From the President
My usual experience of December is that it is the month of the artificial deadline. Clients so often want everything completed by Christmas, bless them. I'm sure it is a Southern Hemisphere problem, and I often imagine how easy Christmas would be if we weren't simultaneously preparing for the annual summer nationwide shutdown.
All I want for Christmas... is to give two of you Prezzy Cards
I ask for only one Christmas present from my TechCommNZ colleagues - a hearty response to two very important TechCommNZ surveys. Each one comes with a chance to win a $100 Prezzy Card. You could win two! And how? simply:
- complete the survey which we're running for some candid feedback on the newsletter and blog (and not just feedback - this is an easy way for you to let us know your secret desire to get involved in writing or editing newsletter articles and blogs), and
- complete the annual salary survey , which as you know, provides a very useful nationwide view of salaries and contracting rates for members.
All survey responders who provide their email address will go in the draw at midday on the 12 December 2014 to win one of two $100 Prezzy Cards. That's a promise.
Technical Communicator Showcase
The last major TechCommNZ survey I helped to run was in... April 2013. This was the Technical Communicator Showcase survey, which we ran because we wanted to hear your stories of awesome work. There was a promised prize of wine or chocolates, but we never said when we'd draw it. Well, things got a little busy for a year or so, but I'm now delighted to (ahem, finally) announce the winner. We congratulate Jody Winter - who can confirm that she received chockies and a TechCommNZ cup last week. Read Rhiannon's interview with featured TC - Jody Winter in this month's newsletter.
We uncovered a few other good stories in the survey, and we're hoping to bring you interviews with these individuals over the next few months - but we know there are more stories to tell. You can bet that we'll be talking to Janet Green - the 2014 Plain English Technical Communicator of the year, too. But if you know of another interesting story of tech comms brilliance, please send a few details.
Tall poppies are welcome here!
Business Partner Scheme
At TCANZ, we are constantly striving to meet our goals, one of which is to gain wider recognition of the role of technical communication in New Zealand organisations. We've always been well supported by some wonderfully generous business partners for our biennial conferences. This financial and moral support helps us to increase the benefits we can bring to members. The more members we have, the stronger we become, and the more people we can educate about the best practice, the best technologies, and the best products.
We believe that our goal aligns closely with our sponsors' business needs. So we've put together a TechCommNZ Business Partner programme, and over the coming months, we'll be working hard to bring partners on board. This programme is designed to suit any business which either wants to recruit a large technical communication team, or sell products, services and expertise to technical communicators.
We hope that as we bring partners on board, our members will support their goals too. For more information on the programme, see Business Partnership.
Season's Greetings
Recharge your batteries, and please remind yourself of how very special your profession is.
Wishing you a safe, happy, and fun festive season.