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A few years ago, when I served as the newsletter editor, I called my column the Curmudgeon’s Corner. I haven’t gotten any younger, and I definitely have not become either meeker or milder since leaving that role. So…
I hear it so often: “This chapter is so spread out, it’s impossible to…[fill in the blank].” Okay, so we have 60 or so members and so most of those members live either in Tidewater or near Richmond. There are other members who live around Charlottesville and deep into the Piedmont and out in The Valley, from Bristol to Winchester. The conventional wisdom, borne out by experience, indicates that roughly 10% of a non-profit’s membership will be active on a routine basis. That should mean that there are 6 STC members who will actively participate in the chapter and its functions. So, does this mean that we can’t do nothing? [sic]
I think, instead, that there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it right. Still, I admit that there are frustrations on occasion.
There are a lot of technical communicators who live and work in our area who are not members of the Society. Each has her or his reason for not joining STC or renewing a membership. And, each reason is valid and unassailable.
That does not mean that we don’t need each other; that members and non-members cannot participate and contribute to our overall community.
A person may be alone as an independent consultant, living near Clifton Forge, or Remington (for instance). Training and re-training opportunities may be rare and difficult to undertake. Their fellow professionals who live around Newport News, Fredericksburg, and Richmond may have little time to go to classes for tools or techniques, too.
The chapter can help.
Individuals and small groups of technical communication professionals may have questions and need answers that apply to their region. TECHWR-L and other national boards may not be of much help to them.
The chapter can help.
Lone writers can feel really, really alone and out of touch.
The chapter can help.
In fact, the chapter now offers resources that, if used, will help alleviate these, and other, issues. What are these?
- Online Forum—It's a bulletin board. It can be a good repository of information relevant to tools and techniques used in our region. If it's used. We can remove boards in it and add new ones, as needed.
- Membership mailing list—Need an answer quickly? Hear of a sudden, rapidly-closing job opportunity? Send an e-mail to the list. People tend to answer their electonic mail pretty quickly.
- Private Messaging—Our Web site now offers private messaging. Those who have established accounts can set up connections with others . Questions and answers can fly back-and-forth as a result. It only has to be used to be effective.
- Blogs—Each who has an account with this site can set up and maintain a Web log that can be read by other members or non-members.
- Online meetings—These are open to the public, and we advertise them in the business sections of the major newspapers in our state. We chose to offer them for free. You can live and work near Roanoke and Salem and still be able to participate and contribute.
These tools are available. They need only persons to use them. And, we’re not done. We intend to make more programs and tools available for us to use. This can only help us, individually and collectively.
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