Communities

Ask Evelyn

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By Evelyn McCamey, STC Community Relations Manager

All STC communities are governed by administrative councils. Leaders are elected annually by members of each community to ensure the fulfillment of the community’s purpose and management of its business activities. For chapters, the administrative council must consist of at least three officers—the president, treasurer, and secretary. For SIGs, there must be a SIG manager. Additional officers may be elected based on the needs of the community.

Other Reminders for Community Leaders

A member of the administrative council may hold more than one office at the same time, with the exception of chapter president. In addition, all officers of the Society must be active members in good standing. This includes any officers or volunteers at the community level. This is the minimum required to be in compliance with STC’s bylaws.

For Further Assistance

Should you find that your community is in a situation that is not in compliance with STC’s bylaws, the Leadership Community Resource (LCR) and I are always available to provide assistance. Feel free to contact the LCR or me at any time.

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Administration

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STC wouldn’t be the world’s largest professional association for technical communicators without the dedication and commitment of its volunteer leaders. To help chapter and special interest group (SIG) volunteers perform their duties, the STC office provides the following resources.

Tieline

Published ten times a year, Tieline is STC’s newsletter for chapter, SIG, and Society leaders. Each issue of Tieline contains Society news and announcements, reminders of important deadlines, and other essential administrative information. Tieline also publishes feature articles that describe community events and initiatives.

Tieline is e-mailed monthly to all chapter officers, SIG managers, and Society-level volunteers and elected officials on record with the STC membership department. The publication is also sent to senior members, associate fellows, and fellows. The Tieline knowledge base provides access to Tieline feature articles published from 2006 to the present.

STC Community Handbook

Assembled and edited by the Leadership Community Resource (LCR), the STC Community Handbook is a comprehensive resource on running an STC community. The handbook contains practical tips for leading volunteers, managing chapter finances, creating quality programs, handling public relations, getting and keeping members, and more. A zipped file of the handbook can be downloaded from the LCR Web page.

LCR Web Page

In addition to the STC Community Handbook, the LCR section of the STC Web site features a Leadership Toolkit area and a Leadership Training area. Available content includes the LCR Process Flow Chart (a resource that shows how to engage the LCR for support), New Leaders—Start Here (providing discussion lists and other important information), and the Leadership Workshop (an online training resource for anyone in STC entering into a leadership role or wanting to do so).

SIG Activity Quick Reference

This calendar is designed to help SIG managers plan activities and accomplish essential tasks.

Calendar for Community Leaders

An overview of important dates and deadlines for the calendar year, the Calendar for Community Leaders appears in Tieline four times per year.

Bookkeeping Materials

The chapter finances page at contains links to financial report forms and instructions for both regular and student chapters, as well as bank reconciliation forms and sample workbooks.

Administrative Documents

Official STC guidelines for Society-level committees and officers, competitions, programs, and SIGs can be downloaded from the Administrative Documents section of the STC Web site. Links to PDFs of the STC Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation are also on this page.

Communities

Ask Evelyn

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By Evelyn McCamey, STC Community Relations Manager

Why Should My Chapter Have Liability Insurance?

The purpose of liability insurance for STC chapters is to protect the officers of the chapter should an incident occur. For example, if you’re holding an STC event and you do not have liability coverage, there’s nothing to stop an injured party from filing a suit against your chapter. Furthermore, because chapters are not incorporated, there’s nothing to stop an injured party from filing a suit against your chapter’s administrative council members as volunteer officers of STC. This means that the exposed assets of individual chapter officers could be seized to pay for damages associated with a chapter event.

It is also important to ensure that all of the facilities in which you hold your events have liability coverage. Most facilities already have coverage, but remember that this protects the facility itself, not the party or parties holding the event.

International Chapters

Our insurance carrier covers chapters located in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada. All other international chapters are responsible for obtaining liability coverage in accordance with individual national laws.

It is to your advantage to have liability coverage. All eligible STC chapters will be added to the Society’s overall liability coverage policy when it is renewed for 2008. All other chapters should take steps to obtain coverage as well.

Certificates of Insurance

Should a facility ask for a certificate of insurance from you while you’re planning an event, you may request that certificate from the STC office. Certificates are sent directly to the facility that makes the request. The insurance company will not send them to the Society or your chapter. When you contact the STC office, please be sure to include the full mailing address and contact information of the facility that has made the request. STC’s insurance carrier can fax the certificate of insurance within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, so please be sure to also include the fax and telephone number of the facility when you make your request.

