Before I begin this post, I’d like to take a moment to apologize to many of my regular readers, to Mike and to STC. I’d posted about this project yesterday and then quickly deleted the post after truly stepping back to look at it (my bad for not “allowing the ink to dry” before publishing), though through the wonders of RSS and such, some of you already had an opportunity to read it. The fact is, that post sorely misrepresented my support for these much-needed efforts in STC, and it was unfairly snarky and negative in its tone. It was not a well-reasoned approach, and I fault myself for not keeping my misdirected emotions in check. I apologize to Mike and to all who are working to make STC better. Your efforts are appreciated, and I’m sorry for the undeserving words I penned yesterday.
I do support and applaud the efforts wrapped within Project Phoenix. I am extremely happy to see this happening, as I’ve advocated for the similar (at least with regard to brand identity, web presence and member support) for many years. These are initiatives that support STC’s fundamental presence, personality/community, and worth.
I know it’s easy to think “oh, another transformation”. I did (see apology above), but this is different. Prior transformation/reinvention efforts have been mainly focused on the inner workings of STC. This time, it’s right where the value is: public and member-facing (member-involving) improvements.
I will be joining these efforts in some capacity, and will be working to map much of what I have been doing for STC outside of STC’s former reach (think STC Ideas, Twitter involvement, and such) to these new efforts. For those who don’t know, I’m already involved with the community portal effort, and I’m offering to at least share insight if not get my hands dirty with membership improvement efforts. And in case you’re wondering about the portal, while there was a best-intentioned effort to launch it in July, there were some very critical infrastructure improvements that needed to be made before implementing it, and that’s why it’s been delayed (but moving – I think I see light!).
I encourage anyone reading this to get involved. I believe (and Mike and others are welcome to correct me if I’m mistaken) some initiatives are also looking for non-member involvement in some form to help steer efforts along the right path. We have many strong communities scattered about the globe, both in the form of physical chapters and networks and in the form of SIGs, various listservs and forums (STC and non-STC alike), and of course a prolific techcomm network of Twitter users. I see value in a strong core community that supports many of these other communities and members, both within and outside STC itself.
Please consider Mike’s message (below). And again, I apologize to all for my previous post.
This is the year we reinvent STC! We do so to better serve the increasingly diverse community of technical communicators. We are shifting our focus from STC the organization to STC as a collection of services and delivery channels that meet the professional needs of our members. To make this shift, we are becoming more market centered, understanding whom we serve and what they want and need. Today, I am extremely pleased to announce the start of Project Phoenix. This is the major program to bring about the shift to a market-focused STC. The project has the following goals:
- Transform the Society’s web presence to increase the value for current and future members
- Improve the relationship between the Society and its current and former members
- Increase the Society’s registered member base
- Grow the Society’s revenue while decreasing its reliance on dues-based revenue
- Establish the Society as the center of the online universe for technical communicators globally
- Dramatically overhaul the Society’s brand identity
- Increase the digital distribution of the Society’s publications
To help us meet these goals, we have engaged a team of specialists who have a proven track record helping organizations like STC. We are funding this engagement by not filling certain staff positions at this time. We are using that money to augment our staff with these specialists instead. We have created a special web page to keep you informed about Project Phoenix. We will be creating a community on our community network platform to encourage and support member input, feedback, and discussion about Project Phoenix. And we will be using our social media channels throughout the year to engage interested members and non-members alike.
I ask for everyone to look for some way to get constructively engaged in this project during this year. Together, we can build the new STC.
Michael Hughes
STC President
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And as one of the “most influential bloggers in Tech Comm” weighs in for it, I can feel the “Big Mo” starting to build. Thanks, Bill. Your input and the input of those who follow your blog will be valuable as we go along. And you’re absolutely right, we will want to hear from non-members as well. There is this large group of technical communicators we are not resonating with yet.
STC started strong last year by offering the gold membership package. I have already benefited from the value of that membership offering and would really like to take advantage of that (and the early-bird Summit 2011 registration) this next year.
Phoenix was one of my favourite characters in the X-Men; the Firey Phoenix represented the ability to get out of tough situations in Battle of the Planets. And of course, there’s the traditional mythology. I blogged at the beginning of this year that STC has me for another year, at least. Summit 2010 sealed the deal, but not because of anything I’ve seen, but of the things I’ve seen still being planned.
Thanks for taking responsibility for your itchy [publish] finger. I didn’t catch that post, but I understand the desire for the cynical venting so familiar to many of us. As a friend of mine once said, “Sometimes you need to be a bit cynical, otherwise you get depressed.”
I like to counter that with, “through cynicism we are better able to laugh at ourselves, and in the midst of it all we’ll find solutions.”
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