By Denise Dennett
When you submit a technical document, technical art, or online communication project to an STC Competition, you always get something out of it. You might win an award. But even if you do not, you will get valuable feedback about the submission. The STC Competitions let you see how your work stacks up against your peers in the industry. Check out the Competitions Web page (http://www.stc-boston.org/competitions) to see the entries that won awards in the 2001 competitions. Wouldn't it be great to see your name on next year's winners list? Wouldn't your company enjoy the publicity of having their documentation known as award-winning?
The recognition and benefits of winning an STC award can last for years. First, you get the immediate benefit of proving to your management that you do great work. But imagine listing an STC award on your resume. Employers find it difficult to determine who can write and who cannot; an award from your peers (who are always your toughest critics) can really grab a hiring manager's attention.
Each year, the Boston and Northern New England chapters present awards at the Distinguished, Excellence, and Merit levels. One Best of Show winner per competition (publications, online communication, and art) will be selected. Winners of the Distinguished award qualify for entry in the STC International Competitions. Check the Competitions Web site to see a list of local entries that won international awards.
For the first time, we will be accepting submissions over the Web only. Fill out the submission form, and then follow the instructions on the form to submit your entries to the specific competition(s). Judging is completed in mid-November, so you should get feedback by early December.
You can find the entry requirements for each of the competition categories (online communications, technical art, and technical publications) on the Competitions page (http://www.stc-boston.org/competitions). The online submission forms and judges' registration forms should be available by August 1.
People who enter the STC Competitions submit their best efforts for that year, seeking recognition and feedback. By volunteering as a judge, you can review the best work in our areas. Judging is a great way to see what others are doing and to network with your peers.
You can enter the competitions, and you can judge the competitions. We ensure that your entry is assigned to another judging panel, so you do not have to worry about any conflict of interest. Plus, you will get the maximum benefit of having your work judged, and judging the best work of others.
The Online Communication judging will take place on November 2 at Hewlett-Packard (formerly Compaq) in Nashua, NH. We will send you the complete details when you register as a judge.
The Technical Art orientation and consensus judging will take place at Sun Microsystems in Burlington, MA. We are still working out the details, and will send you the necessary information when you register.
The Technical Publications orientation will take place on October 5 (location TBD), and consensus judging will take place on November 9 at Middlesex Community College in Bedford, MA. Complete details will be sent to you when you register.
To support competitions this year (and for many years to come), the Boston and Northern New England Chapters are developing a new Web-accessible database. We anticipate that entrants and judges use the Boston Chapter Web site to complete the entry forms and judging registration forms. This centralized database will make it easier for volunteers to coordinate all the entries and to assign them efficiently to the judges.
We expect the database online to start accepting entry and judging registration forms online by August 1. In July, we will extensively test the database, and we'll need your help. If you want to volunteer to test the database (which involves completing entry and registration forms online), send a message to stc_comp@yahoo.com. Because we want the database implementation to be as smooth as possible, we would like to have as many people test it with as many different Web browsers as possible.
For more information about the STC competitions, visit the Competitions page at http://stc-boston.org/competitions or contact one of these people:
Technical PublicationsDenise Dennett is the technical publications coordinator for the Boston/Northern New England STC Competitions 2002. She is a senior technical writer at SupplyWorks, Inc. in Bedford, MA.. Denise can be reached at denise_dennett@supplyworks.com.