December 7: Sixth Annual IDL SIG Virtual Open House

Announcement: Your IDL Leadership Team needs to reschedule this meeting for December 7.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience.

Virtual Open House Time!!!

As a virtual community, with all of our members scattered across the globe, we do not have the same opportunities as geographically-based communities to meet up face-to-face. Since 2013, we have hosted the IDL SIG Virtual Open House (VOH) so that new and prospective IDL SIG members could learn more about our community’s mission and goals, learn more about member benefits, and meet some of our leaders and volunteers.

During our VOH, participants have always had the opportunity to ask questions about the SIG and what we offer.

Virtual Party, too!

We’d like to combine our VOH with a virtual party (VP), where we would encourage all attendees to turn on their web cameras, share a photo or story. The VP (not be confused with Vice President!) we hope will add a very human, personal side to our VOH. Hey, it is all about making real, enduring connections!

About the webinar

The webinar will be recorded so feel free to watch with us online and then rewatch at your leisure. No need to take notes. If you cannot attend, sign up anyway so that you will get a link to the recording.

See the 2017 VOH recording on YouTube.

See the 2016 VOH recording on YouTube.

See the 2015 VOH recording on YouTube.

See the 2014 VOH recording on Adobe Connect.

We had a blast at #STC18!

Co-manager’s post by Viqui Dill, Senior member

We had a blast at #STC18! Here are photos of our trip and a video of our very first Facebook Live experience.

Were you at the annual business meeting? Did you notice that our sign had a typo? Please see this post with links to our slides, brochures, and feedback survey.

At the Summit, we were delighted to welcome our newest superstar volunteer, Kelly Smith, as our newsletter editor. Smith is a rising star in STC and a contributing writer to the Intercom, STC Southern Michigan blog, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter and check out her review of the Summit. Many thanks to departing editor, Crista Mohammed. Read the citation in her DSSA award from 2017 for more about her contributions.

We tweeted out a special message to our leaders who couldn’t make it this year. We missed you Lori Meyer, Marcia Shannon, Maralee Sauter, Sylvia Miller, Sara Buchanon, and Preeti Mather. Join us next year in Denver.

We also had some fun together outside of the educational sessions. We even went belly dancing!

We would love to share more photos. Do you have photos to share? Send them to manager@stcidlsig.org and we’ll add them to the gallery.

Facebook live of IDL SIG Business Meeting 2018

Oct 18, 2018 Can You Hear Me Now? Podcasting as a Teaching Tool webinar with Jennifer Goode

Rescheduled


Rescheduled due to Hurricane Michael!

Join us for the Can You Hear Me Now? Podcasting as a Teaching Tool webinar with Jennifer Goode.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, October 18, 2018

About the webinar

Podcasting is one of the fastest growing areas of content production today. How can technical communication instructors capitalize on this rapidly expanding technology? This session will demonstrate how students can develop technical skills, increase content knowledge and understanding, and refine communication skills as they create podcasts for their course projects. It will also introduce the tools and technology necessary to set up your own course podcasting project. Finally, the session will share instructor and student reflections from a recent course that used podcasts as a major course project.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Jennifer Goode

Jennifer E. Goode, Ph.D., is an instructor in the Department of Technical Communication at Mercer University in Macon, GA. She is the founder and director of Mercer’s Distance and Online Teaching (DOT) Lab, a collaborative initiative to support faculty development needs in the area of online teaching and instructional design. Dr. Goode has previously served in corporate, government, and higher education organizations in the areas of computer-based training, online course administration, and content management.

Dr. Goode earned her Ph.D. and M.Ed. in Human Resource Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her B.S. in Technical Communication from Mercer University.

Nov 14, 2018 Saying, “Yes, and…?” to Leadership Opportunities webinar with Ben Woelk


Join us for the Saying, “Yes, and…?” to Leadership Opportunities webinar with Ben Woelk.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

About the webinar

What If?

“Yes, and…?” is the hallmark of improv comedy. It’s also key to our growth as leaders. What if we said, “Yes, and…?” when approached about taking a leadership role in an organization?

For many of us, our first reaction to leadership requests are, “No, because…,” or perhaps, “There’s no way I can do that!” We live in an increasingly fast-paced culture with many opportunities on which to spend our time. Many of us can be quite guarded when considering external commitments. Sometimes being guarded is warranted because of our current level of obligations; sometimes we just have an automatic “No” response. We know what saying “no” provides us: security, peacefulness, free time, and a comfort zone.

Let’s look at what saying, “Yes, and…?” has done for me and what it may do for you.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Ben Woelk

BEN WOELK (ben.woelk@gmail.com), CISSP, CPTC, is Vice President of STC. A frequent conference presenter, Ben has received numerous Society and local awards, including the 2017 STC President’s Award. Ben’s 20+ years techcomm experience includes management, SW and HW documentation, ISO 9001 documentation, instructor-led and web-based training, end user communications, and policies and procedures. Find Ben on his website, Benwoelk.com, or on Twitter as @benwoelk.

Register on Eventbrite.

December 6, 2018 Teaching Technical Writing to Engineers: What Works? webinar with Noel Atzmiller


Join us for the “Teaching Technical Writing to Engineers: What Works?” webinar with Noel Atzmiller.

10:30 am Pacific / 11:30 am Mountain / 12:30 pm Central / 1:30 pm Eastern

Thursday, December 6, 2018

About the webinar

This session is intended for technical communicators who have been tasked with providing technical writing training to engineers (and other highly educated, technical individuals). Attendees receive information about 10 lessons learned that they can use when developing and leading their training sessions.

We will be recording the webinar, so feel free to enjoy the presentation knowing that you can see the recording at a later date.

Intended Audience

The content will be introductory (e.g., > “101 level”) and will also be valuable to practitioner level attendees.

About the Speaker: Noel Atzmiller

Noel Atzmiller began his 34-year career in technical communications in the petrochemical engineering and construction industry. During his career he has produced many documents for other industries including natural gas transmission, I.T. and oil/gas. Noel has authored several articles that have been published in corporate and oil/gas trade publications. In 2010, he was awarded the Best of Show at the STC International Communication Summit in Dallas, Texas. His award-winning document chronicled the first 75 years of Baker Atlas, a previous division of Baker Hughes. Noel is currently the Manager of Technical Publications at Baker Hughes, a GE company. At Baker Hughes, Noel helps authors by providing many services including document editing and presenting training sessions for writing conference technical papers. Noel has travelled to Baker Hughes offices in nine countries and to many offices in the US to lead these technical writing training sessions.

Register on Eventbrite.