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| Feature Story continued ... | September/October 1998 |
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Conference '98 for the professional communicator Is to be held September 11-13, just across the English Channel in Cambridge, United Kingdom. This is the seventh annual conference of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC). This sister INTECOM organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. I strongly encourage Board members and STC members to participate in this conference as presenters or attendees! For details, send an email message to istc@istc.org.uk. International Day Is to be held September 16 in Paris. This will be a gathering of European STC members and the Board. Details will be forthcoming soon. STC Board Meeting Is to be held September 17-18 in Paris. This most important meeting will be the first full Board of Directors meeting outside North America. (In years past, a smaller-scale meeting of selected Board members was held in Israel.) Strategic Planning Session Is to be held September 19 in Paris. This session will map out STC's strategies for the next five years. We look forward to international participation in this session. Now, I would like to tell you about some of the other planks of our bridge. Here are some of the areas I plan to explore and hope to resolve, or start to resolve, this year: Review the need for the mail surcharge for non-North American members The Board has presented several ideas for eliminating this surcharge. Possibilities include distribution of Technical Communication on CD-ROM and the Intercom on the Internet (using password-protected access). We will study these ideas (and others, perhaps) over the summer, and have plans and recommendations by fall. |
Create an International Issues Committee Modeled after the highly successful Canadian Issues Committee, this committee's focus will be the exploration and resolution of issues from non-North American chapters. I am pleased to announce that Victoria Koster-Lenhardt of Vienna, Austria, has agreed to manage this important committee, which already has close to a dozen members. For more information, you can reach Vici at vkosterlenhardt@eur.ko.com. Move forward in opening STC competitions to all languages The only barrier in this arena is finding qualified judges who are both technical communicators and skilled in multiple languages. I believe that a qualified pool exists already, and that we simply need to identify and cultivate candidates. A possible methodology worth exploring is for the STC to partner with translation societies. I will have members of the Board explore these ideas and present possible solutions to both the full Board and to the Competitions Advisory Committee (CAC). Convert our documents and printed materials to A4 format Simple solutions, such as creation and implementation of a "unitemplate," which prints documentation in both letter and A4 formats exists for this area. I believe that we will be able to begin testing and implementing this plank by the fall. Ensure that all STC-produced documentation depicts measurements in both metric and imperial scales This is an easy fix. These planks certainly do not resolve all of the issues that face us in the global arena, but I think they truly represent a solid beginning and that continued STC growth will be assured by all of us working together! Let us celebrate our global technical communication family. We are the human face of Technical Information. All the best and and bonsoir, au revoir, Lance |
