Last night's meeting

The monthly STC Atlanta meeting was held last night at Mirant. The program was "Bringing the conference to you" and was a rather unique experience. Rather than have each panelist speak on his/her impressions of the conference, Robert Armstrong (2nd VP) asked questions that allowed for a healthy discussion of the conference. I think this format allowed a better understanding of the conference for the attendees.

Attendance was rather light. Hopefully, it was because of the truck crash on I-285 that closed down the expressway or maybe because of the rain, or both. Or maybe you, our members, are tired of this type of program. Are you? If you are or aren't I would like to hear from you. Comment on this blog or email me.

In fact, as we begin this program year, I would like to hear from any and all of you with your ideas about what you would like to see as a program. Or, if you can't think of any new program ideas, comment on past programs. Did you really like a particular program? Did you really hate a particular program? Is there a type of program you prefer over others? Without input from you we will not be able to provide what you want in programming. And, after all, you are the real reason we have programs!

One other quick question since I am asking for responses: Do you play golf? I know it is a silly question on a blog about technical communications and STC Atlanta. But I have had discussions with other long-time STCers and most of them say that technical communicators do not play golf. I think this is sort of like dismissing the needs of your users without finding out what their needs really are.

In a previous life as a cable television system manager, I made a decision to delete a channel (CMT) that carried country music because we had limited channel capacity and had to find room for a new pay channel, and because our customers were young professionals and did not listen to country music. Boy, was I wrong! I received so many calls that I had to find room for the channel and put it back on. So, before technical communicators as golfers are dismissed out-of-hand, do you? Do you play golf? Let me know.