August 12 - August 12 Happy Hour Cruise

Speaker:

STC Wisconsin members and friends: Join us aboard the beautiful and historic Iroquois lake cruiser for an evening of nautical hobnobbing. $20 is all it takes to cover the cost of the cruise, happy hour and your fill of delicious sailor's fare. You'll board at the dock on the Milwaukee River and depart for a scenic tour of the harbor. The dock is located on the RiverWalk, near the Grand Avenue Mall and the cruise takes about an hour and a half.

June 9 - June Meeting: Two Hats, One Head

Speaker: Kathleen McIlraith

Kathleen McIlraith has long been an instructional designer and developer. She added technical writing to her skill set in 2008. In addition to her work as a content, training, courseware and curriculum developer, Kathleen is also a public speaker. She is currently employed with InsideOut Development in Utah as a Web Writer and recently won an award from the STC Instructional Design and Learning SIG. Kathleen's educational background inlcudes a Bachelors of Science in Education from UW-Stevens Point and a Master of Education from Sul Ross State University in Texas.

The dual roles of Technical Writer and Training Developer can be challenging, energizing, and sometimes confusing. How are they alike, and how are they different? Find out if you're ready to wear two hats!

May 11 - May Meeting: Guidelines for Creating Translation-Ready Documents

Speaker: Catherine Deschamps-Potter, International Communication by Design, Inc.

Catherine Deschamps-Potter is Vice-President of Sales and Marketing and co-owner of International Community by Design, Inc., a language services provider headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Catherine holds a Masters degree in Business and Financial Management from the French Ecole de Commerce et de Gestion France. She has been involved in the management, sales, and production aspects of translation and localization for 19 years.

Lionel Lim is an SDL Trados certified Project Manager at ICD. He has been working at ICD for the last 3 years. He authors ICD’s Blog: “Translate 2 Evolve” and has been published in Multilingual Magazine. He has also spoken at the STC Annual Conference. He earned his Bachelor of Arts at the University of North Texas in English-Technical Writing where he graduated with Cum Laude Honors.

This presentation outlines important guidelines to consider when creating English content so it is easier and more cost effective to translate.

April 14 - April Chapter Meeting: Working with a Recruiter

Speaker: Michael Maniaci (Exacta Corp), Dave Schlee (Kforce)

Mike Maniaci has over 13 years experience in technology training, sales and recruiting. For the last 8 years he has be Branch Recruiting Manager for Exacta Corporation. Exacta Corporation is a Wisconsin based technology staffing and consulting company.

Dave Schlee of Kforce has 16 years of sales experience, specializing in Solution Based Selling of IT Services including IT Infrastructure, Telecommunications, and Application based project development.

Join this panel discussion and learn how to form a productive relationship with a recruiter. Find out how you can help recruiters fill positions and how they can help you remain happily employed!

March 10 - March Meeting: Simplified Technical English (STE)

Speaker: John Hoh, Astronautics Corporation of America

John L. Hoh, Jr. is a technical writer at Astronautics Corporation of America. He joined Astronautics in April 2008 after 12 years documenting medical devices at GE Healthcare and Criticare. With writing skills and language training, John entered the exciting and glamorous world of technical writing. As aviation has English as the default language, it is an industry that seeks to simplify communication in English, John learned the use of STE.

In some industries, English is the default language. In other cases, writers need to be aware of translation issues. Simplicity and commonality are preferred. Controlled natural languages (CNLs) seek to achieve that simplicity and commonality. Simplified Technical English (STE) is one CNL that is used in aviation and increasingly by translators for ease of translation. This presentation will have a brief overview of CNLs, English adaptations of CNL, and what Simplified Technical English itself is. A wrap-up will discuss how to get trained in STE, what to look for in STE software programs, and communicating with the STE vendor.

February 18 - *** RESCHEDULED DATE *** Using a Wiki to Develop User Documentation

Speaker: Cheryl Schmelzer and Denise Allan, RedPrairie Corporation

Cheryl Schmelzer has over 20 years of experience in the field of user assistance. She began her career as a technical writer at Johnson Controls and then spent some time working as a technical communications consultant. In April, 1998, she joined RedPrairie as an Information Architect focusing on the online help and supporting documentation for the RedPrairie inventory management solution. She is now the Director of Publications, and while she continues to develop product documentation, her main objective is to advance the department by supporting the research and implementation of new technologies to improve efficiencies and the quality of the product that the team delivers. Employing a wiki to develop user documentation is the most current initiative that the team has undertaken. Prior to that, solutions for single sourcing, file management and e-learning module development were implemented. Cheryl has a bachelor’s degree in Management and Communications from Concordia University.

Denise Allan has been working as a technical communicator since 1992, creating documentation for companies in the automation and logistics execution industries. She has been with RedPrairie for 12 years, and is currently the Manager of Publications. In addition to managing a team, Denise creates and edits content for the company’s online help and paper publications. Most recently Denise has explored how to use a wiki for content management and collaborative authoring, and has successfully led several initiatives to transfer documentation to RedPrairie’s wiki. Denise has a bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication from the Milwaukee School of Engineering, and is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication.

So what exactly is a wiki, and why are wikis becoming more valuable as a technology for creating user documentation? These are two of the questions that Denise Allan and Cheryl Schmelzer will address in their presentation that explains why and how the writers at RedPrairie have modified their documentation development process by migrating content to a wiki and then relying on collaborative authoring. More specifically, in the presentation, you will learn about:

• their reasons for moved to a collaborative authoring environment
• their reason for choosing a wiki as their development tool
• their wiki documentation development and review processes
• the final output that they deliver to their customers, and
• other opportunities to consider to enhance accessibility to user assistance.

In addition, you will see

• demonstrations of how they actually manage the development of product documentation in the wiki, and
• samples of their final output.

December 8 - CANCELED: Working With a Recruiter & Holiday Meeting

Speaker: Kristy Harmann

Kristy Harmann is stepping in for our original speaker, Jen Anderson. Kristy is a Technical Recruiter with Compuware Corporation. She has recruited Professional IT Consultants for the past few years in the Milwaukee market and more recently has been recruiting for the Twin Cities as well. She is a lead recruiter for the Business Intelligence & Data Warehouse, Operations Management, and Technical Communications lines of business at Compuware. Prior to Compuware, she was a recruiter for several years at a local college. Her local affiliations include the International Institute for Business Analysis and Society for Technical Communication.

Catch up with your fellow STC members. Chat about vacation stories and what's happening at work. Network and mingle before Fall turns into the busy Holiday Rush! Whether you're working or not today, you will probably work with a recruiter at some point in your career. This meeting will also feature a talk by Jen Anderson of Compuware will also be presenting "Working with a Recruiter" at our next meeting. Topics will include: * Resumes: Getting to the Top of the Stack * Managing the Candidate-Recruiter Relationship * Current Milwaukee Market Trends * Interview Best Practices STC Wisconsin holds a Hunger Task Force food drive! The recession has hurt us all. Throughout the community people are suffering job loss and struggling to make ends meet. Consider bringing food items to the Holiday Meeting. We'll collect the donations and make sure they get to Hunger Task Force. Let's share our bounties with those in need!

November 11 - The Cost of Conversion

Speaker: De Murr

De has over 25 years experience in technical writing, project management, and functional management. During those years, she has planned, managed, and implemented a number of conversions of authoring tools, operating processes, and computer systems. Her talk is drawn from these experiences and highlights the costs of converting any system.

De works as a consultant and assists clients in developing technical information about their products and services.

A member of STC since 1983 and an STC fellow, De has served in many community leadership roles, including chapter president of both Houston Chapter and San Fernando Valley Chapter and manager of the Management SIG. Additionally, she has served at the international level in many roles, including ITPC manager, assistant secretary to the Board, Nominating committee member, and conference stem manager. She received the 2006 President’s Award for assisting in hiring STC's Executive Director. De is a member of the 2009-10 Associate Fellows Nominating Committee.

Your boss comes in and tells you that the company is making a strategic business decision and part of that decision affects the way that you are delivering the company’s technical information. It is going to require that you change the way that you produce documentation. You have a pretty good idea that you are going to have change software tools. You suspect that you will have some process changes. But where do you start!

De Murr will talk about some of the issues you will need to address as you plan your conversion. She will also talk about how you determine those tasks that are required and those that are optional. And most importantly, she will give you guidelines on how to calculate the cost of your conversion.

Please note, for program promotion purposes, photographs may be taken of participants. If you do not wish to have your photo taken, please inform the photographer.

November 11 - test

Speaker:

October 7 - Morphing the Muddle: Freelance Writing and Editing

Speaker: Mary Ellen Schutz, Gentle Editing

Mary Ellen freelances, with clients ranging from a financial think-tank to a biodiesel production company, a semiconductor manufacturer to a local veterinarian, Sybex books and individual authors to the Urban League of Greater Madison, UNICEF, and the Emotional Endurance Institute. She is a member of the board of directors for the Madison Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications and serves as secretary for the Four Lakes (Madison) Chapter of STC.

Mary Ellen attended Michigan State University and holds degrees in Urban Planning and Electrical Engineering. She worked as a school facilities planner and a zoning officer in her first career, before returning to school for her engineering degree. A perpetual student at heart, Mary Ellen found that writing and editing provided the opportunity to indulge her love of learning and collect a paycheck. She was the lead writer for Zenith Data Systems, Groupe Bull, for 8 years, writing computer hardware, software, BIOS and other firmware, driver, field and depot service documentation and leading the documentation team. For 14 years, Mary Ellen worked as senior technical writer and translation coordinator for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. There, she produced online help; tutorials; and user, technical, and service manuals for a variety of scientific instruments. As translation coordinator, she managed the difficult task of global translations and price comparisons for Thermo Fisher's extensive documentation. Mary Ellen lives with her children and 6 cats in Madison, Wisconsin. You can visit her online at www.GentleEditing.net.

