Category: Newsletter

By Viqui Dill

 

The Dill family likes to celebrate the end of the year with music and parties. In addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Dills have a couple of December birthdays. Their family band, the Dill Pickers, has a number of gigs and concerts. All this makes for a holiday season filled with music and celebration.

The season begins with Operation Turkey Sandwich in which our church, the exchange of Winchester, VA, assembles and distributes sack lunches on Thanksgiving day to members of the community who have to work on the holiday. We will visit gas stations, convenience stores, and such with sacks full of turkey sandwiches, pumpkin cookies, stuffing muffins, a sticker that says “It sucks you have to work on Thanksgiving”, and our thanks.

Viqui and son, Jim, are members of a community choir which joins over 100 voices from over a dozen churches in their home town of Winchester. The choir has a Christmas performance to raise money for a local ministry supporting those in need in the community. Most of us come from small churches and the opportunity to sing with such a large group is something to celebrate.

Another fun holiday event is the annual Beer and Carols event with the exchange. We gather at a local tavern, share beverages together and sing carols. Viqui brings her guitar and of course, the documentation (song lyrics).

This year, the Dill Pickers will celebrate two December birthdays at a family band gig. We’re playing on Jim’s official birthday, and celebrating Keith’s birthday too.

We invite you to join us if you’re in the Winchester area. Come share a sandwich, sing a song, and celebrate with us.

 

By Jamye Sagan

For the past several years, I have kept an Advent calendar to count down until the days of Christmas. In the beginning, I filled each little drawer with candy, but, in 2012, I began a new tradition with my Advent calendar. I started purchasing small Lego sets (under 100 pieces) with the intent of assembling the entire kit over the 24-day calendar span. Before December 1^st , I would select my kit, divide the Legos accordingly, and place each days’ pieces in the calendar drawers:

 

Assembling my Lego kit bit by bit (instead of all at once) has helped me remember to wait patiently for the holidays.

Last year, I went epically big with The Big Bang Theory Lego set. It’s a lot more pieces, but I’m having a blast with it. This Lego set caught my eye:

It’s really exciting seeing the living room set come together bit by bit.

I started a new tradition. Since I don’t own an Elf on the Shelf doll and since I have no human kids, I decided to improvise with a Gollum/Smeagol figurine and a doll-sized Santa hat, and thus Santa Smeagol was born:

Each day until Christmas, Santa Smeagol will embark on various family-friendly adventures. He’s creepy-looking enough, so he doesn’t need to engage in nassssty or mean behaviors. To follow Santa Smeagol’s adventures, visit MRMCGIMMERS on Instagram, hashtag #SantaSmeagol

Q4 / 2016

From the Editor

by Crista Mohammed

It is almost, almost, almost the end of the year! There is something tremendously satisfying about having made it through another year. Then there are the holidays: A glorious break! I can’t wait for them! Who could? For most of the world, the end-of-the year period is more than a reprieve from the tedium of work. It is a chance to re-connect with the loved ones. For many, it is, above all, a period of great religious significance. However you view the upcoming holidays, we at the IDL SIG extend our very best wishes to you and yours.

In this issue, Kim Lindsey shares how she used story-boarding to explain her vision for a non-linear, e-learning course. Leveraging widely available software, Kim was able to walk her clients through her gamified course. Needless to say, Kim got her approvals as smoothly as possible, and you can too! Read more.

Mellissa Ruryk, our resident Word® guru, takes us through the fundamentals of document layout and formatting. In this first part of a three-column series, Mellissa describes the main layout types. Read more.

You may recall that in Q3 2106, the SIG launched its latest outreach initiative— a student competition. Since the SIG has extended the deadline to March 31st 2017, we take this opportunity to promote the competition once again. Read more.

Robert Hershenow and Mellissa Ruryk, in their joint co-manager’s column, passes the baton on to incoming co-managers Lori Meyer and Viqui Dill. Robert and Mellissa reflect on past achievements and thank all those who have helped during their stint as co-managers. They end their column with reflections on easy Christmas listening. Read more

Marcia Shannon, in her regular Secretary’s Column, enumerates the many ways by which you can stay in touch with the IDL SIG. Above all, we really hope that you join our monthly meetings, held the 4th Wednesday of every month: Consider this a standing invitation to all SIG members! Read more.

