Thanks to everyone who attended STC Toronto’s Annual General Meeting!
Meeting summary
- Reviewed our finances, accomplishments, and challenges from the past year.
- Shared our approaches, goals, and priorities for the year ahead.
- Shared the results of our salary survey.
- These will be distributed to the rest of our chapter members in the future.
- Welcomed new community council members.
- More details to come; we’ll be featuring our new members at future brunches.
Thanks to Beth Agnew for her keynote presentation! Beth shared her personal journey through tech comm and offered advice to fellow technical communicators, “the Swiss Army knife” of employees. Some of her key takeaways are summarized below.
Advice for Technical Communicators
- Align your interests and actions with those you enjoyed as a child.
- Be malleable—adapt to the company you work for.
- Be confident—you have somewhat of a sense of even the most unfamiliar things (and can learn the rest through research).
When selling yourself, remember that you possess valuable skills and abilities. Never underestimate the value of understanding users. Good user experiences lead to satisfaction, loyalty, and sales. The ability to increase sales is valued by all employers.
Skills:
- Multi-stage thinking.
- Curiosity and research.
- Writing, editing, and communication.
- UX Design.
Abilities:
- Learning quickly.
- Breaking stuff (usability testing).
- Solving problems.
- Asking questions.
- Spotting trends.
- Making suggestions.
When faced with a new task, ask yourself what:
- What you know.
- What you sort of know.
- What you’d like to know.
- What you’re learning.
- What you’d like to try.
STC Ontario 