Mary Ellen Schutz, your Gentle Editor, introduces the world of freelance writing and editing. A gifted writer and editor with more than 20 years experience working in the computer, scientific instrument, and publishing industries, Mary Ellen shares what it takes to successfully morph engineer, scientist, programmer, mathematician, and entrepreneur into author.

Learn about:

• Editorial roles
• Levels of edit
• Style guides, templates, and other indespensible resources
• Working with authors, sources, and other editors
• Working for yourself

Mary Ellen helps authors morph "muddle" into clear concise lessons.

~ Geordie Martinez, Technical Editor, Sybex, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Please note, for program promotion purposes, photographs may be taken of participants. If you do not wish to have your photo taken, please inform the photographer.

September 9 - American Dialects are Alive and Well

Speaker: Joan Houston Hall

Please join us on the evening of September 9th as we welcome Joan Houston Hall, distinguished speaker and editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. Joan will present "American Dialects Are Alive And Well," a tour of the delightfully different ways English is spoken in our country.

Joan has a Ph.D. in English from Emory and she has been on the staff of the Dictionary of American Regional English since 1975. She has also been President of the American Dialect Society and of the Dictionary Society of North America, and she has served on advisory boards for Oxford University Press, National Public Radio's "A Way with Words," and the journals American Speech, the Journal of English Linguistics, and Verbatim.

Take this opportunity to learn, network, and turn over a new leaf in anticipation of fall. See what your local STC chapter has in store for you. We hope to see you there!

5:30 p.m. Networking and hors d'oeuvres

7:00 p.m. Presentation

Please note, for program promotion purposes, photographs may be taken of participants. If you do not wish to have your photo taken, please inform the photographer.

August 26 - Webinar: Functional Forms Design: Putting Pragmatism Before Aestheticism

Speaker: Eric Spears

Eric Spears has over 10 years' experience in forms, visual communication and design in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. His work has received awards from the International Association of Business Communicators, the Society for Technical Communication, and Writing that Works (awards for Publication Excellence). Mr. Spears has provided design solutions for diverse clients, such as the US Federal Trade Commission, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to his design work, Mr. Spears has experience in conducting forms-design training, literature reviews, heuristic analyses, and large- and small-scale consumer testing.

For much of its history, the field of graphic design has established and forwarded the notion that beauty is the primary goal of design. While aesthetic considerations make sense for a vast majority of design projects, the design of forms and other business communications requires more than just an artistic eye for businesses to communicate effectively with their employees and clients. This live web seminar explores the principles of pragmatic forms design that, when applied correctly, help designers to strike a balance between the pragmatic and the aesthetic.

August 5 - Webinar: Creating Visual Training with Adobe Captivate 4

Speaker: Neil Perlin

Neil Perlin has 30 years experience in technical communication, with 24 in training, consulting, and development for various online formats and tools including WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, JavaHelp, WebHelp, RoboHelp, ForeHelp, Flare, and many now known only in legend. Neil is a columnist and frequent speaker for STC, IEEE PCS, and other professional groups, a member of STC's Boston Chapter, the creator and manager of the Beyond the Bleeding Edge stem at STC's annual conference from 1999 to 2006, and an STC Associate Fellow. Neil is a MadCap Certified Instructor for Flare and Mimic, and an Adobe-certified instructor for RoboHelp and Captivate. He provides training, consulting, and development for online help and documentation tools and concepts through Hyper/Word Services of Tewksbury, MA.

For years, software training was primarily text-based... a Word or Framemaker document with a few screen shots. It worked, but think how much more effective it might be to have someone "walk you through the steps," if only virtually. That's where tools like Captivate come in. Captivate lets you capture what's on the screen as you perform a software-based task, save those screens as a "filmstrip," add explanatory and instructional captions, special effects, and interactivity features, and play the result back as a "movie." It's a deceptively simple but powerful tool that lets you create movies for use as marketing demonstrations, software training, role-playing simulations, even fairly powerful eLearning, all of which can stand alone or be integrated into websites or topics in online help. Those movies are very flexible; they can run locally on users' PCs or from a network drive or website.

July 29 - Webinar: Best Practices for Blogging

Speaker: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson is a senior technical writer for a non-profit organization in Salt Lake City, Utah. He holds a BA in English from Brigham Young University and an MFA in Literary Nonfiction Writing from Columbia University. In addition to his professional work, Tom participates in a number of online activities and writes an active technical communications blog at idratherbewriting.com. He records podcasts, often interviewing technical writing luminaries around the world. Tom founded WriterRiver.com, a Twitter-like social news site where anyone can submit links to articles about technical communication. And he is a WordPress blog consultant, offering both training and design services.

Although many people feel blogging is an activity with no best practices or rules (you publish what you want, when you want, and how you want), these same bloggers usually crave readership, comments, and visibility. They want to have successful blogs that connect with a wide audience in an influential way. Making your blog influential, however, with readers who are more than just casual subscribers but who are actual devoted followers, requires you to give consideration to some best practices for blogging. Beyond search engine optimization, readability, and format, these best practices include crafting posts with story, revealing appropriately, and connecting with users through an engaging voice.

July 22 - Webinar: Today's Agile Documentation

Speaker: Megan Leney

Megan Leney has 15 years of experience in the software industry, and has worked as a technical communicator for 9 years. Megan is currently a senior information developer at Symantec Corporation. Prior to joining Symantec, Megan worked for VeriSign, Inc., and Apple. In her previous tenure at VeriSign, Megan served as an expert on Agile Documentation, leading the charge to integrate VeriSign's Documentation team into the developer-run Agile/SCRUM process. She wrote Agile documentation standards, and evangelized Agile documentation best practices to key stakeholders in the engineering organization. Megan presented at the 2008 LavaCon Conference on Professional Development, and at the 2009 Society for Technical Communication conference. Megan is a member of the STC Silicon Valley Chapter.

Agile development has evolved over the past several years, and so have the technical communicators that work in Agile development environments. This live web seminar explores recent trends in Agile, and how documentation teams at Symantec apply current Agile thinking in their day-to-day work. Some of the trends include: more frequent deployment and testing, less co-location, more accountability and transparency, and closer relationships with customers. In addition to providing an overview of current trends in Agile documentation, this live web seminar also presents findings from a survey of Agile documentation team members. The survey collects information on what's working well, and which best practices contribute most to the successful integration of Symantec's documentation teams into the Agile process. Attend this live web seminar to learn tips, tricks, current trends, and best practices that can enhance your experience as a technical communicator working with Agile development teams.

July 18 - DITA In a Day: Production Workshop--CANCELLED

Speaker: Leigh White

Leigh White is a technical communicator with over 15 years of experience as a content creator, content manager, and production coordinator. One of her primary interests is exploring ways that small technical publications groups can leverage existing tools and improve processes to maximize the reuse of their content, improve their efficiency, increase their offerings and save their sanity. To accomplish these goals, Leigh advocates that effective technical communicators need to be more than writers; they need to be part programmer, part designer and part project manager. She is also a devotee of XML and structured documentation and she believes that DITA might just save the world. Her other professional interests include DTD and XSLT design, FrameMaker template design, and relational database design for small, proprietary content management systems. When she is not parked in front of a computer, Leigh enjoys reading, running, hiking, bouldering, photography, motorcycles and a variety of other rather dangerous activities.

"So I've got a pile of DITA topics. Now what?" This full-day workshop shows you the different ways you can assemble topics for different audiences and outputs. The focus is on hardcopy/PDF output and HTML output. The day begins with a detailed hands-on look at ditamaps, the building blocks of your publications. You'll learn how to assemble topics and set ditamap-level attributes that enable you to customize the output. In addition, you'll create ditaval files and use them to filter the output to include or exclude certain content based on attribute values. Next, the workshop introduces you to the FO Plug-in (for PDF generation) and covers some of the most common customization issues. You'll then learn about some of the HTML formats, such as XHTML, HTML Help, Web Help, JavaHelp and Eclipse Help. Finally, the workshop takes you through the DITA Open Toolkit (OTK), explaining the major parts and how each works, including stylesheets and build files.

Attendees are writers, editors, content managers—anyone who needs to create modular, reusable, structured documentation. Ideally, attendees should have a basic knowledge of the principles of XML and topic-based, structured authoring, though such knowledge is not absolutely necessary.

Computers and software are provided.

July 11 - DITA In a Day: Content Modeling Workshop

Speaker: Leigh White

Leigh White is a technical communicator with over 15 years of experience as a content creator, content manager, and production coordinator. One of her primary interests is exploring ways that small technical publications groups can leverage existing tools and improve processes to maximize the reuse of their content, improve their efficiency, increase their offerings and save their sanity. To accomplish these goals, Leigh advocates that effective technical communicators need to be more than writers; they need to be part programmer, part designer and part project manager. She is also a devotee of XML and structured documentation and she believes that DITA might just save the world. Her other professional interests include DTD and XSLT design, FrameMaker template design, and relational database design for small, proprietary content management systems. When she is not parked in front of a computer, Leigh enjoys reading, running, hiking, bouldering, photography, motorcycles and a variety of other rather dangerous activities.

The STC Wisconsin, Four Lakes and Twin Cities communities cooperatively present everything you need to know about DITA in July. Leigh White returns to the Midwest share her DITA expertise. The workshops provide practical, hands-on experience to creating DITA modular, reusable, structured documentation, and ways to assemble topics for different audiences and outputs.

Following an overview of the principles of structured authoring (with a focus on the DITA model), you’ll apply those principles to your own content. Working with the instructor, you’ll physically deconstruct a current publication (or part of one), breaking it down into individual, self-contained, reusable topics. Next, you apply some basic DITA markup to the topics to begin understanding the relationship between the elements and your actual content. After markup, you’ll consider how you could create multiple publications from various combinations of those topics and what kind of changes you might need to make to the topics’ verbiage and organization to maximize their reusability.

