communication department

Volume XIX Number 9

Got the Key to the Highway: Common Challenges, Virtual Solutions

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of columns featuring articles written by SIG leaders for leaders of any STC community who interface with their members virtually, at least some of the time. Future columns will include tips and ideas that community leaders may choose to incorporate into their planning. If you are interested in suggesting an idea for a column topic or writing an article, please contact Cecily Farrar, Tieline editor.

I keep humming a Woody Guthrie song these days. I am thinking about real and virtual travelin' in my future, and the future of STC and our profession.

I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed
I've been havin' some hard travelin', way down the road
I've been havin' some hard travelin', hard ramblin', hard gamblin'
I've been havin' some hard travelin', Lord

In the "New World of STC," all STC community leaders are called to travel toward STC's strategic objectives. Whether representing virtual or geographic communities, leaders share the goal of providing benefits to members by telling our powerful story, implementing a strategic business model, making money, and growing relationships. All STC leaders share this common destination.

As technical communicators, we're accustomed to embracing change. During the last few years, we have adjusted to new bosses and clients, new organizational structures sometimes requiring global communication, new tools, and often-reduced staff and other resources. We accept more responsibility-and sometimes end up finding new ways to apply our experience, skills, and talents.

The SIG leaders are exploring some virtual approaches to achieving STC objectives. As mostly virtual communities, the SIGs pilot strategies for recruiting volunteers, building community camaraderie and ownership, and providing professional and networking resources to geographically dispersed members, including low cost webinars on pertinent topics to members.

SIG leaders hold regularly scheduled conference call meetings and share solutions. SIG members assemble virtually through discussion lists, forums, e-blasts, Web sites, newsletters, and webinars. In the real world, SIGs sponsor sessions at STC international conferences, organize STC regional conferences jointly with geographic communities, offer presentations for local STC chapter meetings and affiliated organizations, and network face to face whenever possible.

New high-tech resources make it possible to communicate virtually. Effective use of cutting-edge tools is crucial in virtual communities like SIGs, not only for members to share information, but also to develop genuine professional communities of individuals that trust and support each other.

In future issues of Tieline, SIG leaders will offer insights and lessons learned for addressing challenges that many STC virtual and geographic communities face. Topics will include:

• Recruiting volunteers virtually
• Collaborating globally and recognizing cultural differences
• Choosing high-tech tools and resources that enhance community building
• Moderating discussion lists and other virtual group discussion resources for fairness, civility, and value to all members
• Delegating responsibility to virtual leaders—assuring regular follow-up and keeping track of progress
• Selecting ways to recognize and motivate hard-working leaders
• Planning activities and estimating anticipated expenditures
• Conducting virtual meetings and creating virtual structures

Visit the STC Web site for descriptions of STC's twenty SIGs.

Maya Angelou describes an old blues song for us travelers. . .

"I got the key to the highway
Booked down and I'm bound to go
I'm going to leave here running
‘Cause walking's most too slow."