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STC Education Committee
Year-End Report 2002-2003

	Summary
	Presented at 50th International Conference in Dallas
	Scholarships
	Strengthened Partnership with UCF
	Support to Secondary Education
	Eighth Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition
	Ninth Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition
	Communication and Publicity
	Job Search SIG
	Professional Development of Chapter Members
	Mentoring
	Operation Rising Stars

Summary

2003-2004 was another strong year for the Education Committee. Topping the list was the initiation of a highly successful formal mentoring program pairing seniors in the technical communication program at UCF with professional practitioners.

Another major success was the 8th Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition, which produced 24 local award winners, 3 of whom went on to capture 3 of the top 6 awards in the STC International High School Writing Competition.

A third significant achievement was a highly successful fund-raiser (Operation Rising Stars) which brought in $1,950 from corporate and personal sponsors, meeting a serious budget challenge and allowing our educational outreach initiatives to continue while still maintaining sufficient funds in the general operating budget to meet all the chapter's other commitments and requirements.

We also established Orlando's first chapter-level SIG this year, the Job Search SIG. Although it is underway, the Job Search SIG still needs to establish a more active presence in the chapter. We awarded one Pellegrin Memorial scholarship this year, at the undergraduate level. Disappointingly, for the second time in three years, there were no applications at the graduate level. Another disappointment was the failure of an attempt to coordinate STC tele-seminars to take root, despite vigorous promotion and a corporate sponsor who provided the facility.

The biggest disappointment was the refusal of the STC Office to endorse the multimedia presentations developed under an STC Special Opportunities Grant in 2002-2003 – and the accompanying decision not to post them on the STC web site (details below) and to pull the article we had already had accepted for intercom. On the plus side, we were allowed to use and distribute the materials ourselves without the STC logo and copyright, and they have been extremely well received – in Central Florida high school classrooms, at the international conference, and by several members of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW).

Presented at 51th International Conference in Baltimore

• Gave presentation on close partnership between UCF and the Orlando Chapter (PD6U), including demonstration and distribution of the two multimedia presentations that support our outreach initiative at the high school level (Jones, Spivey, Voss); and published two papers in the Proceedings (Spivey, Voss; and Hauptner, Stultz, Jones, and Voss).
• Participated in Leadership Day session (Spivey, Voss, Murray) – as an addendum to Wiese/Fellure presentation on Jaffe Awards.
• Distributed 40 turnkey packages (hard copies and CDs) on Leadership Day and at PD6U; mailed out 5 more after the conference. The packages included information and administrative materials on several successful chapter projects: the Jaffe Awards, the high school outreach program (including the multimedia presentations), the mentoring program, and two successful fund-raisers (Operation Rising Stars for the chapter and Operation Butterfly for the AccessAbility SIG)
• Participated in AccessAbility SIG progressions (UID5U and UID7B) (D. Voss, R. Voss [5U] and M. Murray [5U and 7B]) and published paper in Proceedings (D. Voss, R. Voss).
• Conducted workshop on the use of humor to relieve stress in the workplace (MG11X) and published paper in Proceedings (Voss)

Scholarships

• UCF: Melissa Pellegrin Memorial Scholarships
   
• Presented a $500 undergraduate scholarship to Melanie Trickey.
• There were no applications for the graduate scholarship this year.
• Melissa Pellegrin Memorial Scholarship Fund Status:
   
• Financial: The Fund is still recovering from the 3-year "bear market." To ensure a long-term self-sustaining fund at a conservative 8% annual growth, the principal must grow to $12,500 (as of June 30, 2004, it was at $11,215) and not fall below that level (meaning we can resume withdrawals of $1,000 per year when the Fund reaches $13,500). In the mean time, if scholarships are to be offered, they must be funded out of the general operating budget, supplemented as necessary by special fund-raising activities to ensure that all chapter needs are met and that the needs of the general membership are not compromised by our educational outreach initiatives.
• Number of entries: The undergraduate field of was very strong (the most candidates ever), but the graduate scholarship appears to need better promotion by UCF faculty.

