Letter from the Editor

by Kevin Cox

Hello! Summer is just about upon us and STC-WVC is winding down another year, so with the lack of a program meeting topic, there is no real “theme” for this issue. I guess we could call it “The End of the Year Free-for-All.” Check out the June Program Meeting announcement with all the info you need for the end of the year meeting and party, in this issue.

First, a call to take a quick survey for the Willamette Galley: Our newsletter staff is really interested in hearing what the membership wants to get from your Galley so we can know how it can be more useful to you. Please take the time to take the Galley survey, which you can access online at http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2KCFFJT. The second part of the survey is for the August issue – we would like to know what fellow tech writers do when they're not communicating technically! What hobbies are you involved with? Results will be published in the August Galley.

A big “thank you” and kudos to outgoing Assistant Editor, Erica Coco. I've truly enjoyed working with Erica this past year, and will miss her after she moves to warmer pastures.

Our staff and members have been busy attending conferences during the last couple of months, and their reports are included in this issue: Rachel Houghton and Maralee Sautter report on the STC Conference in Baltimore, and Dick Miller reports on the Intel Science Fair. Mark Ace reports on the state of employment in technical communication in Portland.

Kristy Schnabel gives some helpful tips in Dos and Don't's for Networking, and Dan Hobbs contributes an article on the Three Minds of Technical Communicators. Next year, the International STC Conference will be held in Seattle, and there is a call for articles for this conference.

Reviews in this issue include one on the new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style by new Assistant Editor Valerie Ball, conspicuously absent from the April issue, where it was mentioned in the Editor's Letter as being in the issue – oops!

As always, the WordPlay, Take Our Word for It, and president's columns round out this issue.

The Willamette Galley needs your writing skills and input! If you're interested in writing an article or review on any topic related to technical communication for the STC-WVC newsletter, come to the next newsletter volunteer meeting, Tuesday, June 15, at 6:00 pm, at the Lucky Lab Pub, 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The deadline for articles for the August issue is July 1. Please RSVP to Kevin Cox at knccomm@yahoo.com by the June 14th so we know how many to expect.