Society of Technical Communicaton

I know it’s been about a minute (ha!) since I’ve written here, but it seemed appropriate under the circumstances to write this.

Last week, I thought I was having a heart attack–a REAL heart attack. My chest hurt, my heart was racing at a million miles an hour, I was having some difficulty breathing, and when I had a head-rush for no reason, I knew something was wrong. With a family history of heart disease, I didn’t want to take any chances. I had my husband take me to the doctor, and she determined that I was experiencing a panic attack. Well, I guess I’m glad it was a panic attack and not an actual heart attack!

But why?

Today, the world figured out a big part of what has been contributing to my stress for a while now. The STC announced that it had shut its doors and is filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I was one of those people who had to make that decision. While it was not my decision alone, I know that those on the STC Executive Council and Board are also feeling this stress and sadness as well. While it sounds cliché, believe me when I say that this decision was not made lightly and was very difficult. It was a build-up of years of issues coming to a head despite many best efforts to reverse those issues, and rather than depending on unpredictable “hope” that it would get better, it was the right decision to stop everything. Otherwise, an already bad situation was only going to get worse, and that would not be fair to anyone–the members, or those on the future Board trying to keep things afloat.

While I could go into deeper details of the last seven months as I experienced them as Board Vice-President and what led to this, I won’t. It’s not worth it at this point. Maybe if I ever meet you in person over a drink or lunch, I could tell you the story, but not here.

Rather, I want to use this to express how I’m mourning this loss. I’ve been reading comments from all over the world about the announcement, and trying to help others through this as best as I can.

As someone who started a new career in her forties, STC was introduced to me when I decided to go back to school. I joined as a graduate student, and haven’t left since that time. While I haven’t been a member as long as many people that I know, I can honestly say that STC has been my chosen family. I’ve made a lot of professional connections with people I consider my mentors. The knowledge I’ve gained with my association with STC has been tremendous. It took my knowledge and experience in tech comm to the next level to make my career what it is today. Heck, I don’t know that I would have the job I have now without my STC connection, as that was a “preferred” qualification when I applied.

I’ve also formed many friendships with my colleagues over the years. There’s a large group of technical communicators who I met through STC that are my “touch base” people–they are the ones I don’t have to mask my autism for and can totally be myself. That says a lot. These are friendships I hope to sustain for many years to come through social media and other means, because these people do mean a lot to me, and I might not see them as often now since we won’t have STC to connect us the same way.

So, for me to be one of the main people to push for this closing because it was the right thing to do? This was like taking a loved one off of life support to let them pass on. No one really wants that beloved person to go, but you don’t want to prolong any suffering either. That’s what this feels like for me, and I know it’s felt that way for a lot of longtime STC members and associates.

I’ve been grateful that most of the messages I’ve read or received were of support for the decision. Most people are sad, but they understand that this was not an easy thing to do, and that it’s for the best. It does comfort me that other people can attest to the knowledge and energy that the organization had, which brought some of the best of the best in technical communication out there, and that STC helped with their careers, too.

For myself, it’s disappointing that I’ll never have the chance to apply to be an Associate Fellow or Fellow. But I’m not alone–several people applied for those honors this year, and that’s not even going to be fulfilled now for them either. If things were in a better state, I could have been in line to be the Board President. Well, I got pretty close with being Vice-President, so there’s that. I am grateful that I’m one of the few people who has received the STC President’s Award–that’s nothing to sneeze at. So many people contributed to the long-term success of the organization but will not be able to reap the benefits anymore, which is a hard pill to swallow. But it is what it is.

A lot of us are mourning for this big loss. And it is a loss. I wrote about the benefits of belonging to STC plenty of times over the course of the years on this blog. Sure, there are other organizations that we can explore and join, and other avenues for gaining knowledge, education, and certifications. But STC was truly a different kind of organization. I’ve never felt more supported by any other organization like this in my life. Everyone wanted you to do well. Everyone encouraged you to learn, discuss, and innovate. The genuine kindness and support were unmatched. The STC alumni are incomparable in these respects, and I hope that this will continue as we connect in other ways and carry this legacy forward.

I do want to give an extra special shoutout to two people in this whole thing.

First, to Tim Esposito, the Immediate Past President of STC. Tim and I go way back from trenches of the STC Philadelphia Metro Chapter. While he’s been in STC longer than me, he always encouraged me to step up, has been an incredible mentor, one of my biggest cheerleaders, and a great friend and confidant. I can’t thank him enough, and so glad that we’ve moved up the ranks together (usually with me on your coat tails). Sir, I salute you.