In keeping with the spirit of this joyous time of year, we share some personal traditions with you. We hope that through our sharing, you come to know us better. As a virtual community, we embrace opportunities to cultivate connections with you. Read:

Christmas with the Dillpickers by Viqui Dill

Christmas Cookies by Marcia Shannon

Countdown to Christmas by Jamye Sagan

Curried Duck for Christmas by Crista Mohammed

Home-bound for the Holidays by Charles Campbell

From your Co-Managers: Our Last Co-Man Column

by Robert Hershenow and Mellissa Ruryk, Co-managers

           

As we write this, our last Co-Managers column, we’re talking about how much we are going to miss working alongside each other in our virtual community. We are grateful to have shared this unique and rewarding experience, and want to thank you for trusting us to serve the SIG and the STC.

We have spent four years – that’s hard to believe! – in IDL SIG management: two years as Assistants to Managers Cindy Pao and Preeti Mathur, and two more as Co-Managers. We have been privileged to work with such remarkable volunteers and members from all over the globe, producing an array of online events and programs. Each year the SIG consistently earns Community Achievement Awards for the work we do. It’s been an honor to be a part of all this team effort, and a few words of thanks are in order.

We’ll start with Cindy Pao and Preeti Mathur, who left the SIG in such good shape. They were very graceful in handing over the reins, stepping back and letting us make our own mark.

And now that it’s our turn to hand over those reins to Lori Meyer and Viqui Dill. We are ever so grateful to them for stepping up. Dedicated and more than capable, they are going to shine in the SIG Manager role.

Sylvia Miller has worked very hard on the Scholarship program over the years and built its great reputation. When it became necessary this year to discontinue scholarships, she and a small team built a new program, the Student Outreach Article Competition, which is well-launched and off to a great start. The students will benefit, as will our SIG and our Society as a whole.

Thanks to Scott McCoy, who still keeps Mentoring at the top of everyone’s mind as we head into 2017.

What would we have done without Jamye Sagan wearing all her hats? She does such a good job with the Surveys, the Virtual Open House and Social Media… it really would take three people to replace her. And she’s so active in the Society too as the CAC Outreach Coordinator.

The SIG is lucky that James Bousquet (another Canuck, Mellissa wants to be sure you know!) is going to stay on as SIG Treasurer. He has tended our funds well and is now running for STC Treasurer.

We have seen a few people ride off into the sunset but new faces surface to join our community as volunteers. Marcia Shannon took over from Lori Meyer as Secretary, and Sara Buchanan took over Membership management, also from Lori. Henry McCormack is going to serve as our Content Curator when we finally get that act together, and dear Beth Bailey continues to serve well out of the limelight – but faithfully – as manager of the announcement and discussion lists.

As we hand-off to Lori and Viqui, we look forward to whatever is coming next. We are excited about the transition, and hope you are too. Please write to manager@stcidlsig.org and let us know where you’d like to see our SIG go in the future.

Robert:

Music has always been a big part of the holiday season for me, and each year I pull out a few record albums and rekindle the holiday magic with songs from my childhood. My favorites are from a series called “The Great Songs of Christmas,” vinyl LPs produced annually by Columbia Records in partnership with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. During the 1960s these were offered for one dollar at Goodyear tire stores and Richfield gas stations, and I was always excited when Dad brought the new album home each year. The songs were performed by popular artists like Andre Previn, Mahalia Jackson, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Percy Faith, Leonard Bernstein and many others. Each December they carry me back to when Christmas really was the most wonderful time of the year.

Mellissa:

On Dec 5, I tuned my car radio to Sirius XM Holiday favorites which this year has all the old favorites plus real Christmas carols that take me back to when I was wee, too. Poor dog as he rides to and from work with me… he has to listen to my yodeling and whistling along. But I swear singing is good for your soul – must be all that oxygen getting in and moving around the old blood vessels. And the vibrations in your diaphragm or something. I’m always in a better mood after I sing. The dog… not so much.

About IDeaL: Design for Learning

Publication Policy: We invite letters, articles, book reviews, and other items for publication. Articles may contain up to 1,000 words. Picture formats: JPG, GIF, PNG; Text format: Word, RTF, or ASCII. Send items to Crista Mohammed at newsletter@stcidlsig.org

Advertising Policy and Rates: We encourage advertising as long as it follows STC guidelines and promotes services of interest to IDL SIG members.

