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Student Volunteers: Do you have FONBQ?

By Melissa Ruryk

Forget FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)… if you’re a student, or a new member of the IDL SIG, you might have Fear Of Not Being Qualified. Not being qualified to volunteer, that is.

Hey, don’t worry about it! The SIG leadership wants to see more students and members stepping up and learning about the SIG and making our SIG the best community in STC. We understand you might not want to throw yourself into a body of water that might be way over your head. So here’s the perfect way to dip your toe in the volunteer pool…  before diving in:  

Short term tasks available now

  • What do you want to learn about?  How about thinking of 3 new webinar topics and sourcing presenters for us?
  • Which podcast or article did you find fascinating last month?  Will you track down the podcaster/author and ask if we can reprint the item?
  • Setting up an Instagram account for the SIG that’s aligned with our Facebook page.
  • Gather attendance records from SIG events (mostly webinars) during the year, for reporting on the Community Achievement Award (CAA) application.
  • Are you growing fonder of the spoken word rather than all this reading?  Can you make short informational videos on the IDL website about how to join, what the IDL does, job roles? Or any other ideas?
  • Capture social media activities (even easier, initiate them) to report on the CAA application.
  • Monitor our Slack channel (#instructional-design) and bring interesting discussions to the manager for review and action if needed.
  • Help the Membership manager with emailing welcome letters to new members.
  • Are you a student?  Buddy up with another new student member.
  • Edit an article that’s been submitted to our award-winning IDeaL newsletter for publication.
  • Submit your own article to IDeaL.
  • Help on the team that is planning a virtual members’ event at the upcoming Summit in June 2021.
  • Been a member for a while? Tell us what you get out of belonging in a short video or newsletter article.

New information will be added to the SIG website soon, detailing additional short-term, one-off tasks for which you can volunteer. These tasks won’t take more than 2 hours (including any training you’d need), and you can sign up for one task or more, as you like. We are especially looking for people who are comfortable with any of the various social media accounts the SIG uses. Your volunteer “task” might be to tweet about an upcoming webinar, or announce our newsletter has just been published.

See? Not hard, not onerous.

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Can you still renew your STC and IDL SIG membership for 2021? YES!

By Lori Meyer, STC IDL SIG membership manager

We’re well into 2021, and the STC membership renewal season is officially over…but the good news is that if you haven’t renewed your STC and IDL membership, you still can! Renewing is easy: Go to http://stc.org/membership, log in with your member ID and password, and select Renew Your STC Membership. Be sure to check off IDL as one of your communities, because the renewal system does not carry this information over to the following year. You can also change your membership type (for example, you can become a Gold member with additional benefits), and add other chapters and SIGs to your membership. 

Submit online the renewal form along with your payment, and STC will restore your active member status within about 48 hours. Then, you can continue to enjoy all of the benefits of STC membership. And that includes free access to our great program of webinars. That alone is a great return on your SIG dues!

Lots of good things are happening in our SIG this year, so take a few moments now to renew your membership. We look forward to having you as a member in 2021!

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2020 IDL SIG/CoP Demographic Survey Results

By Jamye Sagan

In December 2020, the IDL SIG/CoP conducted its biennial membership demographic survey. Approximately 8.2% of our membership base completed the survey – 35 out of 425 members. See 2020 Membership Survey for complete results. To view results for individual questions, click the link in the question heading.

Years of experience in instructional design
More than half of our survey respondents have been in the instructional design field for 10 or fewer years. About 25% have 6-10 years’ experience.

Level of education

Over 80% of our survey respondents have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, while about 14% have earned doctorates.

Employment status

According to the survey, over half of our members are permanent, full-time employees while about 20% are either consultants/contractors or self-employed.

Career Journey

About 57% of our survey respondents started out in different fields before discovering instructional design. A very small percentage of respondents — almost 3% — began their careers in instructional design. These results show that most members became involved in this field over time.

Job responsibilities

Over 85% of respondents perform technical writing as part of their job responsibilities, while over 60% perform technical editing. Almost half of respondents are actually involved with instructional design, training facilitation, and course development.

Company/client sectors served

Our members work in a wide variety of industries. Almost half of the respondents work in the computer software industry, followed by professional, scientific, and technical services and educational teaching.

ID deliverables produced

Our members produce a wide variety of deliverables, the most popular being online help, instructor-led training, virtual instructor-led training, and eLearning.

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Lori Meyer Receives Distinguished SIG Service Award

We are proud to announce that Lori Meyer has received the STC Distinguished SIG Service Award (DSSA). The DSSA, Distinguished Chapter Service Awards (DCSA), and Distinguished Community Service for Students Awards (DCSSA) are given annually by STC to members who have offered extensive service and exemplary commitment to their communities. Each community nominates one or more of its members for an award. The nominations are submitted to STC and evaluated, and nominee recommendations are presented to the STC board of directors for approval.

Lori is the ultimate volunteer.  In her breakout role for the IDL SIG, she volunteered as secretary. Et voilà! A few short years later, she stepped up as SIG co-manager. Whatever the role, she has endeared herself to us all through her charming ways, thoughtful leadership, and love of cats!

Lori is an innovator. She developed a Planning Guide that provides SIG Communities’ leadership with a strategy to meet yearly Community Achievement Award (CAA) requirements. Additionally, she created an internal award program for volunteers who may not meet all criteria for a DSSA (or who may already hold a DSSA), but deserve recognition for their volunteering spirit within the community.

Lori continues to support the SIG through her position as membership manager. And while Lori volunteers for many positions in chapters and SIGs throughout the STC community, we are glad she chose us.

Lori’s citation reads:

For your dedication to the Instructional Design and Learning SIG, your unfailing commitment to leadership, and for displaying compassion and wisdom, in calm and troubled circumstances.

Congratulations, Lori!

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Note from the Editor: Q4 2020

What a year. I’m staying up until midnight tonight just to make sure that 2020 doesn’t try to sneak back in!

But with all the lockdowns, turmoil and everything else that made 2020 the year it was, there were still some good things. I think that remote work is here to stay in one form or another. Online meetings are also going to be a fixture going forward, and that will make collaboration easier. We each know more about how much we can do when we have to.

I think every one of is stronger, knowing that we got through the worst that 2020 could throw at us.

This month, we say goodbye to Marcia Shannon as Manager of IDL COP. Jayme Sagan gives us her Treasurer’s Report. And we have a Resolution Roundup for the new year!

I hope you all have a safe, happy and prosperous 2021.

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