The other person is Liz Herman, the current STC President. So much of this entire process has been on her shoulders, and I couldn’t let her bear this whole thing alone. She did so much of the heavy lifting, and we owe her a debt of gratitude for her grace and leadership under pressure. (This is an understatement.) I’m glad we were able to work together and support each other through this process, and we’re going down like Thelma and Louise–together!

There are so many other people to name, but I don’t know that I could remember or fit them all in. You know who you are. Thank you all for supporting my journey as I’ve become a better technical communicator, teaching me how to fight against imposter syndrome at my weakest moments, and helping me learn how to be a leader. You have my eternal gratitude.

The Society for Technical Communication had a 72-year run. We all contributed to making it a good run while we could. The organization will be sorely missed by many, and definitely by me.

A recent event has made me discover that I will be tested in understanding how my true use of mobile technology will really be in the near future.

How did I come to that discovery?

I recently sent in a proposal to do a presentation, and I was notified over the weekend that the proposal has been accepted! I’m really thrilled for a number of reasons. First, it’s the first time I’ve actually sent in a proposal to do a presentation, so to have it accepted on the first try is pretty good. Second, this presentation will be the first real professional presentation I’ve ever done to a large group. I’ve done presentations, but not on this scale before. Third, it’s going to be for the STC’s Mid-Atlantic Technical Conference, hosted by one of my home chapters, the STC–Philadelphia Metropolitan Chapter, in early March of this year. Less than a month and a half away from this writing! So, it’s going to be nice representing my own chapter, and being able to sleep in my own bed instead of traveling too far to do this! 😉 So, for a number of reasons, you can see that I’m actually very excited and honored to be included, especially considering that I’m still a “young” professional in the technical communications field.

But in receiving this acceptance, I realized that now I have to actually put everything together for this presentation. I have the foundation for it, which is what I forwarded to the conference’s review committee, so that’s not the issue. Now the issue is pulling it all together to be a stellar presentation. I know I can do a presentation, but I need to create some sort of slideshow or PowerPoint content that can be displayed while I actually present.

Now, I know what you are thinking. You are probably thinking, “But TechCommGeekMom, you are a technical communicator. Surely you know how to do, at least, a simple PowerPoint presentation?” Indeed, I do know how to do that, and do it well. I also know some other tools to use as well. That’s not the issue or the problem either. I have a bigger problem to figure out. The problem is whether to create the slideshow in PowerPoint on my laptop, and bring my laptop with me, OR…create the presentation in Keynote on my iPad, and bring my iPad with me. There’s always the third option of creating the presentation for both, and bringing both, but I’d like to avoid doing that, if possible.

On the one hand, using my laptop is a guarantee. We know that a laptop can generally hook up to video/VGA/ HDMI cables that most conference centers use, so that’s not a problem. But I have a BIG laptop–a big 17-inch screen one. It’s a little on the heavy side. I bought it during grad school for the big stuff I had to do, and sometimes still do, with web design, writing large papers, and for the big power-lifting tasks that one needs a laptop.

On the other hand, I am the huge proponent of using mobile devices, and having a means of creating a slideshow on my iPad presents a new option that I haven’t had in the past. I could buy a cable (or two) that could hook up into a conference center‘s video system– I don’t mind the expense of getting the necessary cables to do that–but I don’t want to be left standing with an iPad and a bunch of cables that may not be compatible with the video screen system, thus no presentation other than me and my big mouth. (I could pull that off–just a speech alone, since I remember giving presentations even in my school days before computers were even present in schools, but that’s giving away my age now…) But let’s face it–pictures and words on a screen are much more entertaining than verbal words alone in this day and age. Since I don’t know what this conference center has, I have to second guess what’s there. This is my preference, but this is not guaranteed to work.

So, here’s a crowdsourcing question for anyone who’s reading this, especially if you have done professional presentations on the road. What should I do? Should I plan on bringing the laptop and create a standard PowerPoint formatted presentation? Or, should I plan on practicing what I preach about using mobile devices, namely using my iPad, and create the presentation on that? If I should use the iPad, what extra cables should I purchase? Or, should I just plan on creating it on both, and bringing both?

I especially need the help of those who do presentations on the road often. Who has used an iPad? Who has used only a laptop? What are the advantages and disadvantages in either instance? What has worked best for you?

Let me know what your suggestions are in the comments below. I really would love to get some input on this! Thanks!