Questions posed by the Management SIG to 2nd VP Candidates
What are your thoughts about transformation? How will you help the incoming Board members gain an understanding of this initiative to continue this initiative as the outgoing Board members leave their positions?
The defined purposes of transformation are to help STC become stronger, more financially stable, more valuable to members, and better able to lead our profession. The earliest work done on the transformation very clearly lays out the goals, principles, landscape analysis, and vision for this initiative. I go back and review those statements every time I need to explain the transformation They define succinctly what the transformation is trying to do. I recommend that everyone read (or reread) them: http://www.stc.org/transformation/newsLetter1.pdf.
The transformation is simply a group of plans to improve many aspects of the society. I think presenting it as one huge initiative made it seem a bit overwhelming and may have overshadowed the basic ideas - to restructure membership to better serve current members and appeal to new members, to add education programs, to improve our use of technology to create efficiency and to deliver added services to members, and to support all our communities effectively.
In my opinion, the governance issues (changing sponsorship and representation) being hotly discussed now are not central to the success of the transformation and are distracting us from focusing on what is most important: creating more value for members. I am not implying that these issues are not important, but I do question whether they needed to be raised at this time and in this way.
This phrasing of Question 1 is interesting, because I would be an incoming board member! However, I believe I understand the overall transformation initiative as well as any Board member. I have helped to write many of the board communications about the transformation (and was frustrated by how few there were), and I have also worked on the membership and education transformation committees. I also believe that it is not only important for incoming Board members to understand the transformation, but also for new board members to provide the Board with a fresh perspective.
As the transformation process continues, it will be important for the Board to communicate better with all members about what is planned and implemented. Strong communication using multiple channels will help keep all members aware of ongoing changes, so all future incoming Board members should have a good understanding of the transformation as it progresses
The 2nd VP must be able to manage the Directors. What is your plan for managing this diverse group with the geographical dissolution occurring in the near future? Will this make the job easier or more difficult?
Managing or working with any diverse group requires skills like listening (and hearing), understanding different perspectives, recognizing cultural differences, and respecting a range of learning and working styles. Though the 2nd VP doesn't actually manage the Directors, I believe that working with the them will, in fact, be far easier than working with many other groups. Anyone who runs for STC office is doing it by choice, and is hard-working, focused, and dedicated to the success of the organization.
Each elected Director represents all member of STC when they make decisions about the welfare of the Society. Regardless of whether regions are dissolved or how the issues of sponsorship are resolved, Directors need to have that overall perspective to make appropriate decisions.
I am quite comfortable working with or managing the Directors, and then eventually doing the same with the entire Board when I am President. When I was President of the Boston chapter long ago, we were the largest chapter in STC. We had a large board, lots of standing committees, ongoing activities, and many opinions. We may all have been from Boston, but we were definitely a diverse group!
How will you apply any experience you've had managing projects and people to the STC Society-level leadership role of 2nd VP?
For most of my career I have managed consulting projects. The team members were different on almost every project, selected to meet specific client needs, but the principles of managing projects and people are the same. Learn from the situation and from each other. Evaluate alternatives. Decide on a strategy and plan how to get it done. Re-evaluate your decisions at logical points. Communicate at every step of the way.
When SOLUTIONS, my former company, developed a curriculum of public seminars on technical communication, I worked closely with industry leaders to develop each seminar. It was a joy to collaborate with smart, thoughtful, dedicated, opinionated people from all over the world. I look forward to that opportunity again on the STC Board.
I taught project management courses for seven years in the University of California, Santa Cruz Extension program on Managing the Development of Technical Information. I also developed and taught a range of project management courses for public seminars and clients.
How do you think management and STC support for the SIGs change as part of the entire Society transformation process?
Chapters have had more support than SIGs in the past, but I believe that people now understand that all communities in STC need strong and equitable support. As I write this, just a few days after the town hall conference call to discuss representation, the related issues of support and representation for communities are being widely discussed and debated. The questions being discussed now revolve around how best to provide the support that communities need. The Board has indicated that its preferred approach is to develop a Leadership Community that is separate from the Board, though how that will be implemented has not yet been clearly defined or communicated. Whatever approach is ultimately chosen, support for SIGs must be as strong as support for chapters.
SIGs will need to transform too. The new membership options allow members to join only SIGs if they wish. That means that SIGs now need to take on the responsibilities of being a primary source of value to members and also a primary conduit of information. The responsibility for providing information became apparent in this election, as we realized that SIGs could no longer assume that all members would get information about candidates from their chapter newsletters and websites.
Now that the commitment has been made to recognizing SIGs as communities "equal" to chapters, other changes will have to follow. An obvious area for change is SIG finances and budgets; I expect that eventually a standard community financial model will evolve that encompasses all communities. Over time, I would also expect that SIGs will begin to develop their own competitions, education programs, conferences, recognition programs, and more.
Many within the Society see corporate sponsorship, at the Society, chapter, and SIG levels, increasing in value. How would you, as 2nd VP, identify, solicit, and promote corporate support?
