The name was publicly unveiled on April 24, 2012, at the “Writing for Narration” event held at Allo Inde in Montreal.

President pro tem Andy Gural commented that the name was well received by the audience gathered for the event, and said that the organization is open to suggestions for a slogan or tagline.

The name Ars Communica can mean “the skill or craft of sharing.” The organization will remain centered on technical communication, but with a broader reach to include technical illustrators, instructional designers, user experience designers, e-publishers, e-learning experts, and emerging specialties. The organization will also work toward building a stronger social/networking group for technical communicators in Montreal.

The group is currently working on a formula for membership and pricing, a formal governance structure, new kinds of events, and a new web site.

There will be much more information to come.

President Andy Gural and Secretary/Treasurer Everett Larsen (who make up the administrative council) convened on February 22, 2012, and passed the following motions:

• The council ratified the decision to sever ties with STC International, as was approved by the membership in a vote held on on January 31, 2012.
• The chapter bylaws have been amended to remove Article V stating that membership in the local organization is governed by STC rules. The administrative council recommends that any successor group continue to amend bylaws as required.
• The council recommends that any successor group establish a governing structure at its earliest convenience, and suggests a deadline of Labour Day (September 3, 2012) for governance to be in place and operating. Andy and Everett stand ready to mentor new officers for the rest of calendar year 2012 and will offer guidance as requested.
• A new post office box key is being made, and PO box keys will be available to the successor organization on request.
• A registered letter was sent to Steve Skojec (Community Affairs Manager at STC International), informing him of the vote to sever all connection with STC.
• Everett Larsen will prepare a final financial report and submit it to successor group. Everett is prepared to provide any and all financial information to the successor group on request.

This concludes the official business of the organization that was known as STC-Montreal.

If you’ve been reading the comments on this site and on afterstcmontreal.wordpress.com you’ll know that Alan is in town today, and wanted to touch base with us.

This is an informal get-together. Anyone who wishes to join in the discussion is welcome to come. The meetup is at 6:30.

The meeting was called by STC-Montreal President Andy Gural on January 19 in an email announcement to the entire STC-Montreal membership. The initial topic of the meeting was dissolution and closure of the chapter.

At the meeting, Andy and Secretary/Treasurer Everett Larsen presented the issue: The chapter had only two officers, and no volunteers available to replace them for 2012. Volunteers must be STC members in good standing. Without any volunteers to take over at the end of the current term, the chapter could not continue to function.

A formal call was made for volunteers to step forward to run the chapter, but there were no takers.

The issue of dissolution was then discussed for about 90 minutes. Some of the key points were:

• STC-Montreal’s events have always been well-attended; 90 individuals have attended chapter events in the past year, and over 300 people are subscribed to the chapter’s email announcements.
• Most attendees in recent years have not been STC members; members have rarely, if ever, attended local events.
• Several people spoke of their interest and attachment to the local community of technical writers.
• According to the chapter’s bylaws (effective since 1991), dissolution requires approval by a 3/4 vote of the members at a meeting.

A turning point for the meeting occurred when STC Fellow and former STC President Saul Carliner spoke. Saul speculated about the possibility of dissolving the relationship with STC, but not closing the local organization itself.

Saul put forward a motion “to sever the relationship between STC-Montreal and STC International.” This motion was duly seconded by another member, and voted on. All present at the meeting (6 members and 14 non-members) voted unanimously in favour of the motion to sever.

The group resolved that the existing administrative council take steps to enact the resolution to sever, and to ensure that a transition to a new governing structure be accomplished quickly. Several new volunteers stepped forward immediately, and webmaster Jim Royal offered to coordinate their efforts.

Everett Larsen has volunteered to be a mentor for the next secretary/treasurer to ensure that the organization’s finances remain in good order.

STC-Montreal will cease to function as a chapter of STC at the end the month. The organization will continue operating its events, the job bank and workshops under a new name that is yet to be determined.

We’re dead — but it’s a comic book death, where the superhero comes back more powerful, and with a shinier costume.

At our annual chapter business meeting, chaired by former chapter president Manny Gordon, a motion was carried that that the chapter dissolve its relationship with the STC mothership in Virginia, USA.

The motion was voted on by paid-up members after lengthy discussion and conversation, and accepted unanimously.

Our charter goal is to improve the practice and arts of technical communication; the STC was merely a vehicle for that. It’s time to change busses. Or, as I’d argue, jump from the horse and buggy and onto the jet aircraft.

