I believe that our profession attracts people who share a few personal traits. We all learn quickly and enjoy transferring our knowledge to people who need the information. We also enjoy learning curves - for some of us, the steeper, the better.

I admit to being one of those people who like challenges. However, I don't think that I'm much different from any of the other members of our chapter - after all, each of us joined the STC to further our careers. So, when I come across a new idea, I get right into the curve.

I've had my share of new challenges lately, both from the STC side and in my job. I've had some great new ideas cross my path lately - I'm investigating ways to incorporate my help directly in the interface of the application my company's developing. The process has always been possible, but it's always taken developer time - which can be in limited supply. But new technologies are making it easier to integrate the help into the application. It's an interesting quest, and not always necessary. I need to make a strong business case for this type of time and software investment. My argument is that the application is aimed at non-specialist users, who won't necessarily know how to ask the question of a normal help system. Since our particular application's business case rests on increased speed of production (of the resulting file), it's necessary to give the user as much information as quickly as possible. And, since we're putting complex tasks in non-specialist hands, it's really important to ensure the usability of the application AND the help.

Making the business case for our documents or information didn't used to be a big part of our jobs. For most of us, those days are gone - especially if you're in software development. It's very much part of our jobs now, to make sure that our work matches the business needs of our software. Some questions must go unanswered, and some effort needs to be diverted from the usual information deliverables. User manuals and help systems aren't the only way of getting information into user's hands, and while we work hard to make everything as useful as we can, sometimes we simply need to change the user expectations.

And with our STC events, expectations need to be altered a little. Possibly unknown to the normal member, the funding model of the STC is changing. We need to adapt to the new realities that this change is going to bring us. Sponsorship for our events will become increasingly important, but with that comes new opportunities as well. Our events are going to have to attract enough people to sustain the program and sponsorship.

It's a learning curve that might seem daunting. However, we have made an excellent start with a very successful regional conference in London in October. I am very proud of the conference's organisers, and the part that the UK chapter had in this challenge. If you didn't make it to the conference, you need to get to another of our events this year – I hope that our plans attract as many of our members as possible. I especially want to attract the people who haven't been to an STC event in a while. Please let us know what you'd be interested in.

We've set ourselves new standards to go along with our new expectations, and it's going to be fun adapting!


Nancy