Strengthened Partnership with UCF

• Leveraged alliance with Future Technical Communicators (FTC) club at UCF to launch successful mentoring program (see below).
• FTC opened up its popular free Saturday tool skill workshops to Orlando Chapter members.
• Spivey led a successful campaign to get the UCF student government to fund 8 technical communication students in FTC to attend the international conference (2 encountered a conflict, but 6 attended and one presented – Spivey).
• Continued successful student membership promotion at the January joint meeting with UCF (the event drew more than 70 people, highest attendance of the year), which maintained our chapter's total student membership at 40 – third highest among all 150 STC chapters worldwide and 5 more than the largest student chapter.
• Participated in portfolio review with UCF class (Voss, along with Farnsworth and two others).
• Provided telephone, e-mail, and face-to-face personal interviews and resume/portfolio reviews for UCF students (Kerr, Murray, Voss).
• Serving on advisory committee for UCF graduate student on master's thesis (Cal Simone), on the subject of ethics (Voss).

Support to Secondary Education

• Grant Project
   
• Successes
   
• Continued to use multimedia presentations successfully in visits to high school classrooms in Central Florida.
• Responded to several requests for multimedia materials from members of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) as well as one public television station in Maryland.
• Provided 45 copies of multimedia materials on CDs as part of turnkey packages distributed during and after the 51st annual conference.
• Disappointment
   
• The STC office refused to endorse our multimedia presentations and post them to the Society web site. As a result, our article in intercom, which had already been submitted and accepted, was not published.
• The Education Committee disagrees with the Society's position We successfully passed all STC review "gates" during the year-long project, responded to constructive criticism, and implemented all suggestions The STC office unexpectedly took its position 4 months after the project was completed. The STC office did authorize us to continue to use and distribute the materials as long as we removed the STC logo and copyright notice and implied no endorsement by the Society, which we have done.
• Other
   
• We did not provide judging support to the Orange County Regional Science and Engineering Fair (OCRSEF), the Seminole County Science Fair, or the Central Florida Regional Science Fair in 2003-2004 as we did the previous year (Hughes, Kessler). Jon Kessler reported that he did not receive an invitation to judge, even though he has done so for several years.
• If possible, we should attempt to renew this support in 2004-2005, particularly in view of the fact that the deadline for the high school tech writing competition has been moved to January 15 and the page limit has been increased from 5 to 30 – both of which support the idea of tying the competition together with Science Fair projects.

Eighth Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition

• We drew 107 entries. They were predominantly from Winter Springs (37), Lake Brantley (27), and Crooms Academy (28), but we still had a representative sample of entries from the Central Florida counties.
• We invited 11 student winners (those who earned cash awards), along with their parents and faculty sponsors, to the February 2004 chapter meeting to receive their awards. Ten students, two sponsors, and 15 parents attended – sustaining the strong participation we had in 2003. The program consisted of informal round-table networking of Education Committee members, chapter members, students, faculty sponsors, and parents after dinner, facilitated by table hosts (pre-arranged seating ensured we had the five populations evenly distributed among all the tables).
• There were 6 classroom visits by STC members in the 8th Annual Competition, thrice the number we had in 2002 (Winter Springs, Kessler; Lake Brantley, Jones; Rockledge, Lane; Dr. Phillips, Murray; Deltona, Voss; and Apopka, Spivey and Voss).
• Summary of winners:

Ninth Annual Florida High School Technical Writing Competition

• Requested and achieved a 6-week move to the right on the deadline for entries in the 2005 International High School Technical Writing Competition (to March 15), enabling us to move the deadline for the Central Florida competition from November 15, 2004, to January 15, 2005. This will allow high schools more time to prepare entries (including semester-long projects and Science Fair projects).
• Increased page limit on entries from 5 pages to 30, matching the page limit in the international competition to give our entrants a "level playing field" with those from other local competitions. Specifications will be added to ensure that those who opt for longer papers fill those pages with substantive research and graphics (judges will not be asked to read low-quality entries that extend beyond 5 pages, if any of that ilk are forthcoming).
• Note: We learned at the annual conference that the Houston student papers which took 1st, 3