Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
May/June 2004

Editor’s Message

by Gwaltney Mountford
STC Associate Fellow, DMV Guest Managing Editor

Well, I’m back. I had so-o-o much fun as guest managing editor two issues ago, that I came back for a second term, so to say. This time we have a planned theme: value added. The spark for the theme came from Dara Golden’s article, Marketing Your Non-Writing Skills. In this time of off-shoring and downsizing, we need to assert our value, to ourselves and to our employers or clients. It is sometimes hard to articulate the value we add to our organizations. Dara’s article may give you some ideas.

One of the ways some of us add value is by providing project management services, even though we are not project managers. Often the project management is for document development projects, but some of us also provide writing services to project management teams. Richard Mateosian’s book review, Managing Development, focuses on a few books on project management and requirements gathering. He even reviews one of the books that was the source of the Helping Make Projects Work—Common-Sense Practices article in the March/April issue of DMV.

Another slant on value-added is the ways that STC can add value to your professional growth. Susan Harlan points out a few of these ways in her President’s Message: Adding Value to STC Membership. This issue also contains a report from the Transformation Project looking into the value that chapters and SIGs provide to their members. One of the activities of the Transformation Project is to realign STC’s relationship to these communities in order to meet the needs of members in this age of virtual teams and Internet communication.

In An Outreach Theme with Five Variations, T. R. Girill explains how he has been adding value to the lives of developmentally disabled students (and others) through the outreach program. Value-added was a key feature in Dr. Clark Quinn’s February presentation to the chapter, so ably recapped in Becky Rude’s Meeting Report. And finally, Elaine Parrish jumps in with copyediting techniques that add value to our documents by improving their professionalism in her article Quick and Dirty Copyediting.

As the preparation for this issue was wrapping up, I received April’s Intercom. There on the cover was the title of their feature article—you guessed it, Broaden Your Horizons: Enhance Your Image and Value. So after perusing Devil Mountain Views, pick up the Intercom for more on this timely topic.

Once again, I would like to thank the very professional team at DMV: Associate Editor Hasmig Vasgerdsian, Copyeditor Elaine Parrish, and Web Designer and DMV mentor extraordinaire Becky Rude. (Angelina Nachimuthu is taking a break from the newsletter to have a baby. Everyone on the newsletter team joins me in sending her our best wishes.) It is largely due to the wonderful experience I had with them last time that I agreed to take on this issue.

This is the last issue until fall. Between now and then, you have two other opportunities for adding value to your professional development: the annual conference in Baltimore May 9th through the 12^th, and the Region 8 conference in July. See Society News for details on both.

Until the fall, then, we wish you a splendid summer and hope that this issue helps you on your way to adding value to your professional life.

Gwaltney Mountford
Guest Managing Editor

DMV Home | EBSTC | STC | Contact Us

Marketing Your Non-Writing Skills | An Outreach Theme with Five Variations
STC Transformation Project | Member Spotlight | Quick and Dirty Copyediting