As this workshop is an exercise in modeling your own content, you must bring a printed copy of your material to work with. Suggested is a chapter of a manual that is between 20-30 pages and contains material that is representative of your publications in general. Also, bring scissors, tape and pack of index cards and a highlighter. If you do not produce hardcopy/PDF documentation, then bring an electronic copy of your online output as well as a representative sample of printed individual topics (20-30). If you are bringing electronic material, please bring a laptop as well. Otherwise, you will not need a laptop, though feel free to bring one.

Attendees are writers, editors, content managers—anyone who needs to create modular, reusable, structured documentation. Although this workshop focuses on DITA, the principles you learn can be applied to any structured, XML-based authoring model, such as DocBook or a proprietary model.

June 24 - June Webinar: Easy-to-Use Flash Templates for Multimedia Content Delivery

Speaker: Rob Hogarth, Lesley Kelly and Julie Santilli

Rob Hogarth has been working as a multimedia developer since 1995, and has been developing products with Flash since that application's inception in 1998. Rob has worked for IBM in various designer capacities for 8 years and most recently he has worked at the IBM Toronto Media Design Studio for 5 years as a multimedia developer. Since then he has been responsible for creating numerous Flash demos and tours, and his product tour template system is currently in the process of being patented. Rob has given demonstrations of the Product Tour Template package to various development groups within IBM. Lesley Kelly joined IBM in 1989 where she wrote technical documentation for a variety of software products. In 1997 she moved into the IBM Toronto Media Design Studio as a project manager, where she has continued to edit and write guidelines, best practices, and user documentation for projects within that group. Working with Rob Hogarth, she wrote the user documentation for the Product Tour Templates. Lesley has extensive experience creating and presenting workshops and demonstrations to a wide audience, and has presented the Product Tour Template to various development groups within IBM. Julie Santilli joined IBM in 1993 as a visual designer. Since then she has become the Creative Director for the IBM Toronto Media Design Studio. Most recently she became the technical leader of the development team responsible for creating a suite of productivity tools for use by visual designers and technical communicators in IBM. The Product Tour Template is one of these tools. Gathering requirements from the technical communication and visual design communities across IBM, Julie has spearheaded the design and usability of the Product Tour Templates, and has presented demonstrations of the tool to various groups within IBM.

This demonstration shows how a Flash and XML template system can be used to allow technical communicators who are not familiar with Flash coding, to assemble a multimedia product tour using only basic XML and existing text content and screen recorded files. The final end product is a Flash file that can be distributed as a standalone executable, or it can be embedded into existing information delivery systems.

June 20 - June Workshop: Social Media

Speaker: Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

Scott Abel is a content management strategist and structured XML content evangelist, whose strengths lie in helping organizations improve the way they author, maintain, and deliver their information assets. Scott's blog, The Content Wrangler, is a popular online resource for technical writers with an interest in content management. Scott's social networking site, The Content Wrangler Community, is a global network of content professionals that attracts thousands of members from around the world. A founding member of Content Management Professionals, Scott previously served as Executive Director of the organization.
Scott writes regularly for trade and industry publications, blogs, and newsletters. He also is program manager for several industry events - the Web Content conference series and Intelligent Content 2010.

Session 1 - Twitter: Who Cares What Your Doing Right Now, Anyway?
Twitter. It's everywhere. Newscasters mention it. Political analysts point to its influence. Marketers use it to get messages out. Journalists and bloggers use it for research. Regular folks use it to keep up with their friends, family, and co-workers. And, people of all types use it for entertainment, research, and education. But, Twitter is more than all of these things combined. It's a revolution in content publishing and its changing forever -- or at least for now -- how we communicate what's important to us to those who want to know.

Attend this session and you will learn:
- What Twitter is and why it matters
- How Twitter is related to text messaging
- How individuals, companies, and other organizations are using Twitter
- Really cool things you can do with Twitter that would be nearly impossible without it
- Twitter and Technical Communication

We'll also look at other useful online tools that are related to Twitter or that are built to rely on its API.

Session 2 - Understanding User-Generated Documentation: The FLOSS Manuals Story

User-generated documentation. Technical communicators often cringe when they hear the phrase. After all, how can we trust end-users to create documentation? They don't have the knowledge, experience, nor the tools to do the job. Or do they?

This presentation explores recent advances in the user-generated documentation movement by examining FLOSS Manuals, the open source web-based authoring and publishing platform that provides anyone with the desire to document free software with a set of free, wiki-like content creation and publishing tools. content creators and content consumers. Authors use FLOSS Manuals to create and publish content, while visitors to the FLOSS Manuals website can download free software manuals, purchase hard copies, and remix content from the documentation library.

Attend this session to gain an understanding of how FLOSS Manuals works, who's using it, and how its fresh, innovative approach is impacting our profession. A brief demonstration of the software will be provided.

June 19 - June Chapter Meeting: Intelligent Content Here and Now

Speaker: Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

Scott Abel is a content management strategist and structured XML content evangelist, whose strengths lie in helping organizations improve the way they author, maintain, and deliver their information assets. Scott's blog, The Content Wrangler, is a popular online resource for technical writers with an interest in content management. Scott's social networking site, The Content Wrangler Community, is a global network of content professionals that attracts thousands of members from around the world. A founding member of Content Management Professionals, Scott previously served as Executive Director of the organization.
Scott writes regularly for trade and industry publications, blogs, and newsletters. He also is program manager for several industry events - the Web Content conference series and Intelligent Content 2010.

Intelligent content. It sounds so futuristic, and yet, it's not. The methods, standards and technologies needed to create intelligent content solutions are here today.

This session will showcase examples of intelligent content found both on the world wide web and in private and government organizations today. Attendees will discover several innovative and useful examples that leverage the power of structured content to provide improved service, lower costs, and reduce effort. Real-world examples will be provided.

June 3 - Webinar: Creating Accessible Content for Online Learning

Speaker: Beth Stinson

Beth MacNeil Stinson holds a BA and MA in graphic arts and photography from the State University of New York at Albany. Capitalizing on her designing abilities and talent for explaining complex information to faculty, she quickly found herself building a career in higher education technical services. Beth moved from hardware training to software training as user needs matured. Along the way, she realized the tremendous benefits that computer technology could bring to people with disabilities if programs were designed better. After almost 20 years in higher education, Beth joined the software industry as a technical writer and instructional designer. Her advocacy for users and her desire that everyone have a positive experience with equal access to technology drives her work.

In this web seminar, the presenter tells the story of building and releasing an online course that teaches instructors how to help students achieve their educational goals by designing usable and accessible content. In addition, the presenter will describe the components of the course will be described as well as why this novel approach to faculty development has been successful in raising awareness, improving content, and directly impacting the outcomes of online learning.

May 20 - Webinar: Visually Displaying Information: Best Practices in Table Design

Speaker: Lara Whitman & Eli A. Mishkin

Lara Whitman is an expert in information design, plain language, and clear communication. She has worked with numerous government and private agencies to help them develop and design documents that are clear and easy-to-use for the reader. Ms. Whitman has served as a design/plain language consultant on large-scale redesign efforts. She has conducted expert reviews of technical documents, noting strong elements, weak elements, and methods to improve the language and design. Additionally, Ms. Whitman has served as the subject matter expert, instructional designer, and trainer for the development and delivery of a variety of information design trainings. Eli A. Mishkin is an information design specialist with more than seven years of experience. Mr. Mishkin has developed and presented trainings on plain language, process improvement, forms design (paper and web-based), and using technology in public and private sector organizations. Mr. Mishkin is currently working with a curriculum development team on a groundbreaking plain language e-learning course. Mr. Mishkin is an award-winning writer who publishes a regular newspaper column and contributes to trade publications, as well as presenting to industry organizations.

A table is a graphical technique designed to contain, organize, and present information. Tables can also be used to collect information, as in forms. However, tables can go terribly wrong when they're poorly designed. This session will include the definition of visual communication and how that relates to tables; a discussion about best practices, tips, and techniques for designing tables; and examples of "good" and "bad" table design.

May 12 - May Chapter Meeting: Using the S1000D Publication Standard

Speaker: Bernadette Koontz and John Hoh, Astronautics Corporation of America

Bernadette Koontz is the Supervisor of Manuals and Training at Astronautics Corporation of America in Milwaukee. Her career highlights include: documenting the process that makes the aluminum coil spools that are used to make pop cans, marketing communications for Fisher Scientific, writing operation and maintenance manuals for circuit breakers, signaling control systems, and armored military vehicles, writing proposals for nuclear power plants, preparing defense contract project documentation, writing and managing aircraft engine publications to rave reviews from the FAA. John L. Hoh, Jr., is a Technical Writer at Astronautics Corporation of America. His past experience includes writing manuals and training materials for medical devices (MRIs, X-rays, interventional cardiology, patient monitors, and HIS/RIS systems). John has also worked as a Technical Writer at Best Power (UPSs, emergency lighting) and C. G. Bretting (napkin folders).

Bernadette Koontz and John Hoh will discuss the purpose of the S100D standard, the process of implementation and the benefits of adopting the standard. S1000D is an international specification that serves as a guide for preparing technical publications for land, sea, and aerospace applications. This specification dictates format, structure, and content requirements for the publications and is applicable to military and commercial projects worldwide. The S1000D specification was initially developed by the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) (formerly the European Association for Aerospace Industries (AECMA). The U.S. Army is now embracing this universal standard in upcoming Version 4 which means that technical writers likely will be seeing it more and more in the U.S.

April 15 - Webinar: Choosing a Software Package

Speaker: John Hedtke

John Hedtke is the award-winning author of 25 books. He has 30 years in the software business, over 25 years writing, and 7 years in technical publications management. John has developed and written documentation and books for many leading software products, and has received 26 writing awards to date. A complete list of books, articles, projects, and awards can be found online at his website, . John owns a small company that offers writing and business consulting services for a variety of private, public, and governmental clients. John also does numerous radio and magazine interviews and frequently travels to do lectures and guest appearances at conferences and seminars. John was the last Region 7 Director on the Society for Technical Communication’s Board of Directors and is also a Fellow of the Society.

