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March 1, 2007 Dear Michael: Thank you for accepting the invitation to speak on CD-ROM printing for large service documentation libraries at the June 2007 meeting of the Atlanta chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Your session is scheduled: Monday, June 4 To guide you in preparing the presentation, I have attached a quick fact sheet about STC/Atlanta members and their preferences for conference presentations. To give you an overview of the conference, I have also included a list of other presentations on the program. To help me better understand what you plan to present, would you please send me a brief outline of the presentation, a 75-word description, and a 75-word bio about you by March 19? The information is needed for publicity materials that are scheduled for mailing in the next couple of weeks. I can also provide feedback on the outline to make sure it meets the needs of STC/Atlanta members. To help you prepare your presentation, I have included a list of tips. As a speaker, you are our guest for the meeting. If you have questions or concerns, please contact me. I would be glad to review your session outlines, visuals, and handouts to let you know how the audience might react to them. Thanks, again, Michael, for accepting the invitation. I look forward to working with you. Best regards, Lilly Harper, Program Manager The Organization to Whom You're Speaking About the Society for Technical Communication The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is the world's largest professional organization for people involved in communicating technical information. This includes technical writers, editors, and illustrators and their managers as well as consultants, researchers, educators, and students in the field. The Society promotes the profession through its chapters, publications, meetings, conferences, competitions, and research programs. About STC Meetings Our meetings focus on current developments in technical communication and related fields through interactive, workshop-like sessions and lively panel discussions. Our monthly meetings are more like a training course than an academic conference. Please prepare instructional and informational materials; do not prepare a formal paper. Membership Job Profiles Nearly all working members have some responsibility for developing one or more of these types of publications: user documentation (the overwhelming majority of work in this field), policies and procedures, proposals, marketing collateral, training materials (usually self-study), and scientific reports. Most of the members are writers, although several are team leaders and managers. Many members will work on one project for several months, although others work on several smaller projects simultaneously. They are increasingly writing online documents, but printed documents are still a large business and many members have not yet written online information. Atlanta members tend to work for high tech firms, although some members work in academia. About 1/4 of our local members are independent contractors. Typical employers include Unisys, IBM, Hayes, DCA, Southern Bell, and Lanier. Employment is growing in environmental firms, although that still represents a small part of our work. The conference also attracts STC members from Alabama, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. Another group of members is students who are trying to break into the field. Southern Tech has a large master's program in the field, with 80 students. Mercer University at Macon also started a program recently. These students tend to be in their 30s. Some are attending school to change professions, others attend for "certification" for their current jobs. (No official certification of technical communicators exists.) Preferred Presentation Formats Practical—Members prefer information they can immediately apply on the job. Members do appreciate well-researched and cited information, but practicality is the overriding concern. Interactive—Should be about 1/3 to 1/2 lecture, 1/3 to 1/2 hands-on exercises to practice the skills presented in the workshop. Mixed level—Members like intermediate and advanced presentations. However, the actual experience level of your audience varies widely, so do include basic information. Label it as such and tell your audience that you are providing it because of the varying levels of experience and it can be a refresher for more experienced members. Coordinated handouts and visuals—these are most successful when they are not exact duplicates of one another (in other words, the handouts are not necessarily an exact copy of the visuals but rather, coordinate with them). |