Community Pacesetter Award
STC’s Community Pacesetter Award recognizes innovative and successful community initiatives.
Unlike STC’s other Community Achievement awards, which recognize communities for consistent strength in many varied activities, the Pacesetter Award recognizes the successful implementation of a single beneficial innovation that may be implemented by other STC communities.
The Community Pacesetter Awards are presented at STC Summit the year after the award was earned. The award reflects the year the award is presented, e.g. the 2024 award is for work completed in 2023.
Honorees notified: After vote by STC Board of Directors, usually March
Award Presented: At the virtual STC CAC Leadership Program
Nomination Process
Consult the guidelines for the complete nomination process.
Eligibility
Any STC Professional Chapter, Special Interest Group (SIG), or Student Chapter is eligible to apply for a Community Pacesetter Award.
Applications due: 29 February.
Guidelines
Application
Pacesetter Award Application for calendar year 2023:
Community Pacesetter Awardees
Carolina Chapter Citation: For your “Office Hours” program and other innovations that promote regular engagement of your members.
Chicago Chapter Citation: For your “Best Of” program at College of DuPage, developing a program to help students showcase their work and to engage them with STC.
IDL SIG Citation: For your “Website Refresh” workshop series including several virtual sessions to share ideas and knowledge, and building on a strong foundation to serve your members.
North Texas Lone Star Chapter Citation: For designing a mentoring program that equips both mentors and mentees for continual learning.
Policies & Procedures SIG Citation: For creating an efficient budget tracking system that promotes financial transparency.
Technical Editing SIG Citation: For successfully launching the EdEx22 mini-conference, which provides high-quality information about editing processes and best practices, and demonstrates the value of editing and editors.
Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter Citation: For your structured accessibility feedback program, clearly communicating knowledge about the STC Alliance Competition judges and entrants, and supporting the adoption of accessibility principles in our work and daily lives.
Pacesetter Winner Badge
Pacesetter Winner Badge (Transparent)
2022 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter Citation: For your “Office Hours” program and other innovations that promote regular engagement of your members.
- Chicago Chapter Citation: For your “Best Of” program at College of DuPage, developing a program to help students showcase their work and to engage them with STC.
- IDL SIG Citation: For your “Website Refresh” workshop series including several virtual sessions to share ideas and knowledge, and building on a strong foundation to serve your members.
- North Texas Lone Star Chapter Citation: For designing a mentoring program that equips both mentors and mentees for continual learning.
- Policies & Procedures SIG Citation: For creating an efficient budget tracking system that promotes financial transparency.
- Technical Editing SIG Citation: For successfully launching the EdEx22 mini-conference, which provides high-quality information about editing processes and best practices, and demonstrates the value of editing and editors.
- Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter Citation: For your structured accessibility feedback program, clearly communicating knowledge about the STC Alliance Competition judges and entrants, and supporting the adoption of accessibility principles in our work and daily lives.
2021 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter: In recognition for your efforts to reduce barriers, encourage, and help current or aspiring technical writers gain experience and practice through masterfully crafted workshops about structured authoring, providing a valuable service for the Society and our profession.
- Chicago Chapter: For your strategic partnership with College of DuPage, leading to creative and meaningful initiatives in an effort to engage and mentor our future technical communication professionals.
- India Chapter: In recognition of your innovative promotional efforts and coordination between industry and the STC. Having a Learning Manager can help the Society better serve its communities and help members of those communities engage with the Society.
- Instructional Design & Learning SIG: In recognition of your inclusive and proactive efforts promoting and engaging with students to participate and volunteer in Chapter activities with mentorship opportunities, learning, and social activities.
- Instructional Design & Learning SIG: In recognition of your efforts for finding ways to use free or inexpensive conferencing to enable fun events for an extended community.
- North Texas Lone Star: For your forward-thinking efforts drawing in new professionals, critical to the future of the Society and the profession, your valuable recruitment appeals encourages students to consider mentorship opportunities and careers in technical communication.
