Chapter Spotlight: Washington DC-Metro Baltimore

We return after a long hiatus to once again haul out the STC Spotlight to bring to light one of our communities. This time around it’s a recently merged chapter, the Washington DC-Metro Baltimore chapter. Thanks to the chapter’s president, Charlotte Glenn, and the entire administrative council of the chapter for their answers. Want your SIG or chapter in the Spotlight? Email me and shine!

What's the official name of your chapter?
Washington DC – Metro Baltimore chapter (WDC-MB)

The DC and Baltimore chapters recently merged; how is that merger going?
The merger between Washington DC and Metro Baltimore chapters was initiated in late 2010 and completed in early 2011. To serve the expanded community, we offer events at locations that appeal to members across our geography. For example, this summer we sponsored a group event at Camden Yards to see an Orioles game. And, yes, we did have requests for equal time for the Nats. We are also sponsoring webinars that can easily be attended by members in such a widespread area.

How many members does the merged chapter have?
We currently have 276 members. Members live in Maryland, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia, California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Canada, France, Germany, and Italy. To see how members are distributed around our region, check out our blog.

Who are the leaders?
The administrative officers are:

President: Charlotte Glenn
Vice President: Ann Ray
Secretary: Nicole Stewart
Treasurer: Eric Anest
Director-At-Large: Linda Budinski
Director-At-Large (and Membership Manager): Eddie VanArsdall
Past President: Marylyn King

Other very active members on the council include:

Events Manager: Carolyn Kelley Klinger
Web Manager: Cynthia Lockley
Social Media Manager: Viqui Dill

Several of these and other members take on multiple roles in the chapter’s leadership.

Can you give me a rundown of a generic chapter meeting?
When planning events we try for variety in topic, location, and day of the week to best serve our members. We also work with related organizations to provide even more variety. This year events have included a panel discussion by teachers of technical communication from regional universities, a presentation on proposal writing, a joint meeting with a survey research organization on using EEG and eyetracking in usability testing, and a full-day content strategy workshop with Rahel Bailie.

At our meetings, we promote our upcoming events, ask attendees if they have any job opportunities to share, and give our members the opportunity to offer their skills to potential employers present in the group. Networking is a big part of our group activities.

Our administrative council meets monthly to plan chapter business.

What types of events/benefits do you offer to your chapter members?
We generally sponsor one event per month but help promote events that related organizations offer as well. We offer our events at a reduced cost to our members.  We also provide employment information on our website. We have an active blog and use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so that members can use social media to learn and to network. The WDC-MB Summit Competition for Technical Competition that we sponsor always has a good number of entries from our membership.

Do you do any outreach in the local techcomm community? If so, what types of things do you do?
We sponsor joint meetings with other technical communication groups in the Washington, DC-Baltimore area. For example, the content management seminar by Rahel Bailie was jointly sponsored with DC Web Women. We had several members who participated in a panel discussion for Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication (WRTC) Day at James Madison University, and we are planning a student-centered event for early 2012. We also try to publicize events by sister organizations in the area on our blog.

Any big events coming up?
We do have some exciting events planned:

• On 24 October, Steve Jong, chairman of the STC Certification Commission, will provide a webinar on STC’s professional certification program.
• On 30 November, chapter member Gabe Goldberg will give a presentation called “Fundamental Technology for Knowledge Workers”.
• On 12 December, chapter member and STC Fellow Annette Reilly will give a webinar on writing proposals called “Winning Proposals for Documentation—Beyond the Words.”

You can find more information about these events on our blog. Another big activity happening now is that we are receiving entries to our technical communication competition. We will be accepting entries until 18 November.

Tell us a bit about some of your members. Who’s the smartest? Best singer? Most talented overall?
We have a lot of talented members. It would be hard to figure out who’s the smartest or most talented. But here’s the scoop on some of our members' talents.

• Viqui Dill, our Social Media Manager, can be found jamming with the bluegrass band Dill Pickers in various clubs around the area (that’s in addition to being a whiz on social media). How’s that for talent?
• Fellow Annette Reilly represents the U.S. in an ISO standards committee on systems and software engineering, including documentation, and is the editor or co-editor of four ISO standards.  How’s that for smarts?
• Fellow and Web Diva Cynthia Lockley’s talent with design shows up regularly in our website, our blog, and our competition materials. Another candidate for “most talented.”
• Treasurer Eric Anest’s talent for business and budget management led to innovations in how the chapter manages our financial accounts and event payments.
• Associate Fellow and Events Manager Carolyn Kelley Klinger wins my vote for the chapter member most responsible for the success of the chapter with her tireless efforts to see that we continue have interesting events for our members.

We have a slew of other fascinating members. Just come to a meeting and chat with some of them.

What would be the main dishes in a Baltimore-DC Potluck Supper?
Of course there would be crab cakes, cole slaw, and corn on the cob. That’s a must-have for any food event related to Baltimore. And there would be lots of other food: southern stuff like cornbread and fried chicken; ethnic foods like fried rice, tacos, tamales, tabouleh, and kugel; and local favorites like barbecue and chili. We’re an eclectic group, and we like to eat and we love chocolate!

Say a TV show comes out about your chapter; give us the title, type of show, and basic plot.
Words and Order: Special Communicators Unit—This detective drama features stories about communicators ferreting out the best way to order words and present content cogently. Will social media like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs be the best way to get your ideas across? Or will you need the emails and the face-to-face experiences? Will you be able to develop a content management system that fosters reuse and has the metadata needed for successful searches? How can you develop a proposal that wins the contract? Investigators Olivia Web-Designer and Elliott Wordsmith scour the Washington DC/Metro Baltimore area to find the answers. Dangling participles, misplaced modifiers, and other poorly written offenders are brought to justice as the Special Communicators Unit tries to find the best way to put words in their best order and enhance the world of technical communication.

Finally, brag a little bit—about anything you'd like!
Our Web Diva, Cynthia Lockley, won a Grand Award in the 2009 APEX Publications Excellence Competition for our chapter’s website. We had 14 winners in the international Summit competition for 2010-2011, including the two Best of Show winners. Carolyn Kelley Klinger was made an STC Associate Fellow this year. Several past presidents of the Society are from the chapter: Peter Smith, Austin T. Brown, Annette D. Reilly, and Mary R. Wise. Ginny Redish and Ann Wiley belong to our chapter. Intercom editor Liz Pohland is a member of our chapter. We’ve been around since 1955.

STC DC-MB rocks!