By Steve Jong | Fellow and STC Certification Commission Chairman
A lot of the business of certification happens after dark.
That’s because most of the people involved are either volunteers like me or, like the STC staff, work on it outside of their other responsibilities. Since I already have a full-time job (knocks wood), my first obligation is to devote full time to it. So I fit certification matters in around the edges, and that means nights and weekends. It helps to have a supportive wife with a third-shift job.
Having served on the STC Board of Directors, I can tell you that being one of the certification commissioners takes just as much time—maybe more, since as a fledgling independent organization we’ve had to create most all the things an established organization takes for granted. We had to establish our own business plan, policies and procedures, budget, recordkeeping, vendor relationships, marketing and public relations campaign, and academic outreach. Other activities have no STC precedent, and are unique to a certification organization. For example, we surveyed practitioners to determine what we should be evaluating. We created candidate instructions, determined scoring criteria, and defined a maintenance program. Oh yes—the commissioners were the initial evaluators, too. All in all, the past two years have been busy.
And as chairman of the Commission, I can tell you that being an officer takes up even more time. For better or worse I am the face and voice of certification. (You may have seen the video we showed at STC Central during last year’s Summit. [http://youtu.be/HRmEWOOThM0]) In that capacity I blog, speak to individuals, and make presentations to STC communities and other groups. I am involved in strategic planning, budgeting, and negotiation. I still take my regular turn looking at packets. Finally, I field the non-routine inquiries that come in to the office, and help mentor new evaluators.
Each commissioner also heads a committee. Committees include Governance, Academic Affairs, Evaluation, Marketing, and Finance. I have the Web committee, and our two volunteer webmasters and I frequently exchange late-night emails to post or update information. (By the way, there will be updates to the way you get certification information on the Web; keep refreshing the page!)
Last year at the Summit, the Commission held two full days of working meetings before Leadership Day. I also spoke at the opening session (and unexpectedly participated in a ceremony you might have heard about). The Commission also had a booth in the exhibit hall; here I am speaking to people about certification. By the way, we’ll be there again this year in Atlanta; please stop by and say hello!
How do I keep it all straight? Last week I lost track of what day it was, so I’m not sure I do…! But I try to stay organized. Take email. If you don’t deal with it promptly, you’ll drown. OK, I just checked: in the last two years I’ve filed 9,000 certification-related emails. Meetings and tasks? I have three calendars and two to-do list apps going. The other day at work, I asked Siri, "remind me to blog about tips," but she misheard me. I won’t repeat what she thought I said, but it was mortifying that my boss’s boss was in the conference room next door. I also scribble pad after pad of notes, which I later type into a database so I can search through them. (Had I been that diligent in college I would have gotten much better grades.)
What’s in it for me? The commissioners serve without pay. At one time I told people that I would be the first certified writer, but no: since I’ve seen the scoring criteria, I’m actually barred from applying until I’ve been away from the Commission for several years. And as you can see, the work has been far from easy. In fact, I think this is the busiest phase of my life.
But still it’s been rewarding. I am helping to create something that has never existed before in our profession, something that I think will eventually transform the profession, its practitioners, the Society, and the public perception of technical communicators.
Come to think of it, though, I don’t really have any off hours. Oh well…