- South Central Texas Chapter: For your effort to reach new chapter members where they are, using a new chat system to facilitate instant access to chapter activities and bring together conversations with the community.
- Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter: In recognition of your effort to encourage informal mentoring to help community members have a trusted mentoring resource throughout the stages of their career.
2020 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter: For migrating and consolidating chapter tools under Google for Non Profits, allowing you to simplify leadership transition and enhance chapter organization, communication, and collaboration.
- Chicago Chapter: For your thoughtful way of honoring your volunteers by producing personal presentation videos for each honoree, thus creating special memory keepsakes of their achievements.
- India Chapter: For enhancing the virtual conference experience by using Question Pro to engage and interact with conference attendees virtually.
- Philadelphia Metro Chapter: For innovative actions to reorganize your community's leadership structure, dedication to providing member value and STC community sustainability, and for exploring alternative leadership models for the future.
- Rochester Chapter: For your innovative use of Zoom to move your regional STC conference from in-person to virtual, including breakout sessions and social events, increasing the value of your Zoom subscription beyond monthly meetings.
- San Diego and Silicon Valley Chapters: For leveraging virtual tools and rethinking the traditional models of educational programming to increase member engagement and collaboration among communities while streamlining volunteer effort.
- Technical Editing SIG COP: For your inclusive vision in using the Corrigo publication to ensure that those who are new to the STC, the TE SIG, or to the technical editing field have the opportunity to share their voices and perspectives.
- Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter: For successfully developing and executing The MasterClass in TechComm Speakers Series, forging productive partnerships with other organizations, and increasing the value of STC membership with exceptional, relevant programs.
2019 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter: For working with a software vendor to provide the STC Carolinas community members with a valuable service to further a business concept or to enhance their job skills.
- Florida Chapter: For good community outreach, great use of student involvement, for capturing their rich history, and for building a model for other STC communities.
- Rochester Chapter: For devising an innovative and unique method in helping “all” communities be successful in completing and submitting the annual Community Achievement Award in a timely manner.
- Southeastern Michigan Chapter: For strategically developing a cross-organization roadmap that can be sustained for this community and shared with others.
2018 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter: For bringing your community together to model best business practices for your website redevelopment project.
- Central New York Chapter: For finding a solution to an ages-old problem of identifying technical communicators in your area and using the resource to increase your community’s membership.
- Florida Chapter: For proactively thinking of the future of your community, creating a training program to carry your community forward, and sharing the program with all of STC.
- India Chapter: For supporting a diverse community and the environment, bringing together outside organizations with the STC India chapter to welcome new members.
- Rochester Chapter: For use of technology to cross long distance barriers, in a time when STC communities are covering larger geographical areas.
- Southeastern Michigan Chapter: For a well-developed plan and the follow-through action on virtual workshops, presented in a way that allows other communities to develop similar programs as well.
- Texas Tech University Student Chapter: For your engaging STC Spring Showcase initiative; and for uniting and supporting the profession, the Society, the chapter, and the students. Imaginative and well organized, the program adds audience participation to encourage engagement and generate excitement.
2017 Calendar Year Awardees
- Chicago Chapter: For your dedication to student outreach by bringing together a panel of technical communicators to speak and conduct interviews at local high schools.
- Northeast Ohio Chapter: For your dedication in preserving the history of your chapter by archiving several years of old newsletters in a searchable format.
- Philadelphia Metro Chapter: For significantly boosting community sponsorship revenue by developing a tiered sponsorship system.
- Rochester Chapter: For your continued embracement of new technologies, such as Slack and SCHED, to help STC communities share programming with each other, and to assist communities in planning and managing activities more efficiently.
- San Diego Chapter: For your innovative use of Facebook Live for broadcasting chapter meetings and Society events, thus enabling potential members to engage with STC.
- Southeast Michigan Chapter: For your resourceful collaboration with local technical communication educators in presenting programs that supplement academic curricula and provide value to STC members.
- Texas Tech University Student Chapter: For organizing a successful social networking event that brought together most of the student chapter, including those members that normally participate only virtually.