Details to follow in the days to come.

- STC-Montreal President Andy Gural

On the former site of the historic Canadian Pacific Rail Angus Yards in Montreal, the STC hosted a dynamic workshop-seminar entitled “Technical Writing 101- The Basic Skills; Technical Writing for the Real World,” presented by the erudite and veteran STC board member Manuel (“Manny”) Gordon. The nearly twenty attendees ranged in age from the twenties to the sixties, and ranged in profession from software programmers, to translators, to a disgruntled machinist, to educators, to publishers, all eager to get a “Master Class” from Mr. Gordon.

After a delicious breakfast, the workshop began (in the active voice!).

Manny opened by inviting the participants to introduce themselves: Names, backgrounds, IT experience (Wait a minute! What happened to heavy industry? Angus Yards, RIP) as well as goals and expectations from the workshop. He then listed his credentials as an old computer wizard, Programmer, Analyst, Tech Writer, and Professor, having presented workshops at McGill, Ericsson, Bell, etc.

A convenient booklet was handed out, containing the imminent power point projections.

In case readers of this website article wanted some of the referenced material, go get your own copy of “The Elements of Style” (1959) by William Strunk, Jr. and EB White.

The first real power point: What is Technical Writing, from whom to whom, by whom and for whom? Then we were introduced to the extremely USEful acronym, USE: Understand, Simplify, Explain.
And don’t forget to analyze your audience. Are you writing for Managers, or Mechanics? What would be their socio-economic background?

The workshop unfolded in a very pedagogical way, with the participants being given additional handouts, texts over-stuffed with badly punctuated and disorganized information. It was up to us, the participants, to understand what was there, organize it, and put it IN-FORMATION (get it?).
The next exercise was especially fun, as Manny challenged us to compare our own analytical powers to those of super-sleuth Sam Spade, as he was portrayed by Humphrey Bogart in an early, critical scene from the old black and white classic “The Maltese Falcon” (1941). We were shown a clip from the film, where a seemingly distraught and anxious woman by the name of Miss Wanderlie (from NYC) shows up at Mr. Spade’s office (in San Francisco) to hire him for the purposes of locating her allegedly missing sister, who allegedly ran away with a Mr. Floyd Thursday. She then throws Sam a lot of data, when Manny hit the pause button, to allow us to prepare some kind of a report, which Sam would have to present to his secretary and partner. I will not tell you what she said, or what we wrote, or even what Sam Spade (Bogey) presented as HIS version. Go look on You Tube, or at Block Buster Video, OK?

Then we went for comestibles.

After lunch, we had to come back to the table(s).

We were given more exercises, which were designed to draw upon the lessons supposedly learned from the earlier exercises of analyzing our audiences, and making sure the Maltese Falcons fly in-formation. Also, how to use tables (not the type used for eating, drinking, drafting or dealing cards, but the type used with charts and diagrams).

The workshop seemed to be very successful, as all the participants participated. Not only doing the exercises, but asking questions and engaging discussions, which continued even after the workshop formally ended.

Even for those already familiar with Manny of the concepts, it was still a very exciting experience to have had!

When may we next participate in Technical Writing 201?

From where I stood at the front of the room, the Technical Writing 101 workshop went very well last Saturday (November 26, 2011). We had 14 participants who listened attentively, took notes, spoke up, worked diligently on the exercises, and provided excellent solutions. Some were technical writers, and many others were programmers. Two worked in sales and customer support. We also had a business writer, a translator, an editor, and a specialist in online learning. Tout le gang.

The day’s success was due in large part to Radka Losert: from 8:00 in the morning to almost 6:00 in the evening, Radka made sure that everything went smoothly.

Jim Royal could sleep soundly that morning, because he had done all he could to promote the workshop on the chapter’s website, through email—and by talking up the workshop to his own employer!

Andy Gural looked after the heavy lifting (of the projector, mainly), and supported the endeavour in every other way he could.

But it was Marta Cepek, the Wizard of Ottawa, who was the organizer-in-chief of this workshop. Marta pulled it all together: the budget, the room, the caterer, the publicity, the forms, the printer, the payments, and more. When necessary, she even prodded the presenter to stick to the deadlines. She pulled off all this magic from behind her Ottawa curtain. She makes it look easy. But she doesn’t fool me.

