By Maralee Sautter, IDL SIG Manager

I hope your holiday celebrations have been meaningful and positive, and the impact of world events has strengthened your resolve to be kind to one another. I’m looking forward to the new year with promise and hope. In the meantime, let’s look in the rearview mirror at 2023 to celebrate the SIG’s accomplishments.

Highlights of 2023: A year of “good things”

It was another eventful year for the IDL SIG, and the best part was how our tightly-knit team achieved so much.

Martha Stewart coined the phrase “It’s a good thing” on her cooking show. And we have done many “good things” for SIG members in 2023.

To start, I’ll highlight three events that I thought were exceptional: STC Summit 2023, the Instructional Design Workshop, and the Fall Frightfest Mini-Conference.

STC Summit 2023

As the IDL SIG manager, I was able to attend the STC Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. There were many great presentations, a boutique-type exhibit hall to visit, luncheons to attend, and after-hours activities, such as the Iluminarium,

IDL SIG members holding the CAA and Pacesetter certificates in the photo below, left to right: Marcia Shannon, Maralee Sautter, Jamye Sagan.

Dine-around Atlanta, and the SkyView Ferris wheel. The best luncheon was on day two, when we collected the Platinum Community Achievement Award (CAA) and Pacesetter Award.

To see some of the presenters, participants, and exhibitors, visit this gallery of 2023 Summit photos.

If you’ve never attended an STC conference before, consider attending the 2024 Technical Communication Summit from May 17-19 at the Radisson Blu, in Bloomington, Minnesota (outside Minneapolis). It’s a great opportunity to network, learn, and share with like-minded people.

Instructional Design Workshop

To bring in 2023, Dr. Jennifer Goode presented two more workshop sessions that brought perspective to the Instructional Designer’s work-a-day world. The 2023 sessions explored ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) and how the process/plan is important to the instructional designer in delivering excellent training modules, slides, and documentation. Since plans are not iron-clad, we shared on-the-job experiences about the gotchas and solutions to ADDIE and how they apply to the technical communicator.

In January, Dr. Goode addressed “ADDIE: Who is she, and why should the instructional designer care?” In March, her workshop centered on “Revisiting ADDIE: Finding value in what instructional designers might be missing.”

Mini-Conference

The Fall Frightfest Mini-Conference was a blast. We partnered with the Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter (WDCB) for this event.

Viqui Dill, our M.C., began the session by asking attendees about mini-conference expectations and what frightened us most. Then we moved on to the presentations:

“Caldron Bubble: Incorporating Cookbook Design Elements into Technical Documentation” with Jittery Jamye Sagan
“Somebody’s Watching Me: Make Presenting on Zoom Not-So-Scary” with Rogue Rachel Eichen
“Are your presentations frightfully ineffective? Let’s do better” with Terrifying Traci Nathans-Kelly, Ph.D
“We Need New Blood: Creating Video Content” with Murderous Maralee Sautter
“Supercharge your Documentation through Storytelling Superpowers” with Alex Hale

We ended with a costume contest and words of farewell. Kudos to Viqui Dill for creating such an engaging conference. If she’s up to it, maybe Viqui will lead us again in 2024.

Q4 2023 Recap

Focusing just on the last three months, here are highlights of Q4:

First Fridays at 5: The SIG’s signature monthly event occurred on the first Friday of October, November, and December this quarter. Sometimes, we have presentations, but this quarter we chatted, answered questions, advised new STC/SIG members, and shared information. The sessions are always relaxed and inclusive.

Virtual Open House (VOH): On November 7, the SIG had its 10th Annual VOH. Ruth-Anne Klassen guided us through a fun-filled presentation that began with self-introductions through beverages in “anything but a cup.” The presentation spotlighted who we are (volunteers), what we do, our mission, the benefits of membership, and more. We had a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card to top off the session.

Intercom magazine article (Nov/Dec 2023): Intercom magazine featured the Instructional Design & Learning SIG on its Society Pages (Volume 70 Issue 6, pp. 26-28). The article provides information on all aspects of the IDL SIG. STC members can read the full article.

Celebrating SIG volunteers: We were very busy this last quarter of the year recruiting and changing roles within the leadership team. Let me introduce you to our new officer and committee managers:

Edel Pace: Treasurer
Beth Bailey: Incoming Membership manager
Jenn Buckley: Web and Surveys manager
Melissa Pagnotta: Social Media manager

To learn more about our volunteers, read the articles about our Volunteer Appreciation Awards and the 2023 SIG Award winner to gain some insight into how we honor SIG volunteers.

[Psst! We are always looking for great volunteers. Contact Maralee Sautter at manager@stcidlsig.org if you’d like to join the team.]

Thank you, IDL SIG volunteers and members, for making 2023 such a memorable year. Let’s make 2024 another amazing year!