Choosing software for your department or company is not just a matter of checking the prices. The real cost of a product includes the price of the software and the cost of implementing it as well. This presentation by international, award-winning author John Hedtke will show you how to identify the features you need, the features you want, and the features you don’t care about. The presentation will also discuss ways to determine other important selection criteria, such as the hardware and operating system requirements, the product’s interoperability with other departments, new and intermediate user training requirements, and the need for continuing product support. You’ll see how to create a list of selection criteria that accurately reflects your needs and priorities, evaluate the products that may fulfill your criteria, and make a selection. The presentation will conclude with tips on evaluating the product’s appropriateness after you’ve been using it for a month or two. (The slides for the entire presentation, along with a variety of other resources, will be available for download through the presenter’s website.)

April 8 - April Chapter Meeting

Speaker: Jorge Acuna

Jorge is the publisher of Learning4Managers.com and provides consulting services in the areas of customer education, staff training and e-learning. He has launched several online learning initiatives, and oversees instructional design and Web development for a health care publisher in Milwaukee. As adjunct faculty of eCornell he facilitates leadership courses online for corporate learners in Spain. Jorge holds a BA in psychology, a Master's degree in Education with specialization in online training. He is currently enrolled in the MBA program at Capella University. Jorge has been a guest speaker at several regional and international conferences with expertise on training processes, staff development, quality of customer service, workplace safety, regulation and legislation issues, organizational culture, change management, publishing, and marketing.

This presentation explores the current state of e-learning, and the roles, skills and tools needed to make e-learning successful. During this session we'll compare academic e-learning approaches to commercial/business applications, discuss a variety of Learning Management System (LMS) and authoring software, and address the future of e-learning, m-learning (mobile learning), and individualized distance learning.

April 8 - Webinar: Developing An Information Model Using DITA

Speaker: Scott Wolff

Scott Wolff is CEO and Principal Consultant at WOLFF & Associates. WOLFF & Associates provides IT Consulting Services for publishing, including return on investment analysis, information modeling, XML, DTD and XSLT development. Scott's expertise includes XML, DITA and Component Content Management Systems (CCMS). Scott works with corporations and government organizations seeking to significantly reduce the cost of publications by implementing structured authoring for their product information. Prior to starting WOLFF & Associates, Scott worked for Hewlett Packard Company as a software engineer, CMS program manager, technical publication manager and a manufacturing engineer and manager. Scott holds a BS in Industrial Engineering an ME in Industrial Engineering, and an MS in Computer Science.

Considering DITA for implementing your documentation? This presentation will discuss conducting an effective information analysis to ensure a successful implementation. DITA provides a complete set of base information types from which to create technical documentation. However, successful information modeling requires understanding how to design an information solution that addresses both customer needs and authoring requirements. In this presentation, I will discuss the need to identify customer information goals as part of your information design. You will learn about the need to develop an information strategy, conduct a task analysis, and perform a metadata analysis as steps toward developing and documenting your information model. From an information model, your organization will be able to determine what specialized information types are needed and ensure that information is organized to meet the needs of your audience.

March 25 - Webinar: Captive Vs. Freelance: Making An Informed Decision

Speaker: John Hedtke

John Hedtke is the award-winning author of 25 books. He has 30 years in the software business, over 25 years writing, and 7 years in technical publications management. John has developed and written documentation and books for many leading software products, and has received 26 writing awards to date. A complete list of books, articles, projects, and awards can be found online at his website, . John owns a small company that offers writing and business consulting services for a variety of private, public, and governmental clients. John also does numerous radio and magazine interviews and frequently travels to do lectures and guest appearances at conferences and seminars. John was the last Region 7 Director on the Society for Technical Communication’s Board of Directors and is also a Fellow of the Society.

Have you ever thought that you might be cut out for the glamorous, high-paying, and rather bohemian lifestyle possible with a freelance existence? Not everyone is suited for freelance work, but neither is everyone suited for captivity. This one-hour presentation will identify the pros and cons for captivity (a.k.a., “fulltime” or “permanent” employment) and freelance work, then it will show the audience members how to identify their personal employment goals and how to fit these into the pros for each career path. There will also be suggestions for those who haven’t tried freelance work yet on how to get started freelancing on the side, something that could be of great value in the New Depression. (The slides for the entire presentation, along with a variety of other resources, will be available for download through the presenter’s website.)

March 19 - Webinar: Planning for Documentation Usability Testing

Speaker: Mary Deaton

Mary Deaton began as a technical editor at Microsoft in 1987 and this soon sparked an interest in improving the quality of both software products and documentation. This interest expanded over the years to a focus on online information design, interface design, user experience, and usability. In 2004, she earned a Masters in Technical Communication, with an emphasis on usability. She now does information architecture and usability for a variety of private clients. She also teaches usability, document design, and help authoring in Bellevue Community College's Certificate in Technical Communication.

Need some help getting started doing usability evaluation on a documentation project? This seminar walks you through the steps for determining how to define your target audience, how to set usability goals, how to determine an evaluation method appropriate to the goals, and how to report your findings in a way that helps prioritize what changes need to be made to improve usability. Audience: Technical communicators new to applying usability and user-centered design principles to evaluating and improving the documentation they produce.

March 18 - Webinar: Providing Effective Editing Comments

Speaker: Michelle Corbin and Paula Cross

Michelle Corbin is a Senior Technical Editor and Information Architect at IBM. She has been a technical communicator for 20 years, with the past 12 years being spent as a technical editor. She is an Associate Fellow of STC, and is currently the Managing Editor of Corrigo, the newsletter for the Technical Editing SIG of STC. Paula Cross is an advisory software engineer and a technical editor for IBM. She has 24 years experience as a software developer, and as an information developer, both as a writer and an editor. Paula resides in Santa Fe, NM.

As technical editors, we must communicate effectively with writers so that they can easily implement changes in the information that we are editing. In addition to the editing markup, we use comments and queries to recommend how to improve the quality of the information. In this session, we present a thorough set of guidelines, each with specific examples, for how technical editors can provide effective comments and queries as part of an edit. After defining the different types of comments, we present guidelines for how to word comments (their tone), what you include in your comments (the content), and how you present your comments (their style). We conclude by recommending ways to summarize and present your comments and queries to the writers.

March 10 - March Chapter Meeting

Speaker: Mike McCallister

Chapter President Mike McCallister is devoted to making computing easier for the full spectrum of user levels and experience. As a technical writing consultant, freelance computer magazine writer, and book author, he understands that ordinary people can and should make the most of their tools.

Mike McCallister offers a preview of his presentation at the WritersUA conference on April 1. This session explores how you can develop high-quality user assistance using open source tools. We will review and demonstrate OpenOffice.org, the LyX document processor, Scribus desktop publisher, and two graphics programs, Inkscape and The GIMP.

February 18 - Webinar: Technical Communication as a Management Function: Move Up the Ladder to Survive Challenging Times

Speaker: Joel Kline

Joel Kline is an Associate Professor of Business and Digital Communications at Lebanon Valley College, in Annville, Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the Digital Communications program at Lebanon Valley College and teaches classes in Organizational Communications, Business Technology, and New Media. His research and consulting interests are in Knowledge Management, Web 2.0, and Usability. Joel is accredited in PR from Public Relations Society of America and owned a communications firm for 12 years prior to teaching college.

Demonstrating the value of your technical communication skills becomes more challenging in difficult economic times. This presentation will discuss how technical communicators can position themselves as managers. It will illustrate how practitioners can leverage their knowledge, skills, and abilities to support the business management function. The presenter will show how management of information, projects, and collaboration is vital to an organization during an economic downturn. From this information technical communicators can position themselves as managers and improve the future prospects for the field and their careers.

February 11 - Webinar: Résumé Secrets That Might Surprise You

Speaker: Jack Molisani

Jack Molisani has a degree in computer engineering from Tulane University. He is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency that specializes in placing technical writers and other high-tech professionals. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management in Honolulu, Hawaii. In his plethora of spare time, Jack consults for Electronic Evidence Retrieval LLC, an eDiscovery and computer forensic consulting firm.

Sending out tons of resumés but not getting tons of interviews? This presentation is for you! STC Associate Fellow and professional recruiter Jack Molisani offers some viable suggestions. "For years I've resisted speaking about effective resumés, thinking that everything that could possibly be said about the subject had already been covered. But after seeing candidate after candidate rejected based on what they had (or didn't have) in their resumés, I realized it's time for me to step up and share what I've observed over the years: resumé secrets that might surprise you."

February 7 - February Workshop: DITA-in-a-Day

Speaker: Leigh White

Leigh White is a technical communicator with over 15 years of experience as a content creator, content manager, and production coordinator. One of her primary interests is exploring ways that small technical publications groups can leverage existing tools and improve processes to maximize the reuse of their content, improve their efficiency, increase their offerings and save their sanity. To accomplish these goals, Leigh advocates that effective technical communicators need to be more than writers; they need to be part programmer, part designer and part project manager. She is also a devotee of XML and structured documentation and she believes that DITA might just save the world. Her other professional interests include DTD and XSLT design, FrameMaker template design, and relational database design for small, proprietary content management systems. When she is not parked in front of a computer, Leigh enjoys reading, running, hiking, bouldering, photography, motorcycles and a variety of other rather dangerous activities.

DITA...everybody’s talking about it, but what is it and what can it do for you?

DITA (the Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based framework that information developers can use to both model and author their content using a modular, topic-based approach. Those topics can then be assembled into multiple outputs for different product versions, configurations, audiences or other variations. Although DITA is a standardized model, you can extend the basic topic set to create specialized topics for your individual needs. A variety of commercial and open source tools are available for creating topics and assembling them into deliverables.

