From the President

September 2014

August has seen some excellent progress from the TechCommNZ team regarding our upcoming conference in October, I’ve received some great feedback on the new look website and newsletter, and our budding relationship with IITP has resulted in TechCommNZ members being offered reduced rates at the ITX conference.

I’ve also been in discussions with the committee about how we can recognise people who make exceptional contributions to the development and progress of TCANZ, as well as provide our members with some recognition of their profession. I’ve outlined below the changes we’d like to make to how we identify TechCommNZ members and we’d love to hear your feedback.

Member. An individual or corporate member of TechCommNZ would be entitled to use the letters MTechCommNZ after his or her name.

Senior Member. An individual or corporate member of TechCommNZ would be entitled to use the letters STechCommNZ after his or her name after they have been a member of TechCommNZ continuously for five or more years.

Student members are not included under Member or Senior member grades as student membership is intended for short-term membership, while studying, only.

Fellow. Awarded periodically to a TechCommNZ individual or corporate member who has made significant contributions to TechCommNZ over the past year, or longer. A Fellow would be entitled to use the letters FTechCommNZ after his or her name. Fellows will pay an annual subscription unless they are covered by a corporate membership.

Honorary Fellow. Awarded periodically to an individual who has made significant contributions to TechCommNZ and/or the technical communication industry over the past year, or longer. An Honorary Fellow would be entitled to use the letters HTechCommNZ after his or her name. Honorary Fellows do not pay subscriptions. This grade would replace the existing Life Member grade.

In future, we may also consider adding a professional member grade: PTCANZ, which recognises a member's skills/knowledge/experience, based on some agreed criteria.

Do you like these ideas? Perhaps you have some suggestions on how they could be improved? Complete our survey to tell us what you think.

Steve