Download MP3

In this podcast, STC President Linda Oestreich talks about the direction that the Society for Technical Communication is heading. She explains the strategic objectives of the STC and the ways the Board is trying to meet those objectives in a financially conscious way. She provides updates on other initiatives they’ve pursued, such as certification programs, increased recognition, and membership trends. Linda also talks about the awesome responsibility it is to be president of an organization of nearly 15,000 members worldwide.

Topics in this podcast include the following:

• The most pressing issue the Board of Directors has attempted to tackle this past year
• The reason the STC has to be financially conscious
• What STC members find truly valuable about the STC
• Updates about the ongoing interactions with the Bureau of Labor about changing the title and definition of “technical writer”
• Reasons for upward membership trends and company-value discounts
• Movements toward certification programs
• Attempts to provide recognition for members between senior member and associate fellow
• Problems interpreting what people mean by networking and publications
• The upcoming roadmap for the STC
• How much time the STC president spends in her position
• Advice she would give to the incoming president
• Why people should attend the upcoming STC Summit

Additional Resources

• STC
• Linda Oestreich’s bio
• To access News and Notes, Tieline, Intercom, or Tech Comm Journal, go to stc.org, log in, and view the options on the Publications menu.
• Upcoming STC Summit in Philadelphia
• Contact Linda at linda.oestreich@hp.com
• The blogroll and podroll links I mentioned.

Podcast Sponsors

MadCap Flare is the most versatile XML-based Help authoring tool on the market, with thousands of customers using MadCap products including Microsoft, Google, HP, GE, yahoo and the list goes on. Check out Flare version 3.1 and a host of other new tools at at madcapsoftware.com.

Lunar Pages offers basic web hosting starting at $6.95. When you sign up for a basic hosting account, you get 350 GB of storage, 3500 GB of bandwidth per month, free tech support, Fantastico, and and dozens of other tools. If you’ve been thinking about starting your own self-hosted blog, contact Lunarpages.com to set it up.

Adobe – The Technical Communication Suite software offers a complete solution for authoring, managing, and publishing interactive instructional information from technical documents and books to online help systems, knowledge bases, interactive training, and eLearning content in multiple formats and languages. Learn more here.

To contact me, send me an email at tomjohnson1492@gmail.com.