The DITA-in-a-Day workshop introduces the DITA topic model and provides a hands-on experience. Attendees are writers, editors, content managers—anyone who needs to create modular, reusable, structured documentation.

During this full-day workshop, you learn about the basic DITA model, including topic types, elements and metadata. Instructional segments are followed by an opportunity for you to put the principles you just learned to use, creating a set of DITA documents from scratch. Next, you learn about DITA maps and create some of your own, building different deliverables for different audiences. We also discuss specializing—a DITA methodology for creating new topic types for your specific needs. Finally, you see the DITA Open Toolkit in action. You learn what it consists of, how all the parts work together and see how you can use it to create multiple online and print (PDF) outputs. Over the course of the day, we also look at various tools, discuss how DITA can help you model your own content and explore some of the advantages and pitfalls of using DITA.

You’ll come away from this workshop ready to create DITA-compliant content, and you’ll be better able to consider the benefits that DITA could bring to your organization.

February 5 - February Chapter Meeting: Pay No Attention to the (Wo)Man Behind the Curtain

Speaker: Leigh White

Leigh White is a technical communicator with over 15 years of experience as a content creator, content manager, and production coordinator. One of her primary interests is exploring ways that small technical publications groups can leverage existing tools and improve processes to maximize the reuse of their content, improve their efficiency, increase their offerings and save their sanity. To accomplish these goals, Leigh advocates that effective technical communicators need to be more than writers; they need to be part programmer, part designer and part project manager. She is also a devotee of XML and structured documentation and she believes that DITA might just save the world. Her other professional interests include DTD and XSLT design, FrameMaker template design, and relational database design for small, proprietary content management systems. When she is not parked in front of a computer, Leigh enjoys reading, running, hiking, bouldering, photography, motorcycles and a variety of other rather dangerous activities.

It's no longer enough for a technical communicator to be just a good writer, or even a good editor. Industry trends such as single-sourcing and reuse, topic-based authoring, greater integration of help systems with applications, and increasingly complex tools have raised the bar on the skill set that technical communicators need to have. Most of us still need to wear the writer hat in addition to all the other hats piled on our heads. This presentation details one technical communicator's journey from "just a writer" to her team's chief technologist and all-purpose geek. In this presentation, Leigh White outlines some of the skills she has acquired over the years, describes the projects that demanded those skills, and offers brief demonstrations of some of the results of her efforts.

February 5 - Webinar: The Top 10 Mistakes Writers Make When Looking for Work

Speaker: Jack Molisani

Jack Molisani has a degree in computer engineering from Tulane University. He is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency that specializes in placing technical writers and other high-tech professionals. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management in Honolulu, Hawaii. In his plethora of spare time, Jack consults for Electronic Evidence Retrieval LLC, an eDiscovery and computer forensic consulting firm.

Have you ever interviewed for a position you wanted, but didn't get? Or worse, submitted a résumé and didn’t even get an interview? Chances are you made one or more mistakes that foiled your chance at landing the job. In this session, STC Associate Fellow and professional recruiter Jack Molisani will present the top 10 mistakes writers make when looking for work (contract, perm, or outsource), with proactive tips on how to avoid these pitfalls and increase your chances of landing that next job or contract. Want or need a new job? Don't miss this live web seminar!

January 10 - Start the New Year with a New Professional Portfolio

Speaker:

Are your technical communication resume and portfolio up to date? In a recent poll, responses to this question were:

• Your existing resume
• A business photo
• Work samples
• Descriptions of the projects for which you produced the samples (include a paragraph with the who, what, where, why of the project). What were the requirements for the project? What went well, what would you improve in the future?

• Demonstrate confidence and appropriate presentation style
• Organize and present work samples in a professional format
• Clarify the purpose and function of each piece
• Demonstrate a range of knowledge and abilities
• Provide a picture of your creativity and professional potential
• Offer supporting samples

You will receive instructions for securing a free blog the week before the workshop!

Registration is limited to 20 participants.

December 18 - Webinar: Seeding the Clouds: How to Make It Rain on YOU, Even During a Dry Spell

Speaker: John Hedtke, STC Fellow

John Hedtke has been a freelancer and a captive (frequently at the same time as he admits). He is an author of 25 books, co-founded the Puget Sound Freelancers Association which he managed for six years. He owns JVH Communications, and credits his STC membership with having earned him an additional $500,000 to $750,000.

This web seminar will feature STC Fellow John Hedtke focusing on new ways for technical communicators to find jobs during a recession when job hunting can be especially difficult. "Seeding the Clouds" is his presentation for technical communicators who have been affected by the rotten economic conditions--which is to say--all of us. Whether you're a captive or a contractor, if you're looking for work or you think you might be looking for work soon, this presentation will present dozens of ideas that can improve your own financial outlook, including:
* how to be more competitive when you're looking for work
* ways to prime the pump for future work
* how to make yourself more visible to potential employers
* new places to find work
* new types of technical communication to try
* ways to keep your spirits up while job-hunting
Even if you're already fully employed and aren't feeling at risk, this presentation will tell you ways in which you can lend a hand to others and ensure their future success and your own immortality. (The entire presentation will be annotated with diverse anecdotes and several digressions of varying degrees of relevance.)

December 10 - December Meeting: Writing With and For Scientists

Speaker: Terri Gregory

Terri Gregory has thirty years writing and editing experience in technology and science, twenty-five years in public information and media relations, technical and promotional publications production, design, and layout. She was employed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center from 1978 to 2006, where she managed public information and media relations. As a senior member of the international Society for Technical Communication, Terri led teams that received STC awards for writing informational science publications. She is an occasional book reviewer for the quarterly STC journal. She also owns Gregory Editing and Communications (formerly known as Word-Tech), a communications resource for engineers and scientists, for writers whose second language is English, for writers who need a precise editor, as well as for those hosting events with a science element.

Terri will speak about writing with and for scientists and will provide examples and resources.

December 3 - Webinar: Printed Books and Online Help Using a Wiki

Speaker: Rahul Mehrotra

Rahul Mehrotra has created manuals, on-line help, and multimedia tutorials for over a dozen cross-platform software products—from graphics utilities to object-oriented databases and development environments in C and BASIC to simulation and engineering tools. He has also presented papers on documentation and usability at STC and ACM conferences. His current focus is information architecture and search optimization of large documentation sites, and machine translation for multilingual authoring. He works for EEsof, a software division of Agilent Technologies in Westlake Village, California.

This is a case study of a successful migration from a FrameMaker- WebWorks based authoring and publishing system to a Wiki-based mechanism to produce printed books and context-sensitive help. It describes how 20,000+ pages of software documentation were moved while keeping to a quarterly update and release schedule. You will hear about how we figured out what to do, what we changed, how simple it is to implement, why we will not be going back to our old ways anytime soon, what your plans will need to include, and how you can avoid the pitfalls that came our way.

November 19 - Webinar: How to Avoid Common Graphical Mistakes that Technical Communicators Make

Speaker: Naomi Robbins

Naomi Robbins is a consultant and seminar leader who specializes in the graphical display of data. She trains employees of corporations and organizations on effective data presentation. She also reviews documents and presentations for clients, suggesting improvements or alternative presentations as appropriate. She is the author of Creating More Effective Graphs, published by John Wiley (2005). Dr. Robbins is a past officer of the Statistical Graphics Section of the American Statistical Association.

This session will use examples of real graphs to illustrate common mistakes that many professionals from all fields and positions make when using graphs to display data. It begins by discussing human perception and how we decode information from graphs, which helps explain why some graphs work and others don’t. The presenter will describe a number of common mistakes, including problems with scales, tick marks, and labels; difficulties with making the data stand out; and issues involved with grouping several charts. The audience will also be given tips for creating better tables. We end with some useful little-known graph forms that communicate the data more clearly than the everyday graphs that are more commonly used.

November 11 - November Meeting: World Usability Day Exercise

Speaker: Roane Simkin, Usability Consultant / Human Factors Engineer

Ms. Simkin has an MS in Human Factors Engineering and Usability Design, Process Improvement and Business Intelligence projects for Clients such as: Primavera, Inc, Journal-Sentinel, Inc., eFunds Corp., State Government Agencies in WI and CA, bioMérieux, Inc., Intel Corp., Cardinal Health, and Honeywell

In honor of November 13, World Usability Day, and building on what you may have learned in the recent webinar on usability, we will conduct a usability exercise.

Participate in assessing the usability of something very familiar to chapter meetings. Don't miss this interactive and fun meeting!

October 29 - Webinar: WinHelp, WebHelp, DotNet Help ... Help!

Speaker: Neil Perlin

Neil Perlin has 29 years of experience in technical communication, with 23 in training, consulting, and development for various online formats and tools including WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, JavaHelp, WebHelp, RoboHelp, ForeHelp, and Flare. Neil is a columnist and frequent speaker for STC, IEEE PCS, and other professional groups. He is a member of STC’s Boston chapter, the creator and manager of the Beyond the Bleeding Edge stem at STC’s annual conference, and an Associate Fellow of STC. Through Hyper/Word Services of Tewksbury, MA, Neil provides training, consulting, and development for online help and documentation, for various MadCap products, and for structured authoring.

With so many online formats and technologies, how do you know which one to pick? Ten years after WebHelp appeared, there’s still confusion over the difference between WebHelp and “web help.” This presentation discusses the differences between the major online formats and outputs: HTML, XHTML, HTML Help, WebHelp, FlashHelp, DotNet Help, and others. As online information becomes increasingly complex and subject to greater time-to-market and ROI pressures, there’s less room for mistakes. Knowing these formats will help you guide your company online and increase your professional value.

