Here are some photos of your IDL SIG at #STC16.
Also see the 2016 Business Meeting Presentation.
We had a blast at the #STC16 Summit!
The race is on! Help our SIG get rewarded from new memberships and renewals
Do you know someone who might be interested in joining STC? There’s no better time to join STC and our SIG, or renew STC membership! The STC new/renewed member recruitment race is now on, and goes through and May 6, 2016. Communities receive credit when someone joins or renews online and notes the community that referred them. Here’s how it works:
When recruiting a member, have them include the name of your chapter or SIG on the online application — in our case, the IDL SIG. The referral field is found under the Membership tab. Your community must be listed on the application to receive credit.
- One point is awarded for each member in any of these four categories: Classic, New TC Professional, Student, or Gold Value Package.
- Corporate Value Package (CVP) members are worth one point for each team member. For example, if five new members join or renew from one company as a CVP, your community receives five points.
The winning community will receive:
- One upgrade from 2016 Classic to Gold Value Package membership
- 50% off one 2016 online course
- A copy of WordPress in Depth (1st Edition) by Michael McCallister
- One free 2016 print subscription to Intercom magazine
- One free 2016 print subscription to Technical Communication journal
- Two complete Salary Database kits (including the Excel workbooks)
- Two $50 Amazon gift cards
- One “Community Spotlight” post on STC’s Notebook blog
To receive referral credit, be sure to remind new and renewing members to list the IDL SIG in the referral field.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact Cheryl Miller, STC Membership Services manager, or call the STC Office at +1 (571) 366-1914.
You’re invited to attend your IDL SIG monthly meeting
The team leads and co-managers invite you to attend your IDL SIG monthly meeting and hear what goes into running the SIG.
The meeting info doesn’t change from month to month, so why not set up a recurring item in your calendar on the last Wednesday of each month, cut and paste the information below, and join us?
Meeting time: 4:30 PM Pacific, 5:30 PM Mountain, 6:30 PM Central, 7:30 PM Eastern.
To avoid connection delays, please plan to log on 5 to 8 minutes before the scheduled start time as given above.
Click this URL to log on: https://stc.adobeconnect.com/idl
- Select ENTER AS A GUEST and type in the name you’d like us to know you by.
- Click ENTER ROOM. Set up Audio/Phone Connection (this is the preferred method and it is toll-free): when the JOIN AUDIO CONFERENCE dialog box displays, select the DIAL OUT option.
- Type in your phone number and click JOIN. You will receive a call from Adobe Connect confirming the audio connection. Turn off your computer speakers to avoid feedback.
There’s still time! Renew your STC and SIG membership today
Although the official STC member renewal period has expired, it’s not too late to renew your membership for 2016! If you have not done so yet, you can renew today to reactivate your membership, and once again enjoy all of the benefits of being part of STC and our SIG, including
- Discounts on many educational opportunities, such as webinars, courses, and our annual STC Summit conference.
- Access to the STC salary database and “first look” access to the STC job bank.
- Opportunities to network, build your skills, and grow professionally with colleagues both in person and virtually.
- Opportunities to be recognized for your work through competitions, awards, and honors.
- Mentoring and being mentored.
- The right to vote in the annual STC election, which starts on February 29.
As an IDL SIG member, you can now attend our webinar programs FREE, on top of the many other benefits of being part of our community.
To renew your STC and SIG membership for 2016, go to http://stc.org/membership, select your membership type, complete the renewal form, and submit your payment. If you renew as a Gold member, your SIG membership is already included! If you renew as a Classic, Student, Retired, Corporate Value, or New Techcomm Professional member, be sure to select the IDL SIG as one of your communities. You can be a member of more than one chapter or SIG.
Stay with us in 2016! Take a few moments now to renew your STC and SIG membership. We look forward to having you as a part of our community.
December 12, 2015 Virtual Progression Webinars
Saturday, December 12, 2015
10:30 PST, 11:30 MST, 12:30 CST, 13:30 EST
UPDATE: This webinar was a huge success! See the recording on our Free recordings of IDL SIG webinars for members page. (requires password. Contact programs@stcidlsig.org if you did not yet receive your password.)
