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

September 25, 2018May 4, 2021

Giving Graduates an Edge in the Job Market

By Sylvia Miller, Student Outreach Chairperson

For the third year the IDL SIG is offering undergrad and graduate students a chance to publish an article before completing their degrees through our Student Outreach program. First, students submit a brief article about instructional design to our team of judges. If the judging team deems the article worthy of being published in our newsletter—the one you’re reading right now—the student is awarded a one-year STC membership that includes belonging to the IDL SIG. The potential benefits are multiple. Students can:

Get their name in front of hundreds of practicing professionals who read our newsletter.
Add a link in their résumé and on their LinkedIn page to the published article.
Benefit from feedback of practicing professionals—the judges team.
Present their published article during job interviews.

And that’s not all. With the student’s permission, the IDL SIG will submit articles we publish in this newsletter for inclusion in the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK). If the article is accepted for inclusion in the TCBOK, the student will earn an additional one-year STC/IDL membership! He or she can also insert another link in their résumé to the article in the TCBOK, which is available for reference by thousands of professional technical communicators.

Here is what L. Stoe said about having his article published in our newsletter:

“Being published under the Student Outreach Program provided a forum for me to apply and test my skills learned in my classes in Technical Communication & Professional Writing. The competitive process was fun and increased my self-confidence. I printed the published article and showed it as I interviewed for a new position as a technical publications writer just last month. I got the job and definitely feel that the published article helped me. Having a published article to show others strengthens any portfolio. I encourage others to go for it… I cannot overstate how nice it was to show my article during my interviews.”

Please help us spread the word!

Please help us advertise this unique opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to have an article published. Share information about the 2018-2019 Student Outreach program with colleagues, students, professor/instructor friends, friends with college-age children, and anyone who stands to benefit from gaining an edge in today’s job market.

All necessary details are at http://www.stcidlsig.org/students/youcanbepublished/, including a list of potential article topics, contributor guidelines, frequently asked questions, and a submission form. Thank you in advance for sharing this opportunity with others.

September 25, 2018September 26, 2018

Coming soon: Demographic Survey

By Jamye Sagan

In the next couple of months, we will release our IDL SIG member demographic survey. This survey, which we conduct every two years, enables us to capture the pulse of our membership and helps guide development of programs and services that would benefit our members.

As a token of our appreciation everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing for one of two $50 Amazon gift cards. Even if you enter the drawing, your results will still remain anonymous.

If you’d like to review results from past surveys, please visit http://www.stcidlsig.org/discussion-lists/surveys/. Doing so will give you an idea of the types of questions we ask.

September 25, 2018September 26, 2018

Virtual Open House

By Jamye Sagan

In November, the IDL SIG will host our sixth 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.

We will announce Virtual Open House dates and details as they become available.

October 31, 2017November 1, 2017

November 13, 2017 IDL SIG Virtual Open House

Join the IDL SIG online for our Virtual Open House!

4:30 pm Pacific / 5:30 pm Mountain / 6:30 pm Central / 7:30 pm Eastern

Monday, November 13, 2017

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 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 2016 VOH recording on YouTube.

See the 2015 VOH recording on YouTube.

See the 2014 VOH recording on Adobe Connect.