October 23 - Webinar: Task Support Clusters: A Focused Architecture for Practical User Assistance

Speaker: Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes has a PhD in Instructional Technology, a Masters in Technical and Professional Communication, is an STC Fellow, and a Certified Performance Technologist through the International Society for Performance Improvement. His professional focus is supporting user experiences that accommodate the “user as learner.” Hughes works for IBM Internet Security Systems as a User Assistance Architect identifying tools, methods, and standards to integrate the content and delivery of user assistance, including documentation, help, e-learning, and training.

A task-support cluster is a group of help topics that meet the specific information needs of a user who is currently working within the user interface. It is designed to answer the most likely questions first and then let the user drill down to more detailed, elementary, or advanced information if needed. This presentation shows detailed architectural patterns aimed at meeting domain expertise needs of users (versus interaction-intensive procedures) within a DITA model and demonstrates how Task Modeler, an open source tool, can be used to quickly design task support clusters and convert them into DITA maps. The architectural principles, however, can be applied outside of a DITA context.

October 16 - Webinar: The ABCs of Documentation Usability

Speaker: Leah Guren

Leah Guren's extensive experience has allowed her to develop key training programs, including the course for new TCs run by In Other WORDS, one of Israel's leading technical communication companies. Leah provides product and documentation usability consulting for clients in Israel and Europe. The material in this workshop is a composite of her practical experience in usability, as well as material covered in her training courses. As an internationally-recognized professional speaker, Guren is known for her ability to bring dry theory to life with practical examples and plenty of humor.

Technical communicators understand the importance of usability testing for a product's success, however, many TCs have never considered conducting basic usability testing of their documentation. They may think that it is expensive and time-consuming, or fear that they lack the experience. Some aren't sure how to sell the idea to management. This live web seminar is a good introduction to employing usability testing for documentation. It presents straight-forward guidelines and practical tips to allow any TC to get started with low-cost, and effective testing.

September 9 - September Chapter Meeting:

Speaker: Progression

Chapter members and attendees

The first meeting of the season will be a facilitated progression with attendees exchanging information about themselves. Join in the discussion by telling us about your title, your primary job responsibilities, why you like your work and the challenges you face in the coming year.

Find out what others in our community are doing in their jobs and what they're doing to remain competitive in the current job market. Don't miss this interactive and casual meeting!

June 10 - June Social / Networking Event

Speaker:

Enjoy music, beer, wine, appetizers, and desserts as you network with colleagues. Hear about the national convention from attendees. Share your input on what you would like to learn in future professional development events.

May 6 - May Chapter Meeting: Podcasting Conversations

Speaker: Keith Hoffman

Keith Hoffman is the Marketing and Communications Manager at CDW Berbee in Madison, Wisconsin. He has led several company-wide inititatives to establish a podcast channel for CDW Berbee customers. In addition, he hosts the Fanstar411 Podcast during the NFL football season, which can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fanstar411. Keith is the Immediate Past President of the STC Four Lakes Chapter and is a Senior Member.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people are engaging in conversation on the Internet. As mobile audio and video have risen to prominence, the opportunity to connect to your audience over these channels has never been greater. This presentation will cover:

• Podcast overview/history
• Podcast demonstration
• Podcast revenue streams

April 12 - April Workshop: Effective Onscreen Editing

Speaker: Geoff Hart

Whether you already edit most of your material on the screen (that is, using a word processor instead of paper) or haven't yet found the time to learn how to do so efficiently, and still work on paper, you can’t afford to miss this workshop. STC Fellow Geoff Hart, who literally "wrote the book" on the topic (_Effective Onscreen Editing_, http://www.geoff-hart.com/home/onscreen-book.htm), will teach you what you need to get up to speed quickly, or to dramatically improve your editing productivity if you've already begun editing on the screen.

In this workshop, you'll learn how to:

• Personalize your software so it supports the way you want to work
• Move around the document and select text efficiently
• Use revision tracking to communicate effectively with authors and increase the efficiency of reviewing your edits
• Use the search tools (find and replace) combined with style sheets to dramatically improve consistency
• Automate the more time-consuming aspects of editing
• Edit files you never imagined you could edit (Web pages and other markup languages, databases, spreadsheets) using your word processor
• Implement onscreen editing in your workplace (time permitting -- the workshop will be interactive, and Geoff will spend more time on the aspects of the workshop of greatest interest to attendees).

Computers will be provided so you can practice the workshop lessons, but if you bring your own computer, you'll be able to bring home an improved editing environment (i.e., a personalized set of settings and macros and other automations developed during the workshop). The workshop will focus on using Microsoft Word (up to Word 2003, not 2007) to illustrate how the overall principles work, but the lessons will be easily transferrable to other programs.

For a small commitment of time and money, you'll learn key tips and tricks that will quickly repay your investment in terms of future time savings, while improving the quality of your editing. (The registration fee includes lunch and a free copy of Geoff's book, plus an opportunity to ask Geoff about any specific problems you're having with onscreen editing.)

April 10 - April Chapter Meeting
Effective Outlining: Designing Workable Blueprints for Writing

Speaker: Geoff Hart

Everyone knows the importance of creating an outline before beginning to write anything complicated, but under deadline pressure, many writers feel that the time required to develop an effective outline simply can't be justified. In practice, this isn't the case: time invested in developing an effective outline can actually save considerable time later in the writing process.

In this presentation, STC Fellow Geoff Hart will review the principles of creating an effective outline, along with a few tips and tricks you might not have considered before.

For more information on Geoff, please visit his Web site (www.geoff- hart.com)

March 7 - March Workshop: FrameMaker Element Definition Document (EDD) Training

Speaker: Bernard Aschwanden

If you're moving to Structured FrameMaker, don't miss this workshop!

Learn how to create an Element Document Definition (EDD) for Structured FrameMaker. EDDs define the structure of a document with designated nested elements depending and formatting elements is based on contexts.

In a day we go through building an application file, setting a template, converting content from Frame to XML and back again and more. There will be a lot of information in a short time frame so you'll need a decent knowledge of FrameMaker.

March 6 - March Workshop: Hands-on DITA Training

Speaker: Bernard Aschwanden, STC Toronto President and Director of Technology and Publishing Architecture with Bright Path Solutions

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. DITA is one of the emerging trends in technical communication and XML. Be prepared and learn how to use DITA!

During this hands-on workshop, learn to create DITA-compliant XML content using a variety of authoring tools.

Topics created during the workshop will be added to a finished publication, formatted, and published in a variety of forms, including PDFs, help files, and Web pages. All files created during the workshop will be provided to workshop participants as take-aways. Attendees will be able to use the files to build their own content after the workshop is over.

Demonstration versions of XMetaL and FrameMaker 8.0 will be installed on Compuware machines specifically for the workshop.

March 6 - March Chapter Meeting: XML and DITA in Action

Speaker: Bernard Aschwanden

Learn what's new in XML-based publishing and single-sourcing. Bernard Aschwanden will present an overview of XML-based Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) along with the information about business requirements and implementation guidelines. Learn why DITA is important and what to do before implementing this new standard. The meeting will include an open Q&A session.

Bernard is a power-house of publishing knowledge and his sessions are always great fun. Don't miss this meeting!

February 16 - POSTPONED: February Workshop: Web 2.0 & Networking

Speaker: Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the speaker will be unable to make it on 2/16. We will reschedule for another date.

Part 1: Web 2.0
In this session we'll examine how Web 2.0 tools and technologies are changing the communication landscape. Discover how Web 2.0 methods make it possible for us to deliver "content as a service" and to empower our customers to slice and dice content in useful and exciting new ways. Topics covered include: syndication, aggregation, mash-ups, user-generated content, wikis, blogs, social networks, video documentation, playable search and more.
Part 2: Networking
In this session, we'll examine ways to expand your network and explore creative uses of inexpensive or free technology that can help you reach new clients, raise your professional profile -- even help you reinvent yourself. Explore how traditional marketing techniques can be combined with social networking tools to expand your networking reach. Discover how listservs, blogs, wikis, directories, podcasts, webinars and more can be excellent sources for getting yourself noticed and building credibility. Learn how to pitch articles, conference presentations, and business ideas without getting rejected. And, find out what gimmicks work -- and which are a big waste of time.

February 12 - February Chapter Meeting: The Technical Communication Practitioners Toolbox

Speaker: Discussion leaders: Steve Cunningham, Jim Green, Mike McCallister, Mike Starr

Join us for an interactive meeting that focuses on the tools technical communicator use every day. Attendees will discuss:

• Each tool they use in their daily work (small, medium, large)
• Purpose of the tool (application-email, DTP, time tracking, etc.)
• Strengths and weaknesses of the tool
• How the tool was selected
• Next tool they want/need to learn

Share your tool information with members and hear about the tools other use.

February 5 - Webinar: The Top 10 Mistakes Writers Make When Looking for Work

Speaker: Jack Molisani

Jack Molisani has a degree in computer engineering from Tulane University. He is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency that specializes in placing technical writers and other high-tech professionals. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management in Honolulu, Hawaii. In his plethora of spare time, Jack consults for Electronic Evidence Retrieval LLC, an eDiscovery and computer forensic consulting firm.

Have you ever interviewed for a position you wanted, but didn't get? Or worse, submitted a résumé and didn’t even get an interview? Chances are you made one or more mistakes that foiled your chance at landing the job. In this session, STC Associate Fellow and professional recruiter Jack Molisani will present the top 10 mistakes writers make when looking for work (contract, perm, or outsource), with proactive tips on how to avoid these pitfalls and increase your chances of landing that next job or contract. Want or need a new job? Don't miss this live web seminar!

February 5 - Webinar: The Top 10 Mistakes Writers Make When Looking for Work

Speaker: Jack Molisani

Jack Molisani has a degree in computer engineering from Tulane University. He is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an agency that specializes in placing technical writers and other high-tech professionals. Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management in Honolulu, Hawaii. In his plethora of spare time, Jack consults for Electronic Evidence Retrieval LLC, an eDiscovery and computer forensic consulting firm.