If you have any questions about liability insurance for your chapter, please contact Evelyn McCamey, STC Community Relations Manager, at +1 (571) 366-1919 or evelyn.mccamey@stc.org. Additional information will also be sent to chapter presidents and treasurers.

Administration

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STC mailing lists can be a vital resource for brainstorming ideas with other leaders and learning helpful tips from other communities to incorporate into your own chapter or SIG activities.

Mailing list options include:

• “stcwebmaster-L” for community webmasters
• “stc_pres” for chapter presidents
• “news-eds” for newsletter editors
• A list of the newsletters produced by STC communities can be found at www.stc-annex.com/Newsletters/NLsOfSTC.htm, a site maintained by Fellow Tom Barnett, Manager of the Community Recognition Committee.
• “stc_treasurer” for community treasurers

By Karen Mardahl, Comanager, AccessAbility Special Interest Group

Are you looking for inspiration to maintain or refresh your SIG community? Take a look at Derek Powazek’s Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places.

Powazek wrote this book in 2001 to describe the process of building a successful Web community. The essence of the book is still valid and vibrant despite technological advances that have made some parts slightly outdated. To me, the entire book can be used as a framework for evaluating SIGs—the virtual communities of STC. Powazek’s enthusiasm caught my attention and inspired me. Each chapter centers on a concept that I found can be put into one word. Let me take you on a brief tour of several chapters, and explain what I see in Powazek’s writing.

Chapter 1: Planning

The chapter title, “Is This Trip Really Necessary?” asks an all-important question. Each new action or feature of a SIG needs to be planned and questioned. Do we really need—or want—to maintain or implement that feature? Question all assumptions, as Powazek later writes. As technical communicators, this ought to be second nature to us.

If you have a charter or vision and mission statement, use it as a measuring stick to gauge your plans. Will the new adventure take you on a tangent? What are the possible consequences? Think—before you end up with too many straggly ends that drain energy and resources.

Chapter 2: Content

What can you offer your members? More importantly, what can your members offer the community? Getting members to contribute is the best way to empower them and make them feel a sense of responsibility for their virtual home. Perhaps you can encourage the “proactive, positive members” to participate in the growth of the community. The content of your site or e-mail discussion list plays a huge role in attracting and keeping members. It sets the tone for a mature community.

Chapter 3: Design

How does—or will—your community experience your community? Membership is an experience, and you need to make it the best. When did you last look at the design of your community? According to Powazek, your design needs to consider audience, flexibility, experience, simplicity, readability, and beauty. He provokes, too, writing: “give up control.” Do you need to dictate and micromanage all member actions? What do you think will happen if you do? Member interaction and give-and-take are what truly foster community growth.

Chapter 5: Policy

Powazek writes:

“The challenge, then, is to set the rules wisely, communicate them clearly, and enforce them fairly.”

Policing a community is nobody’s favorite task. But one must provide a voice of sanity in times of crisis. There should be something for everyone in this chapter’s discussion of community policies.

Chapter 6: Survival

This chapter discusses community moderation. This is the realm of trust and balance—and credibility. Do your members believe in their community? This question is not as simple as it may appear. Many of this chapter’s concepts evolve out of the previous chapter, with a further exploration of policy and policing.

Chapter 7: Boundaries

After credibility comes intimacy. What is the intimacy level of your community? How comfortable do your members feel? Can they safely open up about workplace issues affecting them as technical communicators? To establish the proper boundaries, consider your community’s level of trust, respect, and honesty. Members are most likely seeking like minds. When they feel they can relax and be comfortable, they may open up and begin to share knowledge and exchange ideas that will thrill the collective heart of the leadership team!

The Lone Writer SIG (of which I am a member) has that intimacy and will fight fiercely to maintain it. Those outside the SIG may not understand it, but they must respect it. It is valuable to members, and therefore essential to the SIG’s existence. Powazek calls intimacy the magic element of a community. Perhaps some people won’t want to join such a community, however, because intimacy makes them feel uncomfortable—which brings us to barriers.

