Renew your STC & IDL membership today!

To sign up for membership go to https://www.stc.org/membership/. And when you sign up, be sure to add or choose the IDL SIG.

Note: Some membership categories require that you select the IDL SIG and pay an extra fee. Since we are a Community of Practice, we use the extra dollars to provide you with many benefits, such as free webinars, newsletters, a website, surveys, and special news.

December 31 is the last day for members to receive Early Advantage pricing for Summit.

 

Why is an STC membership so valuable? by Marcia Shannon

Continue reading “Renew your STC & IDL membership today!”

IDL SIG Opportunities

  • Q3 Newsletter submissions due September 17.
    It’s not too late to submit an article for the Q3 newsletter, publish date, September 30. Contact newsletter@stcidlsig.org for inquiries.
  • The IDL SIG is planning for more great webinars this year, our annual, Virtual Open House, and a workshop. If you have ideas or would like to present, please contact Viqui Dill at programs@stcidlsig.org.
  • For volunteer opportunities, please contact Anita Matechuk at volunteers@stcidlsig.org.
  • Starting September 1, you can join or renew your 2023 STC membership. Be sure to select the IDL SIG when renewing.

It’s not too late to renew your STC membership for 2020!

By Lori Meyer, IDL SIG membership manager

It’s 2020 — Can you still renew your STC membership? Yes! 

Now that 2020 is one quarter completed, you might be wondering if it’s too late to renew your STC membership for this year. The answer is no, it is definitely not too late! Although 2019 memberships have expired, you can still renew your membership and continue to benefit from all of the programs and services that make STC an excellent partner in your tech comm career development. Those include:

  • Member discounts for educational programs, including courses, webinars, and the STC Annual Conference, Summit — the gathering place for all technical communicators to learn from the best and the brightest in our profession. The 2020 Conference will take place virtually this year, due to COVID-19.
  • Free subscription to Intercom, the STC monthly publication, which offers informative articles about the topics of interest to today’s technical communicators.
  • Access to the Technical Communication Salary Survey, from which you can gain valuable knowledge about compensation in our profession.
  • The opportunity to become industry-certified through the Certified Professional Technical Communicator program.
  • The opportunity to build your network of professional colleagues through involvement in STC chapters and special interest groups.
  • The opportunity to have your work recognized through regional technical publications competitions.

You can renew your STC membership online quickly and easily. Once you have completed the online renewal form and submitted your membership dues payment, your membership will be reactivated.

To renew your membership

  1. Go to org and log in with your member ID and password. Your STC membership number is your user name.
  2. Click Join or Renew Now.
  3. Read through the Membership Levels and Benefits section, then click the Renew Your STC Membership Today
  4. Click the Renew Today link at the bottom of the page.
  5. Complete the renewal form. If your contact information (home/work address, email, or phone number) has changed, make the necessary updates. Make sure that your email address is current and correct, so you can receive acknowledgement of your renewal and other information about your membership.
  6. Choose the communities to include in your membership. Each chapter costs $25.00; each SIG costs $10.00.

Please note: 

  • If you are currently unaffiliated (do not belong to any chapters or SIGs), you can add communities now.
  • If you are already a member of one or more chapters and SIGs, you must choose them again, because the renewal system does not automatically carry over community memberships from the previous year. If you are currently a member of the IDL SIG, be sure to check IDL SIG on the renewal form! And if you’re not a SIG member, we would love to have you as one!
  • If you are an STC Gold member, one chapter membership is free, and all SIG memberships are free. The system will remove the charges for these memberships at the end of the renewal process. However, you must still select a chapter and the SIGs you want included in your memberships, so you will be added to the membership database for those communities.
  1. Select or bypass any other options as you prefer.
  2. Enter your credit card information when prompted, and submit the renewal form. STC will send an acknowledgement email. Keep this email for your records.

We look forward to having you as a member of STC and our SIG!


If you have any questions or concerns about your membership, please feel free to contact me at membership@stcidlsig.org. I will be happy to answer any questions you have, or guide you to resources you need.

