President's Message

by Ann Adams

EBSTC president

Greetings, fellow East Bay members. And a happy 2009 to you.

Recently, Richard Mateosian — Berkeley chapter President, nominating committee member for East Bay, Touchstone competition organizer and general all-around volunteer stalwart — wrote on the STC president's discussion list that Berkeley has adopted "recession pricing."

Richard's remark got me to thinking: what is our chapter's recession strategy? Well, it's the same as yours.

• Joe Welinske of WritersUA delivered a great presentation at our December meeting on "Trends, Tools, and Technologies in Software User Assistance". The intrepid DJ Cline drove up from his Silicon Valley haunts and, of course, brought his camera and his reporting skills with him. See his pictures and his account of the meeting on his blog at http://www.djcline.com/index.php?s=Joe+Welinske.
  
  
• In March, Liz Fraley of Single-Sourcing Solutions will talk about "Repurposing Content for Multichannel Publishing." You can get an advance peek at Liz's talk on her blog at http://www.single-sourcing.com/blog/ .
  

2. Constantly Sharpen
Your Writing Skills  

• In November, Susan Ledford offered a lively discussion of "Concision and Clarity: Decreasing Word Count and Increasing Readability". She is one of the instructors for a variety of writing classes offered by Editcetera in Berkeley.

3. Keep That Resume
Fresh and Up-to-date  

• At our January meeting, Lynette Phillips, Director of Resource Management at TechProse, told us what makes her take a second look at a candidate's resume.
  
  
• Joy Montgomery of Structural Integrity is available before every meeting, willing to take that all-important outsider's look at your current resume and offer suggestions for improvement.
  

4. Network, Network, Network  

• Depending on whose numbers you believe, anywhere from 30-50% of jobs are filled through personal contacts and are never posted. A chance conversation, contact or lead at an event can unexpectedly result in finding that next job.
  
  Yesterday, my colleague and I were talking about various technical meetings in the area this month. He pointed out that February is the two-year anniversary of our meeting at an internationalization group talk. He impressed me so much with his enthusiasm and his interest in learning about our business that I went back to work the next day and told my boss that I had found our next team member.
  
  Soon after, we had an opening and we gained a technical leader, DITA tools guru, Japanese speaker and translator and all-around great employee. We both agreed that would never have happened if we had not had that first conversation.
  
  
• I have been an STC member of the Rochester, Los Angeles and, now, East Bay chapters. The location is unimportant. Every STC meeting that I have ever attended has been a beehive of job leads, advice, insight, mentoring and support.
  
  
• I have a friend who started his new job the day after his severance ran out. That job came via a college acquaintance at a New Year's Eve party. He said that his alternative plan for New Years had been to "lie on the couch and feel sorry for myself." So, stay off that couch and come out to the meetings and see what we have to offer. You never know where it will lead.

5. Volunteer

We are blessed with a wonderful group of volunteers, many of whom labor year after year to keep the STC spirit alive in the East Bay.

• May McCoon and the members of her College/Career Connection team have been hard at work planning their next moves to interest the upcoming generation in our profession. Contact information is on the EBSTC home page. We will soon post a webpage for the College/Career Connection.
  
  

• Looking a little further to the future, T.R. Girill continues his work with high school students to improve literacy. Details are at http://ebstc.org/TechLit/TL_Front.html.
  
  
• Jeanie Egbert does a great job of managing the meeting details with the very helpful staff of the Crow Canyon Country Club. CCCC provides a central location handy to the freeway, easy parking, good food and flexibility in meeting rooms that makes them our continued choice as a reliable venue. Jeanie also keeps you informed of upcoming meetings via our mailing list. Please contact any of the leadership if you are not on her list.
  
  
• Gina Gotsill is new to our chapter and she has jumped in with both feet. Not only is she this year's Secretary, she has been responsible for two recent meeting programs and has also provided some great goodies courtesy of TechProse. (Love that handy tape measure!)
  
  
• Joe Humbert is our Treasurer (again/still), Webmaster, membership chair, assistant newsletter editor, and all-around rock. He really makes the chapter work. He and Alliene Turner, our newsletter editor, have the unenviable job of getting me to write this letter on time. In spite of their best efforts, alas, they have not been successful, so any delay in this month's newsletter is directly attributable to me.
  
  
• We are in great need of a program chair for this year. This is a good excuse to approach someone who is doing cutting-edge work, get acquainted and ask him to speak at one of our meetings. I have held the job for the last two years and have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know a variety of interesting people.
  
  The duties involve asking people if they would be free to make a presentation on the meeting nights, working with them to define a topic, coordinating the write-up for the meeting and - very important - remembering to bring the projector. If you would be willing to take on this very important function, please contact me directly at ahadams10@yahoo.com and I can fill you in on more details.

Final Words  

• Don't forget to renew your membership. We currently have 97 members. We hope to retain everyone and maybe even grow. We know that pocketbooks are squeezed this year, but please don't fail to make the investment in yourself. To join or renew, do so at http://www.stc.org/membership/join01.asp .

• If you have any articles that you would like to contribute to our next newsletter, contact our managing editor, Alliene Turner (hairston.turner@gmail.com). Deadline is February 2, 2009.

• The Yahoo! Groups discussion board is available to our members. This is a forum for you to share your ideas and concerns. To sign up, click the East Bay STC Network link in the upper right corner on the home page of the website.
  
  
• We are always looking for volunteers. Check out the openings by clicking on the Volunteers link in the left sidebar of the website's home page.

This month's AARP Magazine has a great quote from Franklin Roosevelt: "We now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well."

Together we can all get through this. See you next time.

Ann