Chapter 8: Barriers

As a comanager of the AccessAbility SIG, I consider barriers an absolute no-no for any virtual community. The nature of the Web is inclusive. But there are reasons for certain barriers. Some discussion lists limit the topics permitted. This is a barrier that may be necessary to maintain a sane level of mail in a very large discussion list, and to maintain the list’s credibility. Focus is required to maintain relevance. Barriers may be necessary to filter out those who are not really committed to the community—but they should not filter out your core users. Because “communities are always a work in progress,” according to Powazek, today’s barrier may not be necessary tomorrow.

Chapter 9: E-mail

Despite the emergence of RSS, Twitter, and whatever is invented tomorrow, e-mail is still here. New applications are always evolving, but not everyone embraces them. Perhaps a closed e-mail community where you must be a member to obtain access—and mail archives are not public—is what people want for their SIG fees. Why should anyone pay for something that is freely available on the Web? Why should anyone contribute freely to a community when that contribution is made available on the Web to all? Thoughts to ponder!

Chapter 12: Tomorrow

So, what’s next? An interview with Howard Rheingold closes the book. One of the movers and shakers of all things Web-related, Rheingold discusses how “the Internet and virtual communities are valuable to the degree that people put in more than they take out.”

As your community makes the transition to new leaders and activities, steps such as careful planning, considering the content of your community’s communication materials, and evaluating the design of your community will put you on the right track toward getting your very real members to put more into their virtual community.

Suggested Reading

Powazek, Derek M. Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places. Indianapolis: New Riders, 2002.

The book is available at safari.oreilly.com.

By Michael Markley, Manager, Management Special Interest Group

If you’ve been a member of an STC geographic community, you know elections as commonplace events that everyone understands and expects. For STC’s virtual communities, however, elections are a relatively new occurrence. The leadership of such communities (also known as special interest groups, SIGs) has traditionally been appointed: the board appoints and approves the manager, and the other SIG positions are appointed by the manager.

In the past few years, we’ve seen the advent of numerous STC membership classifications (classic, limited, and so on) that allow members to be more selective about the communities with which they associate themselves. This means two things:

1. SIGs are more prominent than they once were. In fact, a member can opt out of joining a geographic community altogether in favor of joining two SIGs, and the cost of joining an additional SIG is the same as that of joining an additional geographic community ($10).
2. We owe it to our members to tighten up our SIG operations. We need to start electing our core leadership to ensure fair representation.

Why Should SIGs Hold Elections?

Holding SIG elections will help us:

• Mirror the operational structure of geographic communities. Elected leadership reflects a familiar governance model, helping people accept SIGs as an equivalent to geographic communities. This serves to build SIG legitimacy and value, which is good for everyone.
• Raise the vested interest of SIG members. Common wisdom indicates that people support the things that they create themselves. Involving SIG membership in elections gives people a stronger sense of ownership, and leads to greater loyalty and involvement.
• Position SIGs to be in touch with members’ needs. Elections ensure a rotation of leaders, which means that a steady flow of new ideas and viewpoints will move through the leadership council. This, in turn, keeps SIG activities fresh—and relevant to membership needs.

How to Hold a SIG Election

STC’s Management SIG has held two elections since October 2005. The following information is a culmination of the lessons I’ve learned during this process.

Select a Nomination Committee

You might initially think that the critical component of an election is the slate of candidates. Based on my experience, however, it is the nomination committee that is most important. This committee is responsible for selecting strong candidates and ensuring a connection between the SIG leadership and membership.

I recommend a committee of three to four people. Ideal committee members should be:

• well connected within the SIG
• not connected to the sitting leadership council (and otherwise unbiased)
• willing to ask people to volunteer

Serving on a nomination committee is a mid-level commitment for a relatively short period of time. It’s a great way to contribute to the organization without making a long-term commitment; because of this, you should have little trouble finding people to volunteer.

Note: The nomination committee for the Management SIG also ran the election itself; however, this is not mandatory. Depending on the circumstances, your SIG may choose to have another committee coordinate the election.

Schedule

The following is a guide for how you could schedule your nomination and election activities. Coinciding your leadership changes with the annual conference in May allows for an orderly, face-to-face transition between current and incoming leaders. Moreover, this schedule aligns fairly closely with the fiscal year, and it gives the new leaders an opportunity to spend the summer planning activities for the coming year. Of course, your nomination committee must agree to whatever schedule you set; these dates are merely suggestions.

Online Election Tools

The Management SIG has used these tools for the past two elections:

• Survey Monkey. Cost: about $20/month. In addition, the Management SIG used this tool to distribute its membership survey, which was very useful in assessing operational goals.
• Zoomerang. Cost: nonprofit rate of $99 for three months.

