Member Profile – Heather Barth

Direction: Can you briefly describe your business background?

Heather: I began my “working” career in the U.S. at Evangelical Christian Credit Union in 1991 in an entry level position; my previous job (23 years earlier) was as a telephone operator for the British government, in my home country of England.

In the past 15 years here at ECCU, I have enjoyed a variety of roles, most of which were on the operational side and related to credit and debit card processing. There was a high degree of stress in that area and I was ready for a change. About four years ago, “Operations” went through a reorganization and I was offered a position as a Technical Writer, which has allowed me to pursue my love of writing and lower the daily stress levels.

Direction: Tell us about your work – responsibilities, challenges.

Heather: I am responsible (along with one other colleague) for creating and managing all requested documentation for the enterprise. The types of documents we create are varied - Policies and Procedures, Forms and Form Letter templates programmed with Visual Basic, Manuals, Process Flowcharts, Training and Reference Materials etc. If it needs to be written, we will do it!

The majority of our documentation is stored in Trove™, an electronic library. Trove is a very userfriendly application and one of my responsibilities is to train all new employees on what the library contains and how to search through it to find what they want. All staff has access to the Trove library through our intranet home page.

Making sure that Trove has the most current information is a rather time consuming, manual process at the moment. We notify all document owners, on a quarterly basis, of any documents which have not been reviewed in the prior 12 months. However, in the next few months we will be adding Deployer™, a companion application to Trove, which will assist us in automatically notifying the owners that it is review time. This will cut down on the time it takes to manage the documentation, freeing me up for other challenges.

One challenging part of my role is when I’m asked to do a “brain-dump”. This generally happens when the “expert”, someone with a lot of knowledge regarding a product or service, has little to nothing documented and is moving into a different position. I have to capture that knowledge in written form and arrange the information so that others can learn from and use it.

Another challenge is keeping multiple projects going at the same time. I often have 15 - 20 at one time and sometimes feel like one of those persons spinning plates in the air!

Direction: Tell us about your audience.

Heather: Depending upon the document type, the audience may be as large as all ECCU employees (including executives and board members) or as small as a unit of two or three people.

Direction: What do you like most about your job?

Heather: I like the variety. I can get bored if I have to do the same thing all the time. When I first started in the Technical Writing Services (TWS) department all we did was policies, procedures, and task level instructions for the operational side of the credit union. We have expanded our influence since then.

I like the opportunity to be creative. Soon after I became a writer, I offered to create a form related to a procedure. I found that I thoroughly enjoyed the design aspect and have progressed into writing Visual Basic code for templates, for both forms and customized form letters. This can be really challenging and I love it. If I could spend my workday just designing and coding templates, I would.

I enjoy being innovative. TWS now produces documentation for the entire enterprise so I’m in a position which allows me to see products and processes from various vantage points. Working with multiple departments, I’m able to see where there may be duplication or holes in a process. I have the opportunity to offer solutions for process or procedural change which allows me to bring added value to a project.

Direction: What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into P&P documentation?

Heather: First and foremost, always get an understanding of who your audience is going to be.

Before you start writing, have a strong understanding of the customer’s expectations and anticipated results; if you can get them in a written agreement, that’s even better. This allows you to stay within scope and obtain buy-in should the project need to be expanded.

Don’t be afraid to ask why. There will always be questions that come to mind so communicate throughout the process with your customer and/or users. Don’t write from assumptions – get the questions answered before moving on.

Be willing to speak up and offer suggestions/solutions throughout the project if you believe you can provide added value.

Direction: What’s the biggest P&P challenge that you face in your industry or specialty?

Heather: As writers in the banking industry, we have to ensure that all documentation is in compliance with both Federal and State Banking Regulations. It is also very important that instruction or information in one document does not conflict with something in another document, which was perhaps written for a different business unit.

Direction: Tell us a bit of personal information about you – e.g., hobbies, where you live, your family, or other information to help us get to know you.

Heather: I met my husband, Jack, when he was serving in the U.S. Air Force in England. After marrying in 1968, we moved to Southern California and began our family. I was blessed to have the privilege of being a full-time wife and mother until our two girls were in college; that’s when I started as an encoder here at ECCU. I became a U.S. citizen in 2003.

I live and work in Orange County, California. Our daughters are now grown and married and we have two of the best grandchildren in the whole world! Kelly is four - and all boy! He loves (and is good at) any sport you name. Piper is not quite two and just a bundle of love. She watches and copies anything her big brother does. As a “Nana”, I’ve had to become an expert in Thomas the Train and Dora.

In my spare time I enjoy reading novels, gardening, scrap-booking, and counted cross stitch. I sing in my church worship band and teach a weekly, ladies Bible study. I’m also a huge NASCAR fan - go #24!

Evangelical Christian Credit Union (ECCU) is the largest financial institution in the United States exclusively serving the evangelical community. You can reach Heather by email: Contact Heather Barth.