Technical Writing! Alive and Kicking

Friends, I have great pleasure in announcing to all of you that the India Chapter has bagged the ”Chapter of Distinction Award” for the second consecutive time. Our efforts and innovative approaches have been noted at the society level. This would not have been possible without the guidance and support I received from STC India Chapter’s past president, Susan Alexander, and our STC Regional Director Sponsor, Jim Romano.

There is more! Indus, the STC India newsletter, has also bagged the ”Excellence Award” for the second consecutive time. I’d like to congratulate Subash Babu, Vijayalakshmi Dandu, and the entire Indus team on this achievement.

There is considerable difference in the technical writing scenario in India. STC India has been considerable growth in its activities and membership. We have also had many more volunteers joining us in the past six months. This has considerably increased our energy level!

Our regular initiatives like city meetings are happening regularly. The increased attendance indicates that we are now reaching more people in the community.

A few new initiatives that rolled this year have the potential of becoming regular ongoing activities in the future.

We held a one-day learning session in Trivandrum in May. It was jointly organized with the Computer Society of India (CSI). There were about 125 people at this first-ever technical writing symposium held at Trivandrum. People’s participation and feedback strongly indicate the need for such programs in cities where we do not have active city representatives. The initiative taken by Bobby George Abraham has paid off well. We will work on more opportunities to network with bodies like CSI in the future.

Here is a glimpse of the things to come.

We conducted a comprehensive salary survey of the Indian technical communication society. We got more than 400 responses. The compiled results of this survey will be declared very soon. The sheer amount of data collected is making it time-consuming to publish. We will go beyond just publishing the results. We will also be publishing the analysis of the results from various angles. I am thankful to the experts who have accepted our request to write their analysis. I have seen all the good work that Paresh has put into this survey, and I am confident that this survey will reach the corners of the world. I have already seen a lot of interest, among STC Members around the world, about this survey. The entire industry is going to use it as a benchmark.
A job fair is scheduled to be held in Bangalore by June or July. Gururaj is working on the plans along with other volunteers. We are hoping that this will be a bridge to bring together the job seekers and the employers. Such events can be organized in other cities as well.
We have appointed a team of volunteers to manage the STC India website. This initiative will be driven by Ravishankar, current India Chapter Vice-president, and Mira Balani. Our site has already grown very big. Hence, this activity might take some more time.
We are preparing a special write-up on dealing with technical writers in India. I felt the need for such a write-up when I was attending a session during the Seattle conference. It became evident to me that the typical Indian behavior, many a times, may not fit in the mindsets developed by the western cultures. They find many of our actions difficult to analyze or understand. This can lead to certain issues. The objective of this article will be to explain such issues and provide tips. Melanie Doulton and Pradeep Akkunoor are working on this. This might also be ready by June or July.
The seventh STC India Annual Conference is scheduled to happen in December this year. This year, the STC India Annual Conference will take place in the city of pearls, Hyderabad. Uday Chava has been appointed as the program manager. Uday is putting together a team of volunteers to manage this mammoth task, which is the biggest event organized by STC India every year. This year, we are hoping to add more things to the regular conference events. I will write more about this later.
STC has expressed willingness to arrange Webinars for members of the Indian technical writing community (not limited to STC India members). I am in the process of compiling a list of topics for the Webinars. If you have any suggestions, please send me an e-mail.
We have been promoting the idea of reducing STC membership dues for Indian members. Thanks to the efforts taken by Jim, the STC Board has agreed to consider this issue and take a decision soon. Expect good news on this front in the days to come.

STC India is for you! Come forward and join hands. Together we can do wonders!

Makarand Pandit, President – STC India Chapter

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