Announcements
New Managing and Associate Editors
Raymond Urgo’s presentation in Philadelphia ranked in the top 10 percent of all sessions
Announcements
New Managing and Associate Editors
After 14 continuous years as the newsletter of the P&P SIG, "Direction" has a new Managing Editor -- Anne "Jessie" Jesser! Jessie has many years of experience editing, and is excited about her new role. I hope you're as excited as I am about the future of the newsletter team!
But there's even more good news. Liz Cerri, who was also interested in the managing editor role, has agreed to come on as associate editor, joining Leigh and Pamela, with a focus on the online aspects of publishing and archiving our newsletter. Liz has a wealth of experience with web-based communication. She is keen to learn more about the editorial process and the specialty of policies & procedures.
Join me in welcoming them as volunteers and look for bios from Jessie and Liz in upcoming issues of Direction and on this website.
Raymond Urgo’s presentation in Philadelphia ranked in the top 10 percent of all sessions
The Arlington, VA-based Society for Technical Communication (STC), recently announced that Raymond E. Urgo, principal of Los Angeles, CA-based Urgo & Associates, ranked in the top 10 percent of 130 conference speakers for presentation content and delivery at its 55th international technical communication conference held in Philadelphia, PA in June 2008.
As an invited speaker, Urgo presented his paper, Assessing the Maturity Grade of Policies & Procedures Programs. The paper describes the proprietary model created and used by Urgo & Associates to evaluate how an organization develops and uses its policies and procedures communication as a knowledge resource for workplace learning and performance.
Urgo & Associates’ maturity-grade assessment is a unique and simple model designed to rapidly gauge where a client organization ranks and what it must change to achieve a greater impact with its investment in its policies and procedures strategies, processes, methods, techniques, and talents. The model has proven useful for building a collaborative understanding and relationship within the client’s team and with the consultant to improve a policies and procedures system.
Due to the high content and delivery ranking, STC has invited Urgo to deliver a version of his presentation as an STC Live Web-based Presentation for availability internationally in the coming months.
Urgo holds STC’s highest honorary membership rank, Fellow, attained by less than one percent of its more than 14,000 members worldwide. STC is the world’s largest professional organization for technical writers, editors, illustrators, managers, educators and user-experience professionals.
Urgo & Associates advises organizations on effective practices for investing in policies and procedures systems and documentation that transform workplace learning and performance.
For further information, or to request a copy of the presentation paper and slides, contact Raymond Urgo at rurgo@urgoconsulting.com or 323-851-6600.
Raymond E. Urgo
Principal
Urgo & Associates
7805 Sunset Blvd., Suite 202
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Tel 323-851-6600
Fax 323-851-6601
http://www.urgoconsulting.com
Urgo & Associates is an internationally recognized leader in Policies & Procedures Communication.
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Call for Presenters in Atlanta 2009
Next year’s STC conference will be held 3 - 6 May 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia. The Policies and Procedures Special Interest Group (P&P SIG) will propose a "Progression Session" to the 56th Annual Conference Program Committee.
P&P SIG is looking for presenters (and their topics) for this session. If you plan to attend the conference, and have an idea for a topic, we’d like you to develop your topic and present as part of our progression session. We always want more topics! In Atlanta we hope to again include speakers from other SIGs and from the STC membership in general.
Subject matter for Topics
Naturally, we will be looking for topics of relevance to members of our SIGs. But we will also be interested in related and relevant topics such as compliance, content management, career development management for those in our fields, documentation management, and the tools and technologies that we all use in our profession.
Some ideas:
- Process improvements you have made.
- Career accomplishments or even career path changes or ideas.
- Software and tools. This can be anything from "tips and trick" to a migration of new tools or process improvement stories involving tools.
- Project success stories, especially if it involves compliance or process improvements.
If you have an idea, don’t hesitate to propose it. We can always put our heads together and tailor the topic a bit for our expected audience.
How to join our proposal
It is easy to present as part of our group. Just send an email to Dawnell Claessen mail@dawnell.com. Let me know as soon as you can that you are interested in presenting. I will take care of preparing and submitting the proposal online.
Be sure to include the following information:
- Your name and complete contact information.
- Working title for your topic.
- A four or five sentence abstract of your topic.
- Any further details or supporting information about your topic such as an outline or graphics.
- A short professional bio about you, especially about any speaking or presenting experiences you may have had.
I must have all your information no later than 15 October 2008. The STC deadline for submitting proposals is 20 October 2008. And I will need a few days to prepare the proposal and enter the information online.
What is a "Progression Session" anyway?
The "Progression Session" format is an educational session at conference that has many different speakers presenting on various topics simultaneously. Speakers will each host a table with a presentation on a topic from their own area of practice. Attendees hear a twenty minute presentation about one topic, and then move to another table to hear the next twenty minute presentation and so on.
Sessions in this format are very popular and are among the best attended at the conference. Progression sessions are a great way to share a lot of information in a relatively short time. Veteran presenters and new speakers alike can hone their speaking and presenting skills as they present new topics and research.
Details about the Conference:
Any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.
Dawnell K. Claessen
mail@dawnell.com
Co Manager, P&P SIG
(321) 373-4582