Thank you Marta, Radka, Jim, Andy, and everyone else who worked on this project. Thanks to Cedric Migliorani took all the pictures, and to Harold Quesnel, will write an article about the workshop.

If you know Marta Cepek, you know how very outgoing she is. Unfortunately, Marta is now the outgoing Workshop Coordinator for STC-Montreal. Marta will be a tough act to follow, but I know that you are up to it.

Yes, I’m talking to you. Sit up straight. Pay attention. Wipe that smile off your face.

You may think that you don’t have the time to volunteer for STC-Montreal, but I say that you need to make time. You need to start showing your peers – and your future employers, clients, and co-workers – that you complete your tasks with minimal supervision and assistance, yet are flexible and ready to work with other team members. That you have the ability to work to tight deadlines, deliver on time, and ensure high quality, and are willing to acquire knowledge and learn new skills. That you have excellent organizational skills.

And that you are fun to work with.

So even if someone grabs the Workshop Coordinator position before you do, just send me an email: I know just the job for you.

Manny is responsible for recruiting volunteers and elected officials for STC-Montreal. You can reach him at election [at] stc-montreal [dot] org.

Dinner seminar on when and how to take the leap from employee to freelancer

Presented by Robert MacIsaac, Nov. 29, 2011, at Star of India Restaurant in Montreal.

Review by Lynne Wright

Download the podcast and presentation slides.

If you’ve ever found yourself spending day after day breathing lugubrious sighs against the walls of a cubicle wondering why the clock refuses to move faster, the giddy prospect of working from home on your own schedule can make freelancing seem like the holy grail of professional freedom.

But as Robert MacIsaac illustrated with a sobering barrage of practical advice, there’s a lot to consider before you throw off the shackles of the ol’ 9-to-5 and strike out on your own.

Is freelancing right for you?

Being the type of person who thrives on flexibility, autonomy and variety isn’t enough. To be self-employed entails:

• Being able to live with uncertainty – can you handle not knowing when the next job or cheque is coming in without being consumed with stress?
• Being disciplined and motivated – aside from pushing out the jobs you’ve got, you need to spend some time each day developing contacts and lining up work. Depending on factors such as how long you’ve been freelancing, how many regular clients you have, and how much existing work you have lined up, be prepared to spend anywhere from 30-50% of your time each day marketing yourself (contacting new or repeat clients; networking; maintaining a website).
• Running a small business. This means that in addition to writing, you need to negotiate and liaise with clients; while managing promotion, accounting, and possibly sub-contractors/employees.
• A potential, paradoxical lack of freedom. Especially when starting out, you may not be able to afford the luxury of turning down jobs that come at a bad time, or that aren’t terribly appealing or satisfying. Be prepared for having to scrape through lean periods and having to put your personal plans on hold so you can work like an absolute dog when business is booming.
• Considering the demands of family. If you have small children, that’s going to affect your ability to work long hours when required, or to get any work done at all on days when they are home; this will impact your ability to meet deadlines that you’ve committed to. If you have a spouse, they need to be supportive about the probability that you will occasionally need to work through evenings or weekends.

Transitioning from employee to freelancer

If you feel that you fit the personality and lifestyle criteria, the next step is to think through these financial issues:

• You should have enough cash in the bank to see you through a minimum of three months with little or no incoming cash flow.
• Set up a line of credit before quitting your job. Banks smile more favourably on those with a steady paycheque.
• Find out whether any company health/life insurance plans that you are on can be continued once you are no longer an employee.
• See if you can maintain your existing retirement fund.
• It helps if you have a spouse with a steady job that meets your baseline household expenses; bonus points if you can be covered on their work health insurance plan.

Get your accounting ducks lined up

• Find an accountant experienced in handling the self-employed/small businesses. They will save you the time and hair-pulling aggravation of trying to figure out how to keep your books and deal with taxation issues. The Revenue Canada website (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca) has information on deductions, GST and the like; but you don’t want to go there. You’ve got better things to do with your time.
• Set yourself up with a GST number and collect sales tax from the outset.
• Keep receipts for business-related expenses, and add notes to receipts to detail what the expenditure was for (for example, specify what client meeting a gas receipt is associated with). Set up a filing system to store receipts by category, and file receipts as they come in to avoid utter chaos when its time to hand them over to your accountant (or auditor!).