Please join the STC Instructional Design and Learning SIG for our first ever Virtual Progression – a new adventure in delivering bite-sized learning to our members and other interested attendees at a time and place that suits you.
Register on Eventbrite and plan to join us on December 12th.
What is a virtual progression?
A regular in-person progression lets you pick two or three of a number of simultaneous sessions and you have to miss the other “x” number of sessions. If you have attended the STC Summit you also know that these sessions are not recorded so once they have happened, they are history. Our virtual progression offers an advantage over this model, because if you attend one session or two sessions in the “progression” you will receive links to recordings for all four sessions.
How does it work?
We will have two presentations happening simultaneously, followed by a second set of two presentations. Instead of asking our presenters to repeat themselves, these sessions will only occur once… but again, even if you attend only one, you can listen to all four!
We recognize it’s a busy time of the year, so this will be short and sweet; over the holiday period, you’ll have lots of time to catch the other recordings.
Schedule
The schedule starts at 10:30 AM Pacific (11:30 AM Mountain, 12:30 PM Central, 1:30 PM Eastern) – log on a few minutes early so we can start on time. When you register, pick one of the two EARLY options and one of the two LATER options. Each session will last 20-25 minutes with time for Q&A afterwards.
The second session starts at 11:15 AM Pacific (12:15 PM Mountain, 1:15 PM Central, 2:15 PM Eastern)
Pricing
Sessions are FREE for IDL SIG Members; $10 per session for non-SIG STC members; $15 per session for non-STC members. (Remember, it’s only $10 to join the SIG if you are already an STC member… what a great time to join our SIG!)
Session Descriptions
Mellissa Ruryk presenting on 9 Things You Didn’t Know (you need to know) about Word
This is a presentation suited for beginning technical writers or more advanced ones who keep getting stumped by Word’s idiosyncrasies. We can almost guarantee everyone will learn at least one thing about Word, no matter how long you’ve been using it. Mellissa is co-manager of the IDL SIG and has worked with Word since version 3.0 (and before that she was a Wordperfect maven. At plenty-nine, she’s been around for a while!).
Robert Hershenow presenting on Audio Editing Tips: 3 Easy Steps to Improved Voice Recording
You might have recorded audio before for some of your training videos and been a bit disappointed in how you sounded. Or, you’ve never recorded before but want to learn tips so you know what to do right, from the very start. Robert can help you! Robert is co-manager of the IDL SIG and learned his audio chops as a radio engineer, recording studio owner and musician – including appearances as one of the Rough Drafts (at the STC Summit 2013 and 2014).
Scott McCoy presenting on The Mentor Board (cue echoing fadeout: MENTOR BOARD MENTOR Board Mentor board mentor board)
You’ve heard about the Mentor Board before but think it doesn’t have much to do with you. In fact, the Mentor Board won’t function without you, and it’s one of those cases (again) where you get back way more than what you put in. Mentoring is a way to grow – not just the next gen of technical communicators but also yourself. (Ever heard the adage that you don’t really know something until you can teach it to someone else?) In addition, others have already registered as mentors and you can gain more than you can imagine when you connect as a mentee (one who is mentored). Either way, listen to Scott as he tells you the whys and wherefores. Scott is the Mentoring team lead for the SIG.
Robert Hershenow presenting on the STC Body of Knowledge (TCBOK)
Here is the quick’n’dirty guide to becoming published in (or at least, increasing the odds of contributing to) STC’s BoK: our storehouse of knowledge of all things Tech Comm). He is going to cover what you need to know to get started, and where you can learn more. Robert is a member of the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK) task force.
Register now
Register now and bring a friend – there will be lots of room for everyone. One lucky registrant, drawn at random, will win a $25 AMAZON gift certificate simply for registering and attending. See you there!
Register on Eventbrite and plan to join us on December 12th.