Corporate recognition and sponsorship of STC is critical if we are to become a leader and advocate for our profession, which is one of the stated goals of transformation. I have always felt this was something STC needed to pursue more aggressively.
I strongly advocate creating am STC Board of Advisors, consisting of senior corporate managers who understand that quality information adds value to their organization. This level of corporate involvement will help us define the skills and roles that will allow us to stay employed and diversify our jobs. We can then use that information to create training programs that better match industry needs.
Participating companies will benefit by helping us provide them with better-educated, better-prepared employees who understand the business value of their work. We can work with corporate advisors to develop cross-industry standards, to promote best practices, and to examine how the technical communication and user experience disciplines interact to add value and support their customers.
Once we begin to promote the value of our work more aggressively, we can solicit financial sponsorship. A good starting point is to solicit support for recognition programs, such as competitions and awards. For example, just as Westinghouse became synonymous with awards for high-school science, we can find sponsors who wish to be associated with our Best in Show awards for our international competitions. Similarly, we should be able to develop sponsor programs for conferences, student scholarships, and continuing education programs.
At the chapter level, corporate support is often related to geography. In the early 1990s, I began a Boston chapter corporate liaison program. We were able to gain a great deal of financial support from local companies that wanted to make a public commitment to quality communication products, and also from companies that were simply interested in supporting us as a form of advertising their services.
Corporate sponsorship for SIGs is likely to revolve around companies and organizations aligning with a practice area or industry segment that matters to them. For example, companies that are highly regulated might be interested in sponsoring relevant SIGs (perhaps the Quality SIG or the Environmental, Safety & Health SIG) to demonstrate their commitment to quality regulatory writing. Some SIGs (like the Single-Sourcing SIG or Indexing SIG) might find the best corporate sponsors to be tool vendors. As SIGs mature, the SIG leaders can regularly evaluate and investigate sponsorship possibilities.
The candidate for 2nd VP is making a four year commitment to the leadership of the Society. Four years allow for the 2nd VP to make significant impact. What is your vision of the Society after you complete your tenure?
Four years is indeed a long time, and this is an exciting four years. STC has committed to change, and most of the initial changes will be completed in that time. Here is my vision for STC in 2009, when I would finish my four-year term.
STC has made strides in leading the profession. We have defined what we do and have we articulated our value. We have organized working groups to develop common standards. Our SIGs are defining and promoting best practices for their areas. We are working with other organizations to integrate and promote all the communication and user experience disciplines. New SIGs have formed to address new interest areas, which could be anything -- perhaps content management, localization, digital imaging, knowledge management?
Membership has begun to grow again, particularly in key areas targeted by the membership committee. Even more countries are represented than today and a smaller percentage of total members are from the US. We have a more global perspective and have moderated our US-centric tendencies.
Our education programs have greatly expanded. We now offer affordable STC-sponsored certificates in several specialty areas, with curricula developed by the SIGs in conjunction with an education committee. (Note that I am not suggesting formal certification, but rather a method of offering an affordable continuing education program to promote career growth.) Classes are offered online and at conferences if appropriate. Webinars are tied to specific programs. Many of the programs aim at expanding the skills of advanced technical communicators who have "topped" out in their present roles. Our education committee confers with representatives of academic technical communication programs to ensure that the curricula of the academic programs meet the needs of industry.
Our strongest SIGs have grown and gained parity with chapters (including taking responsibility for being the primary connection to the society for some members). Small or struggling SIGs have found a model that works for them or joined with another SIG or a different society. SIGs have begun their own competitions and small conferences and have become self-funding. All SIGs offer active forums for discussion and collaboration, using web-based technology the society provides to all communities. Local SIGs are now affiliated with society SIGs as well as (or perhaps instead of) chapters.
Chapters are less dependent on dues rebates and have added other sources of income. Smaller chapters may have merged with other chapters or joined together in other formations. For example, the TransAlpine chapter, which covers five European countries, only meets as a group twice a year. But it has grown several small Local Interest Groups (LIGs), which meet more regularly. This model could easily be transferred to a group of smaller chapters that wish to remain together somehow, but are too small to be a viable chapter on their own.
Competitions now accept entries in several languages. SIGs hold competitions too and have added categories appropriate to their interest areas.
The Annual Conference continues as a wonderful central gathering place. SIGs now "own" some of the stems and are responsible for populating them. For example, the Management SIG Conference Committee evaluates and determines the sessions for the Management stem. Paid remote attendance at some conference sessions is starting to be considered. Some SIGs have a small conference each year. Regional conferences continue, though the "regions" may no longer be simply geographically proximate, but instead are other groupings of chapters and perhaps even SIGs.
Every member has a portal to the society on their desktop. Technology support is available for all society and community activities (judging forms are online, all conference forms are online, etc.) All technology is web-based and centralized, using standard technologies for ease of maintenance and scalability. This consistency has reduced the administrative overhead for both volunteers and staff, saving us all time and money and improving our access to the information we want.
My vision IS just a vision, and many of these ideas may not come to pass within four years, or ever. But my eyes are open to seeing many things that STC can be, and I would like to see us all move forward with our eyes open to lots of exciting possibilities.