Consider incorporation

• If there are possible liability issues associated with what you produce, incorporation protects you from being personally responsible (any potential law suit would be filed against the company; your personal assets are protected).
• It gives you flexibility in how you deal with income. You can pay yourself in regular amounts, with any cash reserves being held by the company, so that your taxable income stays constant.
• Allows you to define partnership roles/who will contribute what; how profits will be split; what happens if a partner leaves the business. Make sure that these issues are decided upon and clearly documented as part of the incorporation papers.
• Enables the business to continue without you (i.e. a partner can buy you out).

Some resources to get you started

www.freelance-work-guide.com Offers comprehensive basic information on getting started, where to look for contracts, how to evaluate the market and develop a business plan, how to avoid scams, outsourcing, time management.

www.pwac.ca Professional Writers Association of Canada. Has information on best practices; standard freelance agreement and copyright kit; guidelines on how to set rates.

www.writers.ca PWAC maintains a searchable database of Canadian freelance writers on this site. Prospective clients can search for writers based on subject matters such as Telecommunications, Science and Technology; Medecine and Health; Engineering; Types of Writing categories include Technical Writing/Editing; training materials.

You may also want to contact companies that offer writing service to feel out what the current climate is for freelancers, and determine how marketable your skills are. A few suggestions:

Information Architecture www.inarc.net

Writing Assistance, Inc. www.writingassist.com

Dinner seminar on the use and effectiveness of infographics

Presented by Andy Gural, Oct 25, 2011 at Star of India Restaurant in Montreal.

Review by Lynne Wright

Download the podcast and presentation slides.

Graphics have been used as an eye-grabbing and efficient way to convey information since grunting cave people painted bison on cave walls. Over millennia, the use of infographics — basically, the visual representation of knowledge or data — has evolved from a simple expression of “Meat! Good!” to the dead-dull PowerPoint darlings of pie charts and bar graphs to the sleek and playful interactive creations of hipster infographic maniac David McCandless (take a spin through some of his work at http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/).

Being able to package a lot of information into a compact and easily-absorbed visual is a particularly valuable tool to have stuffed into your bulging bag of techwriter tricks. But since we are primarily word people, not graphic artists, learning how to conceptualize effective infographics is a bit like learning to speak a new language.

Here are Andy’s guidelines:

• Apply the “…show a bunny” concept to determine when an infographic would be useful, and what information it should include. The visual should reflect and complement the written content.
• Similar to when writing about a topic, you need to fully understand the material that you want to represent before you can work out a strategy for expressing it effectively as a visual.
• The adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is not just hollow rhetoric. If you want to explain how information flows through a server-client network, create a system diagram. An illustration can deliver the information in a compact, easy-to-follow format that’s way easier to get a mental grasp on than having to wade through several paragraphs of descriptive text.
• Imagine the infographic as a way to answer a question; it should tell a self-contained story that makes sense to the viewer even if they don’t read any of the accompanying written content.
• Our brains tend to follow the same patterns when scanning an image, be it a page of text or an illustration; the default is to scan from top-left to bottom-right. To counter-act that impulse, you can use the relative size of objects, font styles and sizes, arrow styles, contrast, colour and empty space to create focal points and guide the viewer on a logical path through the information. Take a look at this infographic and see what elements attract your attention, and how: http://visual.ly/new-world-marketing
• Watch out for errors in proportions and the relative scale of objects. For example, an object representing 200 units should be twice as big as an object representing 100 units. 

The infographic shown at http://visual.ly/worlds-largest-aircraft uses a classic method of indicating scale; it compares familiar objects like elephants, whales, and cement trucks against the size and weight of the world’s largest aircraft, to show how massive the Airbus A380 is.
• When possible, let the visuals speak for themselves; eliminate legends, headers and footers. However, you need to be certain that the symbology you use is easy to interpret. If it’s possible that an absence of labels means that people will be scratching their heads trying to figure out what they’re looking at, then to heck with clean minimalism… maybe a label or two is in order.

Even if you don’t think that you have the need, inclination, or design chops to get into high-end infographics, they have a lot to teach us about how to organize a big meal of information so that it fits on a small plate, in an appetizing and easily ingestible way.

For more samples, see:

http://www.coolinfographics.com/
http://infographicsnews.blogspot.com/

The web site Writers UA published some of the salient details. For example, here are average annual salaries for the top ten states in order of overall employment:

More information can be found at Writers UA .