STC Distinguished SIG Service Award 2007

10 May 07

Birthday suit day came and went last month, and on the day following I was notified of having been honored with a STC Distinguished SIG Service Award. It was totally unexpected, and a bit undeserving, but an honor nonetheless.

I have indicated before that I am a member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Last month I was notified that I had been awarded a 2007 Distinguished SIG Service Award by the Online SIG, as posted. The award, as it turns out, was a nod towards my contributions as a member of the volunteer Web Services Team; most notably my humble efforts with helping to launch and maintain the STC Forum and STC Wiki.

I would like to thank those folks who considered me worthy for the award. If this was a tactic to put fire under my seat for finishing activities long since past due, I think it’s going to work. Most notably at the moment is getting the wiki redesign finished, which I’m anxious to do. I have been working with MediaWiki a lot in the last couple of years, and I think with a custom design, a base content structure in place, and a few helpful user docs to get interested authors in sync, we can move the STC wiki in the right direction (it’s pretty quiet there at the moment).

I would also like to give credit where it’s due:

First of all to the STC leaders who made it possible for us in the Web Services Team to contribute in new ways by implementing open source solutions and making communication in STC more visible.

Much credit also goes to Ann L. Wiley, who has been steadfast in her many contributions to STC, and has certainly tolerated more flack from the likes of me than she needed to. Ann has remained ever professional and open-minded when new ideas were literally thrown at her.

Finally, a big slap on the back to Lou Quillio, who knows a thing or two about everything and doesn’t mind sharing it. Lou, was the 2006 recipient of the DSSA, and if anyone should have won it two years in a row, for contributions above and beyond the call of duty as a volunteer, it’s him.

Once again, thanks all.