Member Spotlight

Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC September/October 2003	Member Spotlight: Elaine Parrish

	by Becky Rude EBSTC President-Elect Elaine Parrish has been editing the Devil Mountain Views since 1998 when she first joined STC. She won the EBSTC Volunteer of the Year award in May 2003 for her dedication to the newsletter and her efforts to make it an award-winning publication. DMV has won four awards since Elaine has been copyeditor. This is her story! Elaine Parrish (center) with Ashwini Tharval (left) and Becky Rude (right) accepting her Member of the Year Award
	Job Elaine works as an Editorial Consultant for SBC where she has been employed for 24 years. She has several areas of responsibility: editing internal training materials for both web-based and paper-based training, maintaining standards and styles, and maintaining Information Mapping templates. Additionally, Elaine serves as the unofficial Word guru.
	Years Involved with STC Elaine is active in an international online discussion group called CE-L (copyediting list). She wanted to get involved with some type of professional organization, and several members of the list recommended that she check into STC. Elaine joined STC in 1998 and immediately started volunteer work copyediting the newsletter.
	How STC Has Benefited Me The magazines and other publications are very useful to Elaine. She states that she is always learning something new to help her professionally. She believes that STC is a great organization to belong to. For the past six years Elaine has lived in Modesto and commuted to San Ramon, which leaves little time for STC meetings. However, she and her husband will soon be moving to Livermore and Elaine is looking forward to attending chapter meetings.
	How I Became an Editor Editing was a natural fit for Elaine as she was an English major in college and when she found out about the field, she realized that it fit her personality. Elaine started out as a typist for SBC and her boss was an editor. Her boss mentored her and taught her the ins and outs of editing.
	I Love My Job Now this is something you don’t hear often—Elaine absolutely loves her job! She thinks her boss and her co-workers are wonderful and truly function as a team. The core group has been together about five years with the same leader. Their clients are also great people to work with and Elaine loves editing for them.
	Top Work Challenge As the office Word guru, people think that Elaine knows every single Word feature. However, as Elaine explains, Word is so complex with so many obscure features, that no single person can know everything about it. She can often solve her co-workers’ issues, but occasionally she cannot, which leaves her feeling frustrated. [Writer’s note: I asked if she’d heard about the Microsoft Knowledge Base, which she hadn’t, but was excited to use for some problems she couldn’t resolve. STC’s networking is a wonderful thing!]
	When I Grew Up I Wanted to Be An actress or an artist. Elaine finds this very amusing because as a child she dreamed of entering two creative fields, but now finds herself in an extremely analytical career.
	I Enjoy Reading Elaine is an avid reader. “Given a choice between TV and reading, I’ll always choose reading.” She reads many different types of books, but especially enjoys fiction, biographies, and autobiographies. On her must-read list is Liverpool Fantasy and the autobiography of Queen Noor of Jordan, Leap of Faith.
	Best Vacation Once a year for their anniversary, Elaine and her husband, Joe, head to Monterey. They get all dressed up and spend the evening at the elegant Sardine Factory restaurant. Elaine describes this event as a real treat where they go all out and pretend there are no financial constraints! She loves the abalone, which she says is very expensive (it is—I looked at the menu, $59.95).
	Free to Good Home Elaine’s daughter’s adopted stray cat, Avery, just had four adorable kittens. If you’re looking for a companion, contact Elaine.

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