The Society for Technical Communication (STC) just isn’t that helpful to me anymore.
I didn’t always feel that way. In fact, when I started my career 13 years ago, I loved the organization. The Vancouver chapter had monthly meetings, there were annual salary surveys published for Canadians, professional development sessions abounded, and I religiously read the organization’s publications. I even volunteered as the vice-president of the local chapter.
So what happened? How did I lose that “loving feeling”? A few reasons:
The STC’s Canadian salary survey disappeared. A numbers of years ago, the STC stopped publishing a salary survey for Canadians. It was a real disappointment. Now I’m left with hearing anecdotal information about market rates that seem to vary wildly. Some writers appear willing to work for nothing while other companies freely want to pay more than the standard rates. The salary survey was a useful tool.
The local job bank is mediocre. In my experience, one of the valuable reasons to become an STC member was that it provided access to the local job bank, which used to be a vibrant source of employment opportunities. These days, there are still a smattering of jobs listed in the local job bank but I’ve found that free web sites such as http://www.indeed.ca to be more helpful.
The STC is no longer the definitive voice of technical communications. Years ago, the STC was the main purveyor of technical communication knowledge. I used to avidly read the organization’s Intercom and Technical Communication magazines. Perhaps the STC’s position of authority began to wane when Web 2.0 emerged. Technical writers started writing blogs and many of these blogs, like Tom Johnson’s http://idratherbewriting.com/, offer valuable information to technical writers much faster than the STC ever could. And they’re free.
To summarize, the STC is probably still useful to newer technical writers. But if you have a passing knowledge of some of the leading technical writing blogs (here’s a list of influential technical writing bloggers), and you understand where and how to look for work and how much to charge, the STC may not be that useful to you either.
NOTE: This blog entry might sound like a criticism of the STC’s volunteers and members. That’s not my intention—I think there are many talented individuals who continue to be involved with the STC. As I noted, I volunteered with the chapter for many years.
I have worked as a
I let my membership lapse a number of years go, but I still wish the best for the STC. In my opinion, a healthy STC is good for our industry.
I started Technical Writing World because I couldn’t find a social network for technical writers, something that should have been a priority for them. I was impressed with the announcement of MySTC (hey…they’re on the ball!).
After reading this, I’m concerned again:
http://getsatisfaction.com/sfortc/topics/cant_stay_in_group
I’m not sure what’s happening there, but there does appear to be some disconnect between what they’re trying to do and where the community wants to go.
I remember during my college years I would go to the STC meetings on campus and thought everyone needed to become a member of this group. It was a terrific way of networking with other professionals and learn how to break into the field.
I had a paid membership my first year out, but started to learn there was not much of a benefit and it was difficult to justify the high membership dues. I found I was only using the website to use the job section and the Intercom magazine.
I appreciate what STC has done in the past, but as stated previously, we can get information faster through other sources.
The Canadian STC chapters are working on getting Canadian salary data for STC members again, but it is a slow process. Due to concerns about the validity of the data collected through a survey, we are trying to get the data from Stats Can, which has impeccable credentials. Unfortunately, this is new for us volunteers, and dealing with a government agency is never simple, so we’ve been plugging away at this for almost a year and slowly gathering information on how to get the data and how much it will cost.
All of your points are valid, Robert. The availability and price of information has changed drastically, and the STC has been slow to adjust, but it is trying. I think (and I think the leadership is heading in this direction, too), that there will be less investment in what we can get free and fast–like social networking, blogs and web seminars–and more investment on what we can do as an international organization that the individual experts can’t, such as developing a certification program, defining standards and style guides, developing a definition of technical communication through the Body of Knowledge, and raising the profile of technical communication everywhere. Oh, and I still think that in-person training is valuable, whether it’s a seminar from a chapter, workshops or conferences. Hmm, and the recognition program is something that’s hard to duplicate, too, without an organization. I’m still working through what we should be providing vs. what people can get for free, so if anyone wants to help delineate this line, please chime in.
Certainly the cost of membership is an issue. Enough people keep bringing that up so we can’t ignore it, no matter how much we say that other professional organizations cost more. I’m on the Community Affairs Committee for the STC, so we’ll keep reminding the board that this is a sore point, but it’s very hard to convince any organization to lower prices. In my opinion, part of the problem is that if you only receive the publications and maybe check the job bank, you’re not getting good value for your membership fee. But if you do that and go to seminars or chapter socials (i.e. network), and maybe enter a competition, then you’re more likely to get your money’s worth. Then if you volunteer for your community and have to get support from the staff in head office, then you see your dollars working for you. So the funny thing is that the more effort a member puts in, the more they get out. Perhaps this is a bad model?
I’ve belonged to STC since 1990 and have watched it go through various ups and downs related to changes in the profession. My own participation has changed accordingly.
For example, I now participate in non-STC groups that focus on mobile, read blogs that focus on usability, or attend or follow conferences that focus on content, and so on. Each of these new venues might have fallen under STC but, for various reasons, has not. Each of these venues also goes into its particular topic in far greater detail than STC does, but each one is also a silo. There’s often little discussion of the relationship between technical areas. That’s changing, but slowly and in fits and starts.
STC is the only US organization that I know that presents a broad overview of tech writing as a whole. I find that perspective, plus the networking, to be the two most valuable aspects of STC for me.
Re the cost of membership — I view this simply as a professional development expense, the way I look at the cost of a seminar. Viewed that way, it’s not that expensive. And I have found over the years that the benefit of that cost is directly tied to the amount of effort I put into my membership. I believe it’s been thoroughly worth it and have no intention of dropping my membership.
Regards,
Neil
Hi Arnold,
Thanks for posting that link. I agree–there’s definitely a disconnect happening!
Hi Fei Min,
Thanks for the update. I think it’s great news that the Canadian chapters are considering resurrecting the salary survey.
I’d personally like to pick what services are valuable to me (for example, access to the STC’s publications and the ability to attend some local professional development sessions) but perhaps that is not financially viable for the organization. Thanks again for your comment!
I posted the recent IRS filings from the Society for Technical Communication: http://welinske.wordpress.com/
They can provide some insight into how dues are being spent.
Thanks for this post. I was a senior member six years ago when I let my membership lapse because I took an extended leave. (We went sailing for five years.) Now that I’m back at work, I was considering re-joining, but I think I’ll wait on that and check out all those blogs instead.