cod many years ago.

What is one thing that not too may people know about you?

If I had had the slightest inkling that any rock band would ever occasionally include a cello, I would never have given up those lessons.

If you'd like to be featured here, please e-mail me at mbrumis@aol.com and I'll arrange to conduct an email interview with you.