Have you ever interviewed for a position you wanted, but didn't get? Or worse, submitted a résumé and didn’t even get an interview? Chances are you made one or more mistakes that foiled your chance at landing the job. In this session, STC Associate Fellow and professional recruiter Jack Molisani will present the top 10 mistakes writers make when looking for work (contract, perm, or outsource), with proactive tips on how to avoid these pitfalls and increase your chances of landing that next job or contract. Want or need a new job? Don't miss this live web seminar!

January 9 - January Chapter Meeting: Anatomy of an XML-based Structured Writing System

Speaker: Brian Buehling, Dakota Systems

Brian Buehling is currently the Managing Director for Dakota Systems, a consulting firm specializing in publishing technology. Over the course of the past several years, his papers on XML and publishing have been presented at XML Europe, AUGI, Web Services One, AIIM, and XML.com. Prior to Dakota, he worked in various capacities on content management systems for several companies including Facts and Comparisons, John Deere, and SBC Communications. His team's decision support system at John Deere Health was selected as a Finalist for Business Intelligence Applications at Comdex/Window World Open 1997 and was nominated for the 1997 Smithsonian Award for innovation in information technology. He has earned a M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago and a M.S. in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, he was a visiting lecturer at Ohio University teaching business communication and computational theory from 2000 - 2002.

Topic Overview
As more companies strive to develop comprehensive structured writing strategies for their organizations, it becomes important to understand to common characteristics of successful designs of XML-based publishing systems. There are many vendors that target their products and services at portions of the structured writing architecture such as authoring or web delivery. However, there exists no turnkey solution that will handle the demands of every organization since system priorities vary greatly by company and industry. Consequently, managers face a difficult challenge when designing and implementing a structured writing system for their company.

There are three basic areas that have to be considered when designing publishing systems that support structured writing. Content creation involves building a single interface for authors, editors and reviewers that handles multiple authoring tools. Additionally, content management involves storing document components, separating their content and structure from any formatting information to optimize re-use and facilitate dynamic distribution. Lastly, content distribution involves developing multiple channels to deliver content to users including high-quality printed pages, wireless devices, electronic web pages and syndication engines.

This session gives an overview of the architecture of a typical XML-based structured writing system. From document creation and workflow control to data storage and online distribution, each system component will be analyzed.

Parking
Free parking is available behind the building.

December 11 - December Chapter Meeting: Anatomy of an XML-based Structured Writing System

Speaker: Brian Buehling, Dakota Systems

Brian Buehling is currently the Managing Director for Dakota Systems, a consulting firm specializing in publishing technology. Over the course of the past several years, his papers on XML and publishing have been presented at XML Europe, AUGI, Web Services One, AIIM, and XML.com. Prior to Dakota, he worked in various capacities on content management systems for several companies including Facts and Comparisons, John Deere, and SBC Communications. His team's decision support system at John Deere Health was selected as a Finalist for Business Intelligence Applications at Comdex/Window World Open 1997 and was nominated for the 1997 Smithsonian Award for innovation in information technology. He has earned a M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago and a M.S. in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally, he was a visiting lecturer at Ohio University teaching business communication and computational theory from 2000 - 2002.

Topic Overview
As more companies strive to develop comprehensive structured writing strategies for their organizations, it becomes important to understand to common characteristics of successful designs of XML-based publishing systems. There are many vendors that target their products and services at portions of the structured writing architecture such as authoring or web delivery. However, there exists no turnkey solution that will handle the demands of every organization since system priorities vary greatly by company and industry. Consequently, managers face a difficult challenge when designing and implementing a structured writing system for their company.

There are three basic areas that have to be considered when designing publishing systems that support structured writing. Content creation involves building a single interface for authors, editors and reviewers that handles multiple authoring tools. Additionally, content management involves storing document components, separating their content and structure from any formatting information to optimize re-use and facilitate dynamic distribution. Lastly, content distribution involves developing multiple channels to deliver content to users including high-quality printed pages, wireless devices, electronic web pages and syndication engines.

This session gives an overview of the architecture of a typical XML-based structured writing system. From document creation and workflow control to data storage and online distribution, each system component will be analyzed.

Parking
Parking is across the street on the south side of the Alumni Center in the Broadway parking lot, east of Broadway. Please include your license plate number and car model when registering so we can alert security.

November 17 - Career Development Workshop 1: Applied Psychology for Technical Communicators

Speaker: Dr. Klaus Hofer

of Communications And Training international (CAT-i), has a PhD in Organizational Psychology and has taught courses in several universities and colleges in North America and Europe. He is a researcher, consultant, and trainer, and his services are marketed through CAT-I (Vienna/Ottawa) and the communications consultancies Aracane Ltd. of Geneva and PECON Company Communications of Zurich. He credits his current success to his roots in the STC. For more information on Dr Hofer and CAT-i services, please see http://www.klaushofer.ca.

You must register at the STC Chicago website and pay in advance. Car pools will be coordinated through Mike McCallister.

November 17 - Career Development Workshop 2: Career Makeover

Speaker: Jack Molisani

is an Associate Fellow of the STC, president of the Aloha STC chapter, and was the chair of the STC Year 2000 Region 7/Region 8 Pan-Pacific conference in Hawaii. After years of hands-on technical writing, Jack went on to start ProSpring Technical Staffing www.ProspringStaffing.com, a staffing agency that specializes in placing perm and contract technical writers. He also produces LavaCon: The Conference on Advanced Technical Communication and Project Management. Note: At the end of the workshop Jack will raffle off a free entrance to the next LavaCon, so remember to bring a business card for the drawing!

You must register at the STC Chicago website and pay in advance. Car pools will be coordinated through Mike McCallister.

November 17 - Career Development Workshop 3: Proposal Writing

Speaker: Becky Hall

is the owner of Rebecca C. Hall Consulting, specializing in documentation design services, user documentation, online help, and programmer documentation. An Associate Fellow of STC and past president of STC Chicago, she has presented at conferences, including STC's annual conference and Help Online 2000 symposium. She has won several awards for online help, user guides, and style guides.

You must register at the STC Chicago website and pay in advance. Car pools will be coordinated through Mike McCallister.

November 15 - Mind Mapping Workshop

Speaker: Dr. Klaus Hofer

See Nov. 14 event for Dr. Hofer's biography.

When you RSVP, there will be an option to pay now with a credit card via PayPal, or directly from a PayPal account.

November 14 - November Chapter Meeting: Argumentation Strategies

Speaker: Klaus Hofer

Dr. Klaus Hofer of Communications And Training international (CAT-i), has a PhD in Organizational Psychology and has taught courses in several universities and colleges in North America and Europe. He is a researcher, consultant, and trainer, and his services are marketed through CAT-I (Vienna/Ottawa) and the communications consultancies Aracane Ltd. of Geneva and PECON Company Communications of Zurich. He credits his current success to his roots in the STC. For more information on Dr Hofer and CAT-i services, please see http://www.klaushofer.ca

How do I convince another party why we need more budgets to implement complex changes that I feel are necessary? What approach should I take, How to convince without talking someone into something? Learn the answers to these questions and more from the dynamic Dr. Hofer.

October 9 - October Chapter Meeting: 54th Annual STC Conference Rewind & Review

Speaker:

Linda Verwey, Information Design & Development, Metavante

Mollye Barrett, ClearPath, LLC, Content Management Solutions

Pamela Hansen Ruben, Technical Writer GE Healthcare

Trina Grieshaber, Technical Writer, BloodCenter of Wisconsin

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
This meeting will feature a progression where local chapter members who attended the Annual STC Conference in Minneapolis share what they learned with meeting participants. Not everyone was able to make it to the conference, and even those of us who did often had to make difficult choices of which sessions to attend and which to skip. This progression will give everyone the opportunity to learn about specific topics and sessions they missed at the conference.

Sample topics include:

• Content Management Certification from a member who completed hers at the conference
• The change in definition from technical writer to technical communicator
• Other society level topics/initiatives

Be sure to bring questions, as there will be plenty of time for Q&A and discussion.

If you attended the conference and would like to share something you learned, but did not receive an invitation to present, please email the program manager at Trina.Grieshaber@bcw.edu.

PARKING NOTICE
Free parking is available on the south side of the Alumni Center in the Broadway parking lot, east of Broadway. Please bring your license plate number to the meeting, as we will be writing down your car information for parking services when you arrive.

RESERVATIONS
When you make your reservation, please let us know whether or not you would like dinner. Please also let us know your member status, your telephone number, and whether you have any special dietary needs.

NOTICE
The deadline for reservations is noon on Friday, October 5th (We must call in the guaranteed head count for dinners by this date).

If you are unable to attend the meeting and have not cancelled your reservation by the RSVP deadline, you will be expected to reimburse the chapter for the cost of your meal. Our chapter treasury must pay for meals, even when you do not show up. Last season, we had dozens of no shows resulting in the loss of hundreds of dollars. Since we have to make headcount commitments to the caterers at least 72 business hours in advance, you can help can reduce our costs by letting us know before the deadline if you need to cancel.

June 12 - River Cruise Back-Up Plan (if cruise is cancelled due to severe weather)

Speaker:

For the past two years, the Coast Guard has cancelled the STC cruise at the last minute due to severe weather. For whatever reason, the weather Gods chose to put on a fantastic display of lightening, thunder, wind, and rain the hour before the scheduled cruise.

Hopefully, we will have beautiful weather on Tuesday and will not need to worry about a cancellation. However, should, by chance, the Coast Guard have to cancel the June 12th cruise at the last minute due to severe weather, we have a Plan B.

EMERGENCY BACK-UP PLAN
If the cruise is cancelled last minute, you will immediately receive an email notifying you of the cancellation. An announcement will also be posted on the STC website. So, definitely check the website for updates!