Thank you for being a member of the IDL SIG!


Lori Meyer
Lori Meyer

Lori Meyer, an STC Fellow, has more than 20 years of experience as a technical writer, editor, and help developer. She began her technical communication career in Rochester, NY, and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area in 1998. Lori has been active in STC since the early 1990s, starting with the Rochester Chapter, where she created the chapter’s first Web site.

Since then, she has held in many volunteer positions, including employment manager, secretary, conference co-chair, membership manager, director-at-large, and SIG co-manager. She has delivered leadership presentations at the STC Summit international conference and via webinar.

On the community level, over the years Lori has served as a director at large for the Carolina Chapter, secretary and president of the Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter, membership manager of the Rochester, East Bay, and San Diego Chapters, and president of the East Bay Chapter. Lori stays involved with these communities, and also volunteers for the Technical Editing and Consulting and Independent Contracting SIGs.

Seventh Annual Virtual Open House

In November, the IDL SIG will host our seventh annual Virtual Open House.

As a virtual community with members spread out around the world, it can be challenging for us to cultivate a sense of community. The Virtual Open House enables current (and future) IDL SIG members to learn more about our community and the services we offer by attending the live event, or by viewing archived events via the student database. In addition, attendees get to meet members of the SIG leadership team and chat with fellow members.

Even if you cannot attend live, you can still join the party once we release the recording.

Jamye Sagan hosts our Sixth Annual IDL SIG Virtual Open House

Watch the Virtual Open House here

On December 7, 2018, SIG members and STC members gathered online for our sixth annual Virtual Open House. Jamye Sagan, longtime SIG leader and enthusiastic volunteer, opened the program which began at 7:30 pm Eastern time. Sagan chaired the meeting and welcomed attendees, inviting everyone to feel at ease and join the conversation.

Lori Meyer,  IDL SIG co-manager, presented the mission and goals of our group and stressed that members are welcome to join the group to build their skills, stretch their knowledge, ask questions, and try things out.

Sagan then introduced the team leaders one by one, highlighting the value that each area brings to members. Viqui Dill talked about the webinar series that showcases experts in our field and stressed that SIG members can attend or watch the recordings for free as a benefit of membership. Meyer presented again, this time about her role as co-manager and her passion for recognizing volunteers through our new SIG awards program. Next, Marcia Shannon discussed her role as assistant co-manager and her upcoming role as co-manager beginning in 2019, and the empowerment offered to volunteers to learn, grow, and stretch. Sagan then presented about the role of secretary and introduced our new volunteer, Madison Estabrook. Sagan followed that with her discussion of her current roles, generously wearing the hats of treasurer, social media manager, and surveys lead. Dill presented the role of membership manager and thanked Sara Buchanan for her many years of faithful service. Kelly Smith introduced herself and the newsletter, IDeaL: Design for Learning, inviting attendees to submit articles to be published online.  Shannon and Sagan gave an update about the Student Outreach Program chaired by Sylvia Miller, which offers the opportunity for students to be published before they graduate. Meyer presented the role of content curator and thanked Mellissa Ruryk for filling that need in . Sagan gave an update about the website maintained by Maralee Sautter, the training evaluations program, and some of our other SIG programs, the discussion list maintained by Dr. Elizabeth Bailey, and the STC mentoring program championed by Scott McCoy.

Sagan then summarized the benefits of membership, including the opportunity to meet face to face at the STC Summit and attend the educational sessions specific to IDL. Meyer summarized the benefits of volunteering and invited attendees and members to take the next step and support the SIG. Sagan explained how to join the SIG and invited attendees to sign up, then presented contact information including links to our social media outlets.

Congratulations to Paula Robertson, Angelina Nachimuthu, Kelly Smith, and Marcia Shannon  who won the Amazon gift cards at the end of the meeting. An informal discussion about IDL and the cats we love wrapped up the meeting, offering us another opportunity to connect online.

Many thanks to attendees and presenters, especially to Jamye Sagan for bringing us the Sixth Annual IDL SIG Virtual Open House.