Onwards and Upwards

Post date: Jun 21, 2012 2:21:56 AM

As a new activities year is starting. I'd like to take this opportunity to share with everyone where we are and what our plans are for the coming year.

Survey results

In the May-June 2012 time frame, we conducted a survey amount our members and supporters, to help guide us in our plans for the coming year. I’d like to share some notes about our findings. We had a very nice response rate of 96 people! Of those 96 respondents, 47 were current members, and the rest past members (32) and others.

We wanted to find out what is the best way to reach you. Based on the survey results, the top 2 social media sites used (by far) were LinkedIn and Facebook, followed by personal contacts, YouTube and Twitter. We also wanted to determine how to serve you better with our programming, so we asked about your areas of interest. The top 5 areas of interest were:

    • Tools, Technology and Methodology

    • Usability / User Experience

    • Content Strategy

    • Writing and Editing

    • eLearning

In addition, we learned there are many experienced individuals out there who are willing to share their knowledge and serve as mentors to others who are new to or are looking to move into the field of Technical Communication. That truely shows the spirit of this community!!

Goals for the coming year

As incoming chapter president, I’d like to continue to preserve and build on all the hard work Malu, the board and the committees have already put in. Thanks to them, we had an extremely successful competition last year, as well as a full complement of monthly programming and workshops!!

We will of course strive to continue to provide all those wonderful services. In addition, I plan to put emphasis on useful tools and content to attract both members and non-members alike, such as:

    • We have just launched our facebook page, establishing a presence there as well as the existing presence we have on LinkedIn and Twitter.

    • Continue to evolve our (this) web site:

    • Offer a way for anyone (students and non-students) interested in any aspect of the Technical Communication profession to be able to connect with an experienced professional for some mentoring and exchange of ideas and thoughts.

There is more, much more that we can do together. Do reach out and help by volunteering some of your time. You'll meet some wonderful people, learn, grow and get involved. We have a lot of really good, serious people on the board and in the various working committees, and together we can really accomplish a lot in the coming year!!

Here's to a great 2012-2013 activities year.

Nitza Hauser

President