- Washington D.C.-Baltimore Chapter: For organizing the Summit Dine Around, which brought small groups of conference attendees together in a casual setting to enjoy local cuisine and network with other Summit attendees.
2016 Calendar Year Awardees
- Chicago Chapter: For your excellent Volunteer Incentive Program (VIP) that encourages and rewards an active membership at all levels of involvement.
- Instructional Design and Learning SIG: For your innovative Article Writing Competition that encourages student participation with a unique two-level award system that benefits both the community and the Society.
- India Chapter: For your innovative and quick response to new local financial laws that help your community with overall tracking of finances.
- Philadelphia Metro Chapter: For your innovative two-level approach to sponsorship and scholarships for students that lets them experience STC membership and encourages volunteerism within the community.
- Rochester Chapter: For your innovative and collaborative Multi-Community Virtual Techcomm Showcase that provided many benefits to participating communities, STC members, and stakeholders at the same time.
- Texas Tech University Student Chapter: For furthering Society and community goals by participating in your university's Diversity Week and promoting technical communication to a larger audience.
2015 Calendar Year Awardees
- Chicago Chapter: For promoting STC and the Chicago Chapter through a creative and active year-long anniversary celebration, bookended by special events highlighting the rich history of STC.
- Rochester Chapter: For your creative use of the Periscope app to offer low-cost virtual “live” attendance at your face-to-face programs, including the ability to ask questions via Twitter and for a strategic use of a regional Media List to improve your marketing to increase membership and program attendance.
- Southeastern Michigan Chapter: For successfully promoting STC webinars and sharing their benefits with your community through your creative “Choose Your Own Learning Adventure” program.
2014 Calendar Year Awardees
- India Chapter: For success with your YouTube channel to educate members and promote technical communication.
- New York Metro Chapter: For gamification of all your chapter activities, which engages all members in a fun, innovative way.
- Orlando Central Florida Chapter: For innovative fundraising to support chapter activities, particularly your partnership with California Pizza Kitchens and United Way payroll deductions.
2013 Calendar Year Awardees
- Collaboration between Orlando–Central Florida Chapters, Willamette Valley Chapter, and the Academic SIG: For creative collaboration among STC communities, for cultivating a partnership with the Sigma Tau Delta Society, and expanding interest in technical communication among students, thus ensuring an optimistic future for STC.
- Carolina Chapter: For showing technical communicators how to use their skills to design a media kit and attract sponsors—a simple idea with admirable application.
- Instructional Design & Learning SIG: For promoting STC and the IDL SIG through the creative use of a Virtual Open House, allowing current and prospective members to “meet” and chat and giving a large group of geographically divided members a sense of closeness.
- New York Metro Chapter: For launching a “Year of Education” to encourage and support the education and development of future technical communicators, through partnership with academic institutions, a dedicated education section on the chapter website, the Research Assistance program, and the Talk to a Professional (TaP) service.
- Southeastern Michigan Chapter: For putting in place a process to redesign and maintain your website using best practices and usability testing, making future changes easier and ensuring that future leaders can continue to manage the site with minimal training.
2012 Calendar Year Awardees
- Carolina Chapter: For developing a mobile application that enables pervasive and updated communication to mobile device users while promoting both STC Carolina Community and the Society
- Chicago Chapter: For increasing member engagement through a comprehensive social media approach that allows open, on-going contributions; reinforces involvement in the community; and keeps focus on the STC Chicago community, its activities, and the profession
- New York Metro Chapter: For adapting Agile methodology to community management by allowing volunteers to accept manageable tasks, leaders to track progress regularly, and the STC New York Metro community to achieve more in an organized and constantly improving way
- Northeast Ohio Chapter: For creating the NEO STC book club that provides members opportunities to select books appropriate to the technical communication profession, get exposure to new viewpoints, and share personal knowledge while engaging in stimulating discussions
- Rocky Mountain Chapter: For creating additional meeting opportunities for a widespread membership; including webinars, training sessions, workshops, a museum tour, and networking events; while facilitating the professional development of STC Rocky Mountain
- Washington, DC–Baltimore Chapter: For jointly planning and executing Tech the Halls! Holiday Party in coordination with local communication organizations to celebrate the DC area’s status as a tech mecca while providing STC Washington, DC – Baltimore members with management experience, networking opportunities, and exposure to diverse groups of professional communicators
2011 Calendar Year Awardees
- Alberta Chapter: For implementing the use of social media to engage an audience previously not accessible to the chapter, bolstering their image as an active and evolving chapter, gaining new members, increasing volunteerism, and increasing their chapter income.