To ensure reliable and valid results, you should select one of two options: have voters input their membership number to be cross-referenced with your membership records, or allow only one vote per computer. The latter option is a little less reliable because it’s dependent on the use of cookies, and, typically, people have access to more than one computer.

Additional Considerations

Among the topics that you will need to consider when you run elections is how the write-in candidate process works. Consult both your SIG bylaws and the Society bylaws for guidance on this issue.

Also, you might consider using the election process to gain approval for bylaws updates. In 2007, the Management SIG membership is considering a change to the bylaws that would increase the number of elected positions from three to five. This change will either be approved or denied through the online election that we are holding.

Customize the Process for Your SIG

Every SIG is different, and certainly there will be different ways to carry out the task of electing SIG leadership.

Best wishes to you as you work through the process to include your membership in the nomination and election process.

By Karen Mardahl, Comanager, AccessAbility Special Interest Group

(Scene 1: A discussion about wikis develops between You and Me.)

You: Remind me what a wiki is.

Me: A wiki is really just a Web site. Anyone with minimal training can create and maintain information on a wiki. The learning curve is almost flat, but the potential for learning is gigantic. 

See Wikipedia for more information about the origins of the wiki and the word itself.

You: We already have a Web site and a great webmaster. We don’t need this wiki.

Me: Even though you can use a wiki for just about anything, I’m proposing the use of it for collaboration among the leaders of a chapter or SIG. What do members of the leadership group do? They share, exchange, and develop information relevant to their job functions. They collaborate. This is usually done by e-mail. 

Let’s say you use your home e-mail for all this collaboration. One day, you arrange to have a conference call from your workplace with your leadership team. You realize you left all your printed copies at home, and all the electronic copies are on your home computer. What now? Instead of being unavailable and inaccessible, all that information could be online and available no matter where you are and no matter when you need it. That is when an online application like a wiki becomes very useful. Posting information can be done by anyone, at any time, from anywhere. You do not have to depend on one experienced person to do all the work.

Me: No problem. The wiki I recommend for beginners (or busy experts) is the Peanut Butter Wiki. I set up such a wiki in five minutes. You have a tool and a Web site at your fingertips for free. Yes, I have previously worked with Web sites, but the directions are so easy that I believe anyone can do it.

Me: You can stop being overwhelmed by e-mails. So many people complain about the quantity and the size of e-mail messages. Many a mailbox has come to a grinding halt with massive documents being transmitted back and forth. Just post them on the wiki, and your mailbox will breathe a sigh of relief. Users with the old 56k modems will also breathe a sigh of relief and stop worrying about their phone bills. Newsletter groups can really benefit just for this reason.

Me: You only have to go online when adding information or retrieving files. Peanut Butter Wiki uses notifications for all updates. It sends you an e-mail notification any time someone makes a change. The changes and the author are listed in that e-mail.

Me: Yes, but not a long time. You can compose your thoughts in Word or Notepad at your convenience without being connected to the Internet. (You can even use paper for brainstorming at the beach or on the train!) When you are ready, you just go online, log on to the wiki, paste in your work, and log off again. The interface of this particular wiki and others I have seen is “light,” meaning that it displays quickly on your screen with no expensive delays while the site downloads unnecessary graphics.

Me: Think about it. Composing an e-mail or composing an article on the wiki takes the same amount of time, more or less. There is no real time loss. It may take you a bit longer to make your contribution to the wiki as opposed to just sending an e-mail. This may be due to the material already on the wiki. You may want to move some information or do other tasks that take a bit of time.

Me: People are talking about wikis as well as other collaboration tools. Even though wikis may not be a part of your day job, it is definitely worth your while to know them and similar online collaboration tools. Another wiki to investigate is MediaWiki. Google Docs has also been used for collaboration. These are just a few examples.

By Judith Herr, SIG Advocate

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!—Maya Angelou

How shall STC effectively recognize the diverse contributions of virtual volunteers? For STC SIG leaders, demonstrating appreciation can be challenging and rewarding. Recognition is best if public, timely but lasting beyond the moment, and of value to the honoree as well as scaled for the quality and extent of the volunteer’s accomplishments. The gift might be in the form of a newsletter article, a handmade token, a formal title, a commendation, or the good wishes of peers, family, employers or clients, and friends.

