Competitions

LCR Connection

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By Rachel Houghton, LCR Public Relations Manager

STC’s competitions publicize the achievements of technical communicators. Entrants have their work evaluated and recognized by members of the foremost professional organization in the technical communication industry. Even entries that do not receive an award receive valuable feedback that may give participants new ideas and a wider perspective on their work.

Communities can encourage members to participate in STC’s competitions by offering added value in the following ways.

Member Pricing

There should be a benefit to being an STC or chapter member when it comes to entering a local competition. If the member price is too close to the nonmember price, members do not perceive entering the competition as a member benefit. This also does not encourage nonmembers to become members. In his September 2007 Tieline article on increasing your membership, Michael Opsteegh, Managing Editor of the Orange County Chapter STC TechniScribe, said: “Don’t give away the store!” Make the member price enticing enough that a nonmember will want to join to save money. This is just another way of doing an informal membership drive to increase your community’s growth.

Judging Evaluation Forms

The three judging evaluation forms are a great way to add value. Trained judges provide more than just feedback. Their impartial comments can provide members with a way to share the comments about needed improvements or things that work with their managers in the workplace, which helps encourage participation in future competitions.

Provide Appropriate Recognition

It’s not enough to just have an awards banquet. Your community’s publicity manager should be sending out press releases about the award winners, especially the best-of-show winners after the banquet. Create high-quality images that can be used as Web or print icons for winners. Award certificates should be appropriately printed and presented. Offer to have extra certificates printed after the banquet, for an appropriate fee—many teams are comprised of more than the three submitters allowed on the submission form.

For More Information

Try these techniques and you will reap the benefits of increased participation in your competition. Visit the STC Web site for lists of communities holding online communication, technical art, and technical publications competitions; deadlines; and more information about STC’s competitions program. If you have additional questions about STC competitions at the local or Society level, please contact Lloyd Tucker, STC Director of Education and Membership, at +1 (571) 366-1904 or lloyd@stc.org.

Traveling Exhibits Available

STC’s traveling exhibits of 2007 competition winners contain examples of the very best in technical communication. To reserve the exhibits for your chapter, mail or fax an exhibit request form (available on the STC Web site) to the STC office. Reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. Please contact Lloyd Tucker, Director of Membership and Education, at +1 (571) 366-1904 or lloyd@stc.org with any questions.

Competitions

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By Karen Baranich, Chair, International Competitions

Has your community seen fewer entries in the International Technical Publications, Technical Art, and Online Communication Competitions in the last few years? Would you like to boost participation and income? The Florida Technical Communication Competition increased the number of entries fourfold last year, from twelve entries to forty-eight. Here are ten suggestions to make your competition successful, courtesy of Mark Hanigan of the Orlando Chapter STC.

1. Send out something tangible—such as a postcard—to announce the competition and to point to the location of your call for entries and other important information.
2. Make sure that all of your competition materials are flawless in terms of layout, content, and best practices. Include a reminder that people can enter more than one competition. Remember that there are new entry forms this year; you can find them on the STC competitions Web page.
3. Read descriptions of competition categories carefully. Make sure your competition uses the same categories and definitions as the international competitions. Some of these are changing for this year, so verify categories in the Guidelines for Competition Managers, to be posted on the STC Web site in July.
4. Solicit any chapters adjacent to yours that are not having a competition. Offer to share revenue in the form of a rebate; this will encourage more proactive support from their leadership.
5. Plan carefully if you are exchanging entries with another chapter. Remember to factor shipping costs and time into your plans. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what each chapter expects to contribute and receive. Put your agreement in writing.
6. Try to assign each judge no more than three to five entries, depending on entry size. Train your judges well, make sure they understand the process, and tell them to provide substantive comments on the judging forms.
7. Price the competition so that it generates revenue for the chapter, taking into account all of the expenses associated with it. Remember to adjust fees if necessary to cover the $125 per entry necessary to send Distinguished entries to the international level.
8. Involve as many volunteers as possible in the process—many hands make light work! When asking someone to volunteer, do it personally—either face to face or by telephone—and privately so that the person is not put on the spot in front of others.
9. When asking someone to volunteer, offer two or more choices of specific tasks instead of a general request.
10. Be sure to thank all, sincerely and publicly!

Some things in the competitions are changing this year. Expect more dramatic changes next year. If you have questions, are not sure about something, or have suggestions, feel free to contact any one of the following managers:

Note that January 18, 2008, is the deadline for sending winners of the Distinguished Technical Communication awards as entries to the international competitions. Plan your competitions and awards so that you don’t wait until the deadline to send in your entries. Here’s to a successful competition. Good luck!

Competition Contacts to Be Posted

Lists of STC communities holding Technical Art, Technical Publications, and Online Communication Competitions will be posted to the STC Web site. The lists will include entry deadlines and names of community contacts, and will be continuously updated as more information is received.

Through trial and error, the Carolina Chapter STC has developed a training and mentoring program that is relevant to judges with all levels of experience. The chapter most recently fine-tuned its series of events during the judging process last fall.

To begin the process, a member of the competitions committee organized a social for experienced judges at a Greek restaurant. Competitions committee manager Ann-Marie Grissino explained that the aim was to recognize the judges for their contributions and also solicit their tips for new judges; this advice was then used in the judges’ training session held the following month.

At the opening session of the training held in mid-October, judges learned basic information about each of the three competitions (online, technical publications, and art). The judges were then split into three groups, one for each competition. The experienced judges shared their tips and knowledge with the respective groups. The competition entries, which had been submitted by the end of September, were grouped into sets, and judges were asked which they would be interested in judging based on their interests and expertise.

After three or four judges were assigned to each set of entries (each entry must have three judges), Grissino asked the judges of each set to meet their team members and exchange contact information. A similar process had been used during judges’ training sessions in previous years, Grissino explained. “When making up the judging teams, we identify new versus experienced judges and try to get an experienced judge or two on each team. We spread out the experience. That way, we’re using the experienced judges as mentors to new judges.”

Once the teams of judges received the entries they were to evaluate, they were asked to complete their review by Thanksgiving. Each judge was responsible for looking at between three and five entries, depending on the entries’ complexity and depth. In years past, judging was performed before or after Thanksgiving, depending on when the October training session was held. The Carolina chapter judges then participated in a best-of-show judging session in early December.

During the judging process, the competition managers reviewed samples of the evaluations prepared by the judges to ensure quality and substance of content and to examine where the training was successful or in need of improvement.

After the competition, entrants received surveys allowing them to share their thoughts on the judges’ comments and process. Grissino said, “We received a great deal of good feedback from entrants who said that the judges’ comments are thoughtful and insightful.”

Grissino shared ideas that her chapter has used for training its judges. In past years, games and themes have been included as part of these training sessions, including the Star Trek theme it focused on two years ago. Using themes for training has resulted in varying levels of success.

The chapter also tried a one-day program that incorporated the judges’ training session followed by the judging itself. Grissino remembers it “was too long a day, too hard for us to get facilities with the right equipment, [and] too costly if we had to rent equipment and get it set up right.” She has also found that planning two training sessions to accommodate those who could not make it the first time did not yield much higher attendance and did not allow for the judging teams to meet each other.

Grissino has found that it consistently works to separate the attendees into three smaller groups as described above, rather than attempting to hold a discussion with one group of forty people. She also noted that a Saturday morning coffee and continental breakfast setup seems to work well for the training sessions.

The Carolina chapter typically trains between forty and sixty judges each year, Grissino said.