- Canada West Coast Chapter: For offering an information interview service for the dozens of people wanting to speak to experienced chapter technical communicators about our profession.
- Technical Editing SIG: For broadening its use of MySTC in ways that expand their reach to members, fostering interactive communication, and automating the broadcast of SIG activities to multiple channels—all while promoting the MySTC network.
- Phoenix Chapter: For creating an online judging and entry system for student writing competitions and applying it to the decades-old, full-day judging event for research papers that accompany students’ projects at the state Science and Engineering Fair.
- Rocky Mountain Chapter: For developing a comprehensive financial strategy to evaluate and reduce or eliminate costs without reducing benefits, to continue to offer the greatest value to their membership while remaining good stewards of the Society’s funds.
- Rochester Chapter: For the strategic use and combined application of Web-based tools and social media strategies to create and document sustainable, repeatable, and cohesive processes to promote, manage, and evaluate a regional conference.
2010 Calendar Year Awardees
- Alberta Chapter: For broadening professional affiliations that increase program options while promoting STC to other organizations.
- Carolina Chapter: For employing webcasting to enhance community contacts and to enrich programs by presenting speakers from other communities.
- IDL SIG: For developing a virtual training evaluation workshop that extends the opportunity for SIG members to receive expert evaluations without attending the STC Technical Summit.
- Philadelphia Metro Chapter: For adding a Donate button to the community web site to encourage donations to the scholarship fund.
- Rochester Chapter: For engaging a university marketing concepts class to develop a community marketing plan that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth.
- Technical Editing SIG: For devising a simple and effect method to engage your community in live chats on targeted “watercooler” topics.
2008 Calendar Year Awardees
- Canada West Coast Chapter: For technology used to provide all functions of a chapter.
- Cedarville University Student Chapter: For fundraising through work that provides experience and portfolio pieces.
- James Madison University Student Chapter: Educational events to build career skills and community service.
- Northeast Ohio Chapter: For innovating in all areas to grow and increase value, the Community Involvement Campaign, New Sponsorship Committee, work with Cleveland Technical Societies Council, membership campaign and reaching students, new Social Networking Committee, and Leadership Workshop.
- Tokyo Chapter: For your Document Solution Open Competition.
2005 Calendar Year Awardees
- Accessibility SIG: For reaching out to STC members with special needs and disabilities; for supporting those members by developing an excellent Accessibility Guide for the annual conference in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005; for setting an example for all STC communities by creating a highly accessible SIG Web site; and for contributing to the accessibility of the Society website.
- Canada West Coast Chapter: For showing a willingness to embark on new journeys; and for not only embracing change, but implementing innovative technologies for the betterment of your community and others.
- Carolina: For your dedication, hard work, and enthusiasm in hosting the 2005 TriDoc Conference.
- Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG: For collecting, formalizing, and sharing the knowledge and wisdom of members in an encyclopedic resource of best practices for all technical communication professionals, but especially for consultants and independent contractors.
- East Bay Chapter: In proud recognition of the East Bay chapter's remarkable Literacy Outreach Program; for six years it has garnered praise and support from academe and science researchers for delivering excellent education about our craft to high-school students.
- Intermountain Chapter: For brilliantly managing and successfully holding the 2004 Region 5 conference, through encouragement and inclusion of local student chapters and by stimulating a small, struggling chapter to rise to excellence in this endeavor.
- Management SIG: For demonstrating leadership in the business of technical communication by providing education and professional development for communicators, and for expanding those opportunities and resources by collaborating with other communities.