Should the cruise be cancelled, WE ARE STILL MEETING. The meeting will be moved to the Vecchio Bar and Grille, which is about two blocks from the boarding area at Pere Marquette Park. Wine, beer, and a variety of hors d’oevres will be served as planned.

Vecchio Bar and Grille
1137 N. Old World Third St.
Milwaukee, WI 53203

May 9 - May Chapter Meeting: Specific Cases in Content Management

Speaker:

Jeannette Eichholz, GE Healthcare
Jeannette leads the Global Ultrasound Documentation team for GE Healthcare-Ultrasound, a collaborative team located in 9 different countries. She manages the content management system, plans its re-use strategy, collaborates with the other writers to create content, single sources content, and coordinates translating this content into 27 languages. She's been a technical communicator since 1986. She has worked as a technical communicator with Beta Systems, CPU, Compuware, and with GE Healthcare for the past 15 years.

Mike Summers, Kohler, Co.
Mike began his career in Technical Communications in 1990 working for a vendor servicing some large Wisconsin area manufactures. He started at Kohler co. Tech-Pubs in 1996, and in 1998 he was part of the implementation team for Interleaf's RDM Document Management. RDM was discontinued in 2000; the team decided to look into true "Content Management."

XyEnterprise content manager and XML Publisher (XPP) were chosen. The implementation took over a year to go-live. In 2000, Mike moved to the Engineering Systems group to better focus on System Administration and tool development. He continues to be heavily involved in the XyEnterprise software, improving systems infrastructure, upgrades, customizations, and other key areas.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Jeannette Eichholz will discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing a content management system. More specifically, she will discuss the business imperatives that led her to implement the content management system:

• Move into the e-Age
• Increase Knowledge Management
• Increase Productivity
• Reduce Production/Translation Costs
• Collaborate Globally

We needed a game changer to replace the outmoded, redundant, and manual methods of documentation we were using in 1999. We used 6 Sigma Methodology to select and prototype content management systems.

This presentation will show the clear benefits we've derived from implementing a content management system, the challenges we faced, and what we have planned for our next steps.

• Eliminating or redundant content across multiple documents
• Publishing information to multiple formats with high volume output
• Securing storage and revision control
• Reducing in translation redundancy

Mike will also discuss what he has learned from his experience transitioning to content management and working with XyEnterprise content manager and XML Publisher. More specifically, he will touch on the following:

• Things you will need for success, including a clear vision of short term goals and a general idea of future needs
• Kohler’s results, including increased output without jump in headcount.
• Kohler’s specific goals, including PDF output for print and web use, data sharing, and shared content
• Kohler’s initial project plan versus the actual project procedure and speed bumps and the positives and negatives associated with both.

RESERVATIONS
When you make your reservation, please let us know whether or not you would like dinner. Please also let us know your member status and whether you have any special dietary needs.

NOTICE
The deadline for reservations is noon on Friday, May 4 (We must call in the guaranteed head count for dinners by this date).

If you are unable to attend the meeting and have not cancelled your reservation by the RSVP deadline, you will be expected to reimburse the chapter for the cost of your meal. Our chapter treasury must pay for meals, even when you do not show up.

During the past year, we have had dozens of no shows resulting in the loss of hundreds of dollars. Since we have to make headcount commitments to the caterers at least 72 business hours in advance, you can help can reduce our costs by letting us know before the deadline if you need to cancel.

April 11 - April 11 webinar

Speaker: Kevin A. Siegel

Kevin A. Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written more than 100 step-by-step computer training books, including Essentials of Adobe Captivate 2, Essentials of Adobe Dreamweaver 8, Essentials of Adobe Flash Basic 8, Essentials of QuarkXPress 7, Accelerated QuarkXPress 6, Essentials of Adobe InDesign CS 2, Essentials of Adobe PageMaker 7 and Essentials of Adobe RoboHelp 6 HTML.

If you are an instructional designer or technical writer, you have no doubt spent years attempting to perfect the art of teaching programs using fewer and fewer words. If you are in the business of educating, you know how difficult this job can be. These days, interactive lessons that can be viewed over the Internet, or from a CD, are all the rage. While there are many programs that can be used to capture a computer’s screen, mouse action and audio, Adobe Captivate 2 is currently the undisputed market-leader. While recording a movie in Captivate is relatively simple, it’s the process that comes after the recording phase that will make or break your budget—the production phase. If you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself out of time. During this fast-paced session you will learn some real-world tips and tricks that will enable you to produce Captivate projects at a blistering pace. Here’s a sampling of what you will learn: * Ideal System Settings You Can Use Before You Record Your Projects * The Strengths and Weaknesses of Each Recording Mode (Demonstration vs. Assessment vs. Simulation) * Creating Custom (Hybrid) Projects * Best Practices for Converting a Demonstration CBT into a Simulation * Best Slide Practices for Fast Production * Round-Tripping with MS Word

April 10 - April Chapter Meeting: Translation, Localization, and Globalization

Speaker:

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The presentation hour of this meeting will be set up as a progression of three tables, each having a table leader who will present on a topic related to translation. Each presenter will speak for about 15 minutes on her topic. STC members will have the opportunity to move from table to table, asking questions and learning about the different topics. Mollye Barrett will moderate the progression and follow-up discussion.

Important Notice!
There will be an SDL AuthorAssistant product demonstration during the networking time (5:30 to 6:00).

Christine Bucher, Iverson Language Associates
The Computer-Aided Translation (CAT) Tools table presentation will cover the following topics: what are CAT tools, why use them, who uses them (user profile), when are they best applied, and how do they work. The presentation will also focus on details of specific CAT tools, such as Trados and SDLX.

Sue Visuri, GE Healthcare Technologies
Preparing Files for Translation Sue Visuri is Team Lead of the Systems and Wireless Technical Publications group at GE Healthcare Technologies where she has worked for the past 13 years. In addition to her role as team lead, Sue is also responsible for developing information products, improving translation procedures, and implementing a content management system. Previous positions include supervisor of Cardiology Technical Publications at GE Healthcare and CAD Application Manager at Delco System Operations. Sue has a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University.

Tamara Wasserman, SDL TRADOS Technologies
The Authoring for Translation table presentation will feature SDL AuthorAssistant™. This translation tool provides integration with common authoring environments including Adobe FrameMaker, Arbortext Editor, Blast Radius XMetaL and Microsoft Word, enabling authors to compare previously created material to what they are writing. SDL AuthorAssistant enhances the quality and efficiency of the global authoring process. It enables creators of corporate content to perform automated checks against existing translation assets, such as previously translated content and terminology glossaries, as well as against corporate writing guidelines. They are then able to decide whether to automatically amend it to improve content quality and consistency and to reduce the costs of translation.

PARKING NOTICE
Free parking is available on the south side of the Alumni Center in the Broadway parking lot, east of Broadway. Please bring your license plate number to the meeting, as we will be writing down your car information for parking services when you arrive.

RESERVATIONS
When you make your reservation, please let us know whether or not you would like dinner. Please also let us know your member status, your telephone number, and whether you have any special dietary needs.

NOTICE
The deadline for reservations is noon on Friday, April 6th (We must call in the guaranteed head count for dinners by this date).

If you are unable to attend the meeting and have not cancelled your reservation by the RSVP deadline, you will be expected to reimburse the chapter for the cost of your meal. Our chapter treasury must pay for meals, even when you do not show up. During the past year, we have had dozens of no shows resulting in the loss of hundreds of dollars. Since we have to make headcount commitments to the caterers at least 72 business hours in advance, you can help can reduce our costs by letting us know before the deadline if you need to cancel.

March 28 - March Webinar: Visible: The New Valuable

Speaker:

March 17 - March 17 Workshop: Applied Psychology for Technical Writers

Speaker: Dr. Klaus Hofer, Communications And Training international (CAT-i)

Dr. Klaus Hofer’s early work in aviation and hospitals lead to his interest in cognitive and organizational psychology. He wanted to understand: Why can well-trained highly motivated people make deadly errors? He wanted researched answers, not judgmental opinions. His ongoing studies and research in behavioral and cognitive psychology provide the basis for his professional life.

Dr. Hofer has a PhD Organizational Psychology. After too many years in too many universities (Australia, Canada, USA, and Germany), he developed a full semester course and corporate workshop: "Applied Psychology for Technical Communicators." Initially presented at the University of Massachusetts in 1986, he has taught the course at several universities and colleges in North America and Europe.

He is a researcher, consultant, and trainer, and his services are marketed through CAT-i (Vienna/Ottawa) and the communications consultancies Aracane Ltd. of Geneva and PECON Company Communications of Zurich. For more information on Dr. Hofer and CAT-I, please see http://www.klaushofer.ca

SECURITY NOTE
Metavante has tight security, so you should come in at the main entrance, register with the security attendant, and wait for an escort to the training center.

WORKSHOP DETAILS
To accommodate diverse work schedules, the workshop is being offered twice: on March 16 and March 17. STC members, non-STC members, and students are all welcome to attend.

Each participant will not only participate in a full-day of interactive activities and debriefing sessions but also leave with a full-color booklet featuring lecture material blended with digital pictures of participants’ work.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
Training humans to use an application compares to customizing humans for a product. Success in tomorrow’s industries demands it be the other way around. The product must be custom tailored for human consumption. The measurements are available. Modern Psychology gave them to us.

We know how our memory systems work and how to overload them. The performance and limits of the short-term and working-memories teach us story boarding and product design. The mechanics of long-term memory storage guide training, marketing, and brainstorming techniques.

Research in Gestalt-, Cognitive-, and Behavioral Psychology shows us how to design help-products, wizards, GUIs, or handbooks for optimal results. Successful product designs are customized for user consumption. To do so requires understanding the user’s psychological needs and limits.

This is the focus of the one-day interactive workshop.

March 14 - March Webinar: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Content Management, But Were Afraid to Ask

Speaker:

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