Ad sizes and rates:

Half page (7.5×4.5): $75 (1 issue); $225 (4 issues)

Business Card (3.5×2): $25 (1 issue); $100 (4 issues)

Please submit electronic copy only in .TIF, .GIF, or .PNG format. Send ads to Crista Mohammed at newsletter@stcidlsig.org. Make checks payable to Society for Technical Communication and send to: Robert Hershenow, STC IDL SIG, 616 Colusa Ave, Berkeley CA 94707.

Copyright Statement: This newsletter invites technical communicators in the field of instructional design to submit articles for publication. The authors implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to run the submission, and for other STC publications to reprint it without permission. Copyright is held by the author. Let the editor know in your cover letter if the article has run elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications. Design and layout of this newsletter are copyright STC, 2005‐2016.

IDL SIG Website: http://www.stcidlsig.org

SIG Newsletter Archives: http://www.stcidlsig.org/wp/newsletter/

 

 

By Crista Mohammed

Many decades ago, Bishop Desmond Tutu described Trinidad and Tobago (where I am from), as a “rainbow nation”—a culturally diverse people.  While Trinidad and Tobago, like any group of people, has its own challenges with diversity, we have really made the most of it, for the most part.  It is a place where a Roman Catholic Church on one side of the street provides parking to the congregation of the Mosque, on the other side of the street. This happens just one street away from where I used to live. It is the kind of place that gives rise to strange religious admixtures like me—Muslim father, Hindu mother, Catholic schooling.

Here most everyone celebrates Christmas. Christmas time is a very happy, busy occasion for households—Afro-Trinidadians, Indo-Trinidadians, the Chinese community, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and all those in-between. There is frenzied cleaning, painting, and hoisting of compulsory new curtains.

Long ago, everyone ate what they grew: The Afro-Trinidadians reared pigs and there was bound to be a fatted pig or cured ham for the Christmas table.  In my Hindu maternal grandparents’ home, where both pork and beef were not eaten, I grew up having curried duck. In Trinidad and Tobago, duck is a delicacy and there is only one way to prepare it – “make a good curry” (as we like to say).

My childhood Christmas mornings were marked by the smell of newly polished floors and a sizzling curry on the stove. As we awaited that curried duck for Christmas lunch, my Grandmother would share her own treats. For her it was not Christmas if she didn’t have the traditional Christmas imports—mixed whole nuts, marshmallows and apples. For me it was not Christmas if I didn’t get her fruitcake!

But returning to the curried duck… To open our appetites in advance of the curry, it wouldn’t be Christmas if my grandmother didn’t give us a shot of brandy, replete with “well it is Christmas, so just this once”.

But times have changed. We now have imported hams and turkeys. It has become the new, convenient tradition to stick a turkey in the oven. But, I pine for that duck and probably always will every Christmas, mostly because it reminds me of a cherished time—a time made extraordinary by my grandparents, parents, siblings—Wade, born Christmas day, and Candace, and girl cousins.

Here’s a recipe that I quite like: http://www.simplytrinicooking.com/curry-duck/ . Maybe you might try curried duck for Christmas? Whatever is on your Christmas menu, do enjoy this blessed time of the year.

 

 

by Marcia Shannon

Some family holiday traditions are delicious. For mine, Christmas was the only time my mother baked cookies. She was a good cook and baker, but it was all cakes and pies, cobblers and cream puffs the rest of the year. December, and only December, was cookie time at our house. Mama baked 100 to 200 dozen each year. These were shared with co-workers, friends, neighbors, teachers. There always was a large cookie platter ready for holiday visitors.

The two weeks before Christmas was cookie production time and my sister, brother and I joined in as soon as we were old enough to see over the tabletop. We learned kitchen chemistry chopping nuts, beating eggs, creaming butter and sugar, rolling, dropping, pressing the dough. We timed the bakes, transferred cookies to cooling racks, and carefully packed them in 5 pound potato chip tins. Those sessions were the easiest math lessons we ever had, as we learned how to double or cut recipes and mastered precise ingredient measurement. The reward for all that labor was so tasty!

The best part of cookie time was making them. There was a small TV in the kitchen, and as the four of us cranked out cookies, we watched Charlie Brown, Frosty, and other holiday shows. We sang along with Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol and paused to listen to Linus’s monologue explaining the meaning of Christmas.

Over the years, our family favorites have changed but the absolutely required cookie is still a rich and tender butter cookie with a glace cherry topper. With family and work duties, my sister and I sometimes wind up baking them on Christmas morning. To this day, I don’t bake cookies in any other month!