Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
March/April 2004

Alison Reynolds: Candidate for Region 8 Director-Sponsor

by Alison Reynolds
New Zealand Chapter

Greetings to all of you from “down under,” home of Lord of the Rings. I am honored to stand for election as Director-Sponsor for Region 8. This is an exciting time for STC with plenty of new directions and challenges for all of us. Let me tell you what I can offer if I am elected.

My greatest claim to fame is my experience building virtual and real communities of technical communicators and information designers from all around the world. In recognition of this experience, I have recently been asked to be a member of the STC Board Communities Support Committee, which is part of STC’s transformation initiative to design a roadmap for a better, stronger STC.

My community experience has grown from my association with STC and from my role as the director of the world’s first international online Graduate Diploma of Information Design program (formerly Technical Communication) beamed live from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology here in New Zealand. We have a talented student group from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the U.S., India, and Europe. Our staff and advisory board also span the globe and we have a virtual STC student chapter of over 100 students. I arrange and supervise work placements nationally and internationally and I have worked steadily to raise the profile of technical communication among employers and in organizations.

In my role as an academic, I am a frontline leader in the development of technical communication and information design as a profession and as a research-based discipline. I have a master’s degree in business management and a graduate diploma of business administration in communication management from Massey University (New Zealand). My thesis was a comparative study of technical communication and information design trends in New Zealand and North America.

As a sought-after international speaker, I have presented papers at STC’s 45th, 49th, and 50th Annual Conferences; at the 2002 Region 7 Conference; and at the 1998 Region 8 Conference. I taught in China and India as part of an STC initiative to promote technical communication in developing countries, was a guest visitor at a San Francisco Chapter meeting in 1998, and attended STC’s 43rd Annual Conference in Seattle.

In 2003 I tripled the New Zealand chapter membership with the creation of virtual student membership. I also established the first New Zealand STC student scholarship and arranged seminars by international STC speakers such Carol Barnum, JoAnn Hackos, and Raymond Urgo.

I believe my experience, innovativeness, and skills to represent the international face of the region will ensure its continued growth, strength, and diversity.

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