The suggestions in this article include some that require the help of colocated, face-to-face community members; others can be accomplished entirely without “real” intercession. Several both recognize the contributions of the volunteer and broadcast the value that technical communicators bring to their clients and employers.

If you have sat through too many community or professional group volunteer recognition events where a somewhat detached presenter thanked everyone with something like, “Whatever you did, thanksalot,” you realize that, as Sue Vineyard says, “Vague turns people off, and specific turns people on.” STC leaders have the opportunity, the enthusiasm for innovating, and the right skills as communicators to turn our volunteers on.

1. Recognize volunteers in print. Make sure each volunteer is recognized through newsletters, the Web site, discussion lists, and other communication media. For example, send press releases to the publications of STC communities and other pertinent organizations (such as SIG Web sites, local newspapers and magazines, chamber of commerce bulletins, and so on), post news on the STC Web site and other sites and blogs, and include recognition in meeting notes.
2. Invite active participation in the virtual community’s decision-making process. According to Paul Wellstone, “Successful organizing is based on the recognition that people get organized because they, too, have a vision.” Take advantage of volunteers’ insights and vision to improve the community.
3. Demonstrate trust by delegating the next biggest job. Although it may not initially feel like a reward, recruiting honored volunteers for more complex projects is a strong compliment and a recognition of their contribution. Pass it on and turn it loose.
4. Give personalized tokens. Make something that matches each volunteer’s achievement and is personal like a CD/DVD containing a sketch, music, a Web site design, or a homemade movie. Consider a current book, CD, or DVD picked specifically for each volunteer—one that you’d like to borrow yourself.
5. Schedule an online real-time event. Arrange an RSS feed or a podcast, or hide the recognition announcement on a SIG or personal Web site, then send an e-mail to all members inviting them to the online event. Surprise the volunteer as the honored guest at the event.
6. Plan to present an award at the volunteer’s work site during a meeting that includes senior managers or clients. Consult with the honoree to find the best occasion and recruit a local SIG member to present an award demonstrating STC esteem. This can be something that will fit well in a cubicle or, better yet, the company display case in the lobby.
7. Letters, we send letters. Write letters to the corporate bigwigs in the honoree’s company, noting the exceptional work of their employee. Mention how favorably the honoree’s achievements reflect on his or her employer.
8. Include recognition as an agenda item in each meeting. At virtual and/or face-to-face meetings, make recognition the first agenda item. For example, start off with “Our special thanks to . . . ” Names of those recognized should be in bold and highlighted on the agenda.
9. Give a gift to share. For example, for a night out after all those hours spent on the volunteer project, buy a voucher for two movie tickets in the recipient’s location plus an ice cream cone certificate. Ask for help from a local STC member. (An alternative gift might be a voucher for a fifteen-minute chair massage.)
10. Create hoopla at a face-to-face event. STC gatherings include local chapter and regional meetings, and the annual conference celebrations. Stage a parade with music and noisemakers to mark the occasion. A crown or party hat for the recipient might add to the mood. Consider setting up a terminal with an Internet connection to enable chatting with those not there—and take digital photos for posting to STC Web sites.

Revisions, comments, and/or replacements for the items here are strongly encouraged to help develop these ideas over time (send to Judith Herr).

If we are to achieve a richer culture—rich in contrasting values—we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.—Margaret Mead

In response to a recent question posted to the STC presidents’ mailing list, chapter leaders shared their ideas for recruiting volunteers when members don’t seem to be stepping up to the plate to take on leadership positions. Below is a summary of their ideas, which you might consider using if your chapter is experiencing a similar situation.

Note: Visit lists.stc.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=stc_pres to subscribe if you are a chapter president and not already a mailing list member. You might also find it helpful to read some of the articles on recruiting volunteers in the Administration section of the Tieline knowledge base.

From Jon Baker, Boston Chapter STC:

“[T]he best way to get people involved is to ask. One-on-ones work best. I’d identify six people in your chapter to approach. Then go ask. I might even double-team them—that is, have someone else on your chapter’s council and yourself tackle each candidate.

“One other note: I don’t know the size of your chapter, but normally one doesn’t volunteer for a council position. Election by the chapter membership is the preferred means of filling council positions. I realize that not all chapters have the luxury of holding elections.

“I would also get your Director involved, if your region still has one, or go to the Leadership Community Resource (LCR). Mary Jo Stark is the new leader of the LCR, which should have someone who can help.

