RE: Re-upping STC membership?

["John Rosberg" <jrosberg -at- interwoven -dot- com>]

I think the shift in the salary survey (and others) reflects one of the
core missions of the STC -- a focus on research and education -- that
has always been of interest to me, as a practicing professional -- it
represents strategy (imo).

The Society does an OK job at the extremely tactical, as well (this tool
will do this for you).

Where the Society does not do a very good job is on the business side of
our profession -- it helps maintain the Rodney Dangerfield-esque stance
that many of our peers espouse, and seems to offer little hard data on
how to specifically manage a business unit.

This, of course, is mirrored in reality, where most tech communication
folks report to engineers, marketing folks, tech support pros . . . . 

Ah well, the Society seems to be the best show in town.

rosberg

-----Original Message-----
From: Guy K. Haas [mailto:guy -at- hiskeyboard -dot- com] 
Sent: Monday, November 12, 2007 4:56 PM
Cc: Techwr-l
Subject: Re: Re-upping STC membership?

We kept hearing that the survey figures were suspect -- that members
were
understood to be inflating their numbers.  Comments?

Meanwhile, is there yet any attempt by HQ to gather demographic info
about
what industries members work in/with, so that we can see WHERE the
various
kinds of TecComm jobs are?

--Guy K. Haas
  Software Exegete in Silicon Valley

On Mon, November 12, 2007 2:29 pm, Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> STC has abandoned its traditional method of collecting data directly
> from members and has switched to reports derived from BLS figures,
which
> come from employers.  So instead of finding out what rates mid-to-high
> level professionals with specialized technical communications skills
are
> reporting, we'll be receiving the same useless data I can already
access
> through various other services that derive reports from the same
source
> and lump the experienced professionals I need to negotiate rates with
in
> with various nontechnical, clerical and secretarial people who have
> managed to score the title of "technical writer" by taking $15/hour
temp
> assignments from places like Apple One.  However, I was not previously
> aware that STC was going to expect us to pay extra for it.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng


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