Date & Time: 19 November 2004 - 1pm-5pm
Location: Jussieu University, Paris
Speakers:
Margery Watson (INTECOM): Online documentation for technical communication
Lucy Veisblat (eCreation): What employers want
Introduction and Announcements
Kevin Journeaux, STC France Chapter President, opened the meeting and after briefly introducing the board members present - Stuart Culshaw (Vice President and Webmaster) and Ellen Lebelle (Secretary) -- then presented the STC to the D.E.S.S. students and non-members present. This meeting was run in conjunction with Lucy Veisblat's class in the D.E.S.S. program in technical communication at Jussieu. Discussion about who we (STC) are, why we encourage membership in the STC, etc.
Kevin spoke briefly about the new membership categories.
The STC, as a whole, and the France chapter, in particular, need more active members - people willing to volunteer some time. Kevin copied the call for volunteers from Vicky Koster-Lenhardt, our regional director sponsor.
The STC France website is up and running and in order to make ours a real community, we need you to contribute to the website.
As always, we are looking for meeting rooms - perhaps your company can lend us a large meeting room.
Margery Watson: Online documentation for technical communication.
It was an excellent presentation of the online documentation process that generated considerable discussion. A good deal of the work is done up front, before you even sign the contract, so how do you get paid for it. (She always comes away with the contract, so it's not a problem !)
Break
An excellent time to network, especially with the students who were happy to see a mixed group of professionals. Members introduce themselves
Job Titles for Technical Communicators
We continued introducing ourselves, the companies we work for and our job titles. This led to a lively discussion about the titles - in English, in French, what they mean, how they are inadequate. Richard Ryan, an STC member and professor from the program at the university in Clermont (http://www.vichy-universite.com/documentation/normalisee.asp), has been dealing with the issue. Remember that in France, the labels and job titles and duties are registered with the employment authority. Lucy sent us this link for professional job titles: http://www.adbs.fr/site/management/metiers/.
Competition
Jennifer was able to get in a few words about the competition. Although registration is closed for this year, the current students can compete in next year's competition. She brought judges evaluations with her - all of which disappeared immediately.
Lucy Veisblat: What employers want
Lucy presented what employers require in the way of technical communicators. For the students, the presentation (available on the website) provided a checklist that they could verify by speaking to those present, who work for agencies, are salaried, or are freelancers.
Odds and ends
Before everyone left the room, Kevin handed out a satisfaction questionnaire. Most people handed it back in and as soon as the board compiles the data, it will be posted on the website.
Jennifer presented the petition to nominate Paula Berger as 2nd vice-president of the STC. The 2nd v-p becomes the 1st v-p the next year and then the president in the third year of service. This is not a vote for Paula Berger, merely the petition to attain the 400 signatures that allow her candidacy. Jennifer pointed out that Paula is a former member of the Italy chapter and, if elected, will bring her foreign experience to the STC board.
Margery, our guest speaker, took this occasion to announce that the STC was dropping out of INTECOM, the international group of technical communicator organizations. http://www.intecom.org/dynindex.html This decision came as a surprise to most of the members present. This would be a good subject of discussion in a forum on the website ! Lunch
The secretary could not stay for lunch, but it looked like a good crowd. Several students joined the members in the downstairs room of the Epsilon Brasserie.