“If that fails, you can then indicate to your chapter membership that the positions will remain open until someone steps up. If no one does, then suggest to the membership that the chapter will be dissolved. There is a process for chapter dissolution, which again your Director or the LCR can help with if it gets that far.”

From Al Hood, Atlanta Chapter STC:

“We had a bit of a crisis this last fiscal year in Atlanta when the first and second VPs had resigned midyear. Our membership was decreasing, participation all around was dropping, and things were looking pretty bleak. Holly [Harkness, chapter president,] stepped in and decided to do something. She started asking people to help. By phone and in person. It worked. Our membership is up by more than 10 percent. We have almost every position in the council filled. We have a full complement of officers with many new and young members stepping up. We have already heard some of the younger members talking about running for second VP this year.

“So just ask. It works.”

From Kit Brown, Snake River Chapter STC:

“We faced the same problem in the Snake River Chapter STC. The charter leadership was so burned out after ten-plus years that they just disappeared from the chapter. We held a leadership workshop with Mary Wise as presenter, and invited all chapter members to attend. This got some of the people excited about being more active.

“The other thing that I have been encouraging each person on the current board to do is to identify one or two people and start cultivating them by asking the new person to take on a specific, small—but doable—task. As people have success and have social interaction from it, they become more interested in taking on bigger things. I constantly remind people that you get what you give from the organization . . . and that STC is a safe and fun place to learn/practice skills that you might not get the opportunity to learn on the job.

“One of the biggest mistakes that leaders at all levels of the organization make is that we don’t delegate effectively, which means that no one gets groomed to take over our job . . . as soon as we take on a role, we should get in the habit of immediately identifying a couple of people to groom for the position.

“One of the problems is that STC is largely a community of introverts who are reluctant to raise their hand even if they have a burning desire to do something—unless someone asks them directly. Since you have an immediate need for new leadership, I would suggest that the current board divvy up the chapter list and contact everyone on it (prepare a script and some questions to ask everyone). Make sure that the council members are hovering near the doors during meetings and greeting everyone who walks in—and asking them a question about an interest or what they want to get out of the meeting. Also, spend a few minutes at the next board meeting identifying every volunteer opportunity in the chapter, and break them down into the smallest chunks possible. Then, as you are talking to people, don’t ask if they are interested in volunteering (which usually results in a knee-jerk no); instead, ask WHAT they are interested in volunteering for (subtle difference, but important). See if you can figure out a really good fit for each person you talk to.”

From Vici Koster-Lenhardt, TransAlpine Chapter STC:

“The TransAlpine Chapter STC is just going through this same situation.

“One thing to keep in mind is something that’s not discussed very often and in many ways is taboo: chapters go through inactive periods. And this is OK.

“Consider it a resting period. It gives everyone a chance to regroup, rethink, gather energy. When asking people directly doesn’t work, allow the community to rest. What does resting mean?

1. Inform the STC office about this rest period.
2. Keep your bank account active if you have a trustworthy person to oversee related transactions. If not, inform the STC office. They can provide some guidance.
3. If there are volunteers who are still keeping things going, such as the newsletter or Web site, encourage them to keep going.
4. Let community members know that the chapter is alive, just going through a rest period. Make it OK.
5. Keep the conversations going. New leaders will come and show interest. The worst situation you want to get into is asking someone to take on a leadership position who then says yes out of guilt (or the fact that no one else says yes). The low energy will reflect back on the community.
6. If no one steps up after six months, poll the community about shutting down the chapter. If people respond negatively and still no one steps up, wait another six months before taking any action to close down the community.
7. After one year of rest, if no one steps up, reevaluate the goals of the community. Maybe rechartering is necessary to get it off on a new start.
8. When new people do step up, recognize and communicate the end of the resting period and the new beginning!”

From Mike Ball, Boston Chapter STC:

“I have experienced this in another volunteer organization. I found the advice of an experienced association manager very helpful. Among his comments: Identify possible candidates and determine what spots or tasks you need filled, as specifically and in as much detail as possible. Ask a candidate directly—no e-mail—if he or she would be interested.

“Often it takes being able to define the job and to ask directly and very specifically. Many people are waiting to serve when asked.

“Honestly, having done this a number of times, I find the hard part is not in the asking, but rather in defining the roles and related duties adequately enough. You need to know the number of hours and exact duties.”

