Competitions

Site Needed for 2003 Competition Judges' Training Night

By Mark Decker

Planning for the 2003 STC Online Help Competition, jointly sponsored by the Boston and Northern New England STC Chapters, is underway. The competition's organizing committee is looking for a site for the annual Judges' Orientation training night. This training night is important to the success of the competition, because it prepares the judges for their work on competition day.

Approximately two weeks before the day of the competition, the competition committee holds an orientation to acquaint judges with the processes and procedures used to evaluate entries. Part of the orientation includes practice judging a sample online Help entry. The orientation typically takes place on a weeknight in mid-October, from 6:30 to 9:00 P.M. The actual date is based on the availability of the training site.

The ideal location has the following characteristics:

• Central location for Boston and Northern New England members. Companies along Routes 2, 495, or 3 have worked well in the past.
• Meeting space for 40-60 people with presentation capability. An InFocus or similar projection system is ideal.
• One or more computer labs or training rooms to accommodate 40-60 people, with a minimum of ten computers for small group practice sessions. To provide an online help system for use as a training example, we will need either Web access or permission to open files from CD.
• A central area such as a lunchroom or foyer where we can congregate over coffee and munchies.

As our host, we ask you to do the following:

• Obtain all necessary permissions in advance from your company's management.
• Identify any security requirements that we must meet (such as signing in, wearing badges, and so on).
• Schedule an hour or two when you can meet committee members at your company to look over the facility and make initial plans.
• Serve as the contact person for the committee in the weeks leading up to the orientation.
• Arrive approximately one hour early on training night to help set up the orientation.

If your company has a site that meets some or all of these criteria, please contact Joan Wotkowicz at joan@sebringdesign.com. Help us to make this year's competition even better than the last!

Mark Decker is a Senior Technical Writer from Nashua and is a member of the Northern New England chapter of the STC. Mark is a member of the Online Help Competition Committee. He currently works as a contractor for Agile Enterprise in Nashua.