Member News
by Sylvia Miller, SIG Membership Manager

Our SIG is growing rapidly, and our members are busy giving presentations and preparing for their annual conference presentations. Read on to learn more…

New Members
The IDL SIG has added about 792 members since the last newsletter. You are part of a SIG that’s growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, we’re the second fastest growing SIG based on percent of growth since June 30, 2004. Please use this link to see the list of new members and to welcome them to the SIG.

Member Accomplishments
Have you noticed the excellent articles by our IDL SIG members in recent issues of Intercom?

While you're patiently awaiting the next IDL SIG newsletter, remember to send me information about your recent accomplishments. Send them to me at sylviamiller@woh.rr.com. (Be sure your email editor doesn't correct "woh" to "who.")

Hail, Hail…From Where Do We All Hail?
When you post a question to the IDL discussion listserv, did you know that you might be drawing from the expertise of professionals in as many as 27 countries?! That’s how many countries were represented by our membership as of 1/31/2005. Here’s a breakdown of our members by country.

Australia – 5 Benin - 1 Belgium – 2 Canada – 163 Denmark – 5 Finland - 3 France - 12 Germany – 11 India – 18

Israel – 11 Italy – 2 Japan – 1 Lithuania – 1 Netherlands – 1 New Zealand - 2 Norway – 1 Portugal – 2 Singapore – 2

South Africa – 1 South Korea – 1 Sweden – 3 Switzerland – 3 Taiwan – 1 UAE - 1 UK – 16 USA – 1558 Venezuela - 1

Judging from our diverse representation, we should have a vast array of experience from which we can draw when posting questions on the listserv! Why not give it a try. You can sign up for the discussion listserv at http://lists.stc.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=stcidlsig-l . No password is needed. Let me know if you have any problems signing up.

Presenting…!
Member Conni Bille recently presented “Instructional Design as a Career Path” to the STC Philadelphia Metro chapter and again to the Central New Jersey chapter. She had the audience do a skills inventory and then map their skills and development needs to the variety of options within the ID field. They then discussed self-development options and strategies. Member Peter Heikes and colleague Deanne Levander recently presented “Technical Writer to Instructional Designer—Big Leap?” at the University of Wisconsin-Stout student STC chapter.

Award Winners!
Two members of the IDL SIG were recently awarded the Distinguished Chapter Service award by their home chapter in Phoenix. They are Karen Zorn and Jane Smith. According to our "mole," Karen attends nearly every chapter business meeting and most chapter meetings. She's co-manager of the Region 5 Conference committee, and has conducted Framemaker classes for two years for the chapter. Jane is a "passionate supporter of technical communication all over the world." She has published articles in the Intercom, presented numerous times for the Phoenix chapter and at the annual conferences, is co-manager of the Region 5 Conference committee, and, of course, does a terrific job of leading the IDL SIG. Congratulations to these two top-notch members!

Jackie Damrau was recently awarded the Distinguished SIG Service award by the Management SIG for her valiant efforts in spearheading their newsletter, Directives. She will become Immediate Past President of the Lone Star community in May and serves as the IDL SIG’s Business Directory Manager.

Congratulations also to Mark Hanigan who has been named an STC Fellow, “For your passionate dedication and contributions to technical communication and training, the Society, and the many individuals whom you have mentored.” Congratulations, Mark!

If you have earned the DCS or DSS or other award, or you know of someone in the IDL SIG who earned awards this year, please let me know. Tooting your own horn and being a mole are both perfectly acceptable in this SIG!

Annual Conference Presenters!
The following folks are giving Instructional Design presentations at the Annual Conference in Seattle in May. (Made your reservations yet?)

Jackie Damrau
• Developing a Corporate Style Guide
• Finding Graphics that Tell a Story

Sue Mills:
Pearls of Wisdom for Effective E-Learning

Maggie Haenel:
Teach, Don’t Train: Designing Content that Learners Remember

Gene Holden:
Tools of the Trade

Jane Smith:
• Powerful Objectives: The Backbone of Instructional Design
• Conducting the Job Task Analysis, or “Stickie Bingo” for Better Course Design
• Performance Technology: Going Beyond Documentation & Training
• ABCs of Instructional Design (post-conference)
• Expert Evaluation of Training Materials (Jane with Michael Tillmans and Maggie Haenel)

Cindy Currie:
Who Me? How to Turn Your Work into Industry Best Practices

Annette Caneda:
Developing Multimedia Learning

Carolyn Luttrell & Bonnie Swan:
Developing Effective Role Play Exercises

Michael Tillmans:
Serving Information Workers and Knowledge Workers

In addition, three of our members are presenting topics on non-ID subject matter:

Jackie Damrau
• Communications in an Ever-changing World
• Customer Communication

Paul Sinasohn:
Zero-Based Budgeting for Chapters

Jane Smith:
Managing Your Money as an Independent Consultant

Until Next Issue…
Between now and June, please keep me informed of happenings in your professional life that we can note in our next newsletter! Meanwhile, here’s a question I’d like you to answer:

What is the subject matter of the training materials you develop? Is it software, soft skills, hardware, gameware, healthcare, nuclear subs, haircare, food handling?

Please send me a few words about your subject matter. It can anything from 2 or 3 words to 2 or 3 sentences. It will be fun to present that in the next newsletter. With so many nationalities represented in our chapter, there is probably a WIDE variety of subject matter. Email me anytime at sylviamiller@woh.rr.com.