By Brenda P. Huettner, Fellow, Southern Arizona Chapter

For each issue of Tieline, a representative of the twenty STC Special Interest Groups (SIGs) shares wisdom, hints, and lessons learned on different aspects of facilitating virtual STC communities, whether subject matter- or geographically-based. Currently, SIG leaders are rapidly exploring various collaborative tools and management styles to provide benefits for their SIG members—and to recruit SIG volunteers and leaders.

As Edwin Schlossberg says, “True interactivity is not about clicking on icons or downloading files, it's about encouraging communication.” SIG leaders are working on just that. We hope that some of the information in this series will be applicable and helpful to other STC community leaders as well.

Judith M. Herr, STC SIG Advocate

All communities, virtual and geographic, exist for the benefit of their members. As a virtual community, however, it is sometimes difficult to know what most of the members will see as beneficial. When you don’t have the opportunity to regularly meet face to face with all or most of your members, you need to find other ways to gather information. One way to collect information is to conduct a survey.

Web-based survey tools allow you to quickly and inexpensively poll your members for whatever type of information you need. Currently available online survey tools make it quick and easy to turn out the type of survey you need, whenever you need it.

A well-designed, effective survey takes significant planning, design, and execution. Two very good resources are the STC Usability SIG resource page on surveys and Questionnaires in Usability Engineering: A List of Frequently Asked Questions (3rd ed.), compiled by Jurek Kirakowski of the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Cork in Cork, Ireland.

General Guidelines

Keep it short and simple! You’ll get better responses from shorter surveys than longer ones. People can get tired if a survey is too long or complex, and they might not bother to complete it. Worse, they might begin to randomly answer items just to get the survey over with, which will skew your results. As you build your questions, keep the following points in mind:

• Why are you conducting the survey? Before creating a survey, write down its goal. What is it you are trying to measure, and how will you use the information you gather from the respondents? As you formulate your questions, keep your goal in mind.
• Who will get the survey? Will you ask everyone in your community, or just a sample? Do you want responses from nonmembers? Do you want to allow people to respond more than once?
• How will the questions be phrased? For the most accurate results, make sure to keep the questions neutral. If your questions are biased, the answers will also be biased. Verify that all your questions directly address the goal of the particular survey. Unrelated questions will only distract respondents and clutter later analysis. Also, make sure to choose the appropriate question type. Most survey software packages allow you to create a variety of question types, such as true/false, fill in the blank, multiple choice, or “matrix” or “scale” questions.
• When will the survey be open, and when will it close? Most people who complete your survey will do so within a few days of receiving the announcement. Leaving the survey open for a longer time will not generate more responses unless you send out reminder messages.
• What will you do with the results? Make sure to include this information on the survey itself so that your members know what to expect. Will the results affect a specific decision (such as the topic of a workshop or timing of a meeting)? Will they be posted somewhere for your membership to see?

Before sending the survey to your whole team, run it past a small sample of respondents. A test run will help identify problem areas among the questions, validate possible answers, and check the general clarity and usability of the survey.

Survey Components

To get started, you need to decide what you want on each page. There’s typically some welcoming text at the start of a survey, and there may be specific instructions, a message from the community leaders, or other introductory information.

Then, of course, come the pages with your questions. While you want each page to be clear and easy to read, you don’t want to have so many pages that the respondents get tired or bored and cancel out in the middle. If you’ve remained focused on your original goal, you may have anywhere between three and ten total pages. You’ll also need to determine whether or not each question is required. Will the user be allowed to skip any of them?

The last part of your survey should be some sort of thank-you page. This may be hosted on the survey site—at the bottom of the last question page, perhaps—or it may be a page on your community site.

Once your pages are set up, define the other parameters of your survey. While this may vary a bit depending on the survey tool you use, basic components include:

• Open date. When can people begin to use the survey?
• Close date. When will you stop accepting responses?
• Security. Will you require a password? Will it be one password for everyone in your community, or will you require a unique password for each participant? Will you allow multiple responses from the same computer?
• Limits. How many responses will you accept?

The final step is to create the announcement and tell your members about the survey. Some tools allow you to enter e-mail lists and automatically generate the messages; others provide a link that you can send to your own e-mail list. It’s good practice to supplement the e-mail announcements in as many ways as possible. For the best response, talk about your survey at meetings, during phone calls, on your Web site, and in your newsletter. Once you know what your membership wants, you’ll be better able to provide it.

Software Packages

The following companies allow you to try out their survey packages for free.