From the Executive Director: Looking Ahead

STC Executive Director Chris Lyons joined the organization at the 2013 Summit. Now that he's had some time to get acclimated, he'll be blogging periodically about what's going on with STC. Below is his debut blog post.

In my first blog post for STC's Notebook, I'd like to start by thanking the STC membership, Board of Directors and volunteers, and staff for welcoming me as STC’s executive director last year. As the New Year begins, I think it’s a good time to highlight some of the great things that are happening at STC and why 2014 is shaping up to be a remarkable year for the association. A more detailed accounting of STC’s programs and operations will be available in the next month or two when we publish an annual report.

The Society for Technical Communication has historically focused on providing continuing education, enabling networking, and defining the profession of technical communication for our members. In 2014 we will shift our focus from defining the profession to emphasize the core skills of a competent technical communicator. Many of these skills overlap other professions and many of our members expand their skill sets over their careers to become excellent editors, managers, professors, product experts, etc.

We will continue to focus on keeping core skills fresh, new techniques, and training on common tools. In 2014 we will expand our partnerships with related associations, giving our members access to additional education and joint events that are relevant to their changing careers. Our members are able to take advantage of this broader set of learning and information because of the foundational value of technical communication skills. Technical communicators bring ways of thinking and work habits that are valuable to employers in all industries, and their core skills provide broad career opportunities.

Another focus of our efforts in 2014 will be to raise the profile of the field and the association with external audiences. In particular, I want to add STC’s voice to conversations that align with the expertise of technical communicators—communicating complex content with clarity. In 2013, STC took three actions in this area:

  • We publicly supported Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and initiatives in the United States. On 11 December, STC submitted a letter to the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy supporting efforts to defend and expand funding for STEM-related programs. As part of our mission, we want to ensure the discipline of technical communication is recognized as an important contributor to technology creation and adoption. Our submission read in part: “We are … in support of the administration’s efforts to defend and expand STEM-related programs that enhance America’s ability to develop a more technology fluent workforce and sophisticated jobs. STC strenuously considers technical writing and communication disciplines an integral part of STEM and as such, technical communication training and research are a necessary and critical part of improving the impact of technology initiatives. We urge that they be included in any consideration of policy and funding priorities.” The full text of the letter can be read here.
  • We added our support to those urging the passage of HR 3786, The Plain Regulations Act of 2013. On 17 December, I went to the Washington, DC, offices of Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) with Annetta Cheek, executive director of the Center for Plain Language. Together we spoke to Senator Kaine’s staff about the senator’s support for the act. We expressed the positive impact of clear regulatory language on business and individuals and the corresponding increase in compliance. Former STC President Hillary Hart wrote a letter in support of an earlier related bill, The 2010 Plain Writing Act. These bills require government workers to take specific training in clear writing methods so that government guidance, policy, and regulations are understandable and accessible to the general public. (Keep an eye out for the February issue of Intercom, which has a theme of plain writing and is guest edited by Karen Schriver.)
  • And on the fun side, we vocally supported Marcus Hunt, one half of the hosting team of the AMC show Owner’s Manual, who insists on reading a manual before attempting the operation of various complex machines. STC President Nicky Bleiel taped a hard-hitting interview with Marcus Hunt and we’ve been tweeting support for “the manual guy.” See her interview on STC’s Notebook blog.

Another area we are working on is increasing the viability of STC’s chapters and SIGs. Over the past several years, our chapter numbers have decreased. We are interested in increasing the synergies between our community and association websites (chapters, SIGs, the Body of Knowledge, and STC.org). We hope to increase cross-sharing of content, visibility, and traffic by leveraging all of the information and training we generate each year. In doing so, we expect to expand the value of chapter and SIG memberships for members. The SIGs have already been working with our IT department to revise their landing pages into a common format.

I hope all of our members will join us in Phoenix, Arizona, for the Summit in May. It will be a great event, with lots of good speakers and useful tracks of education. The city is fun and easy to get around. Please promise yourself that you’ll attend—and then take action and buy discounted registration early.

There’s more to come in our 2013 annual report. Our numbers are growing and our finances are stabilizing after the recession. I want to thank you each again for your continued support for the association and I hope you are proud to be a part of such a vibrant membership.

Chris Lyons
STC Executive Director

0 Replies to “From the Executive Director: Looking Ahead”

  1. Thanks for writing this! It gives me hope.
    You mention “the core skills of a competent technical communicator”. That sounds a lot like Certification, both as a way for me or an employer to know what a writer can do, and as a mechanism for STC “keeping core skills fresh” by define what gets certified.
    I really liked the certification program and saw it as key to STC proving value to employers.

Leave a Reply