Earlier this week STC's Director of Member and Corporate Engagement Stacey O'Donnell sent out a tweet from her account (@STCTweety) inviting people to call in to join STC or renew their membership, offering a Starbucks gift card to the first person to call and use the special Twitter code word “Tweety.” James Hansen called in to renew and was kind enough to chat with Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger afterwards about why he renewed. If you're on Twitter, follow Stacey and keep an eye out for more of these random invitations to call in, renew, and win!
First of all, thanks for renewing! What is your name and title?
My name is James Hansen and I'm an engineering program manager at NetApp.
How long have you been an STC member?
I first joined in 1988, so 25 years.
Wow, a long time! Do you remember why you first joined?
I started as a tech writer back in 1987. My supervisor at that time was a very active member of STC. He pretty much encouraged me to join and it’s been a great organization.
What do you see as the best value of STC?
One thing that comes to mind readily is the job postings. I’ve gone through several job transitions and that’s come in handy to me. The other thing that’s great is the education resources, the webinars, the classes. I’ve done a lot of them and they’re all very good. What makes them unique is that you can get training on something from STC that you can’t get from anywhere else. Universities don’t have it, consultants don’t have it. It’s very unique and very topical. I’ve been to many of the conferences. I love the publications, Intercom and Technical Communication, I’ve even contributed articles. They are extremely well done. They’re very well edited, well produced, interesting to read. They’re some of the finest content you can get anywhere. We have a staff here of about 100 writers and a lot of people are looking at Intercom.
Is there anything in particular you're looking forward to taking advantage of in 2014?
The webinars. I’d love to do some more of those. I’d love to do the online courses too, but I’m really pressed for time right now. There are some excellent classes being offered.
Anything else you’d like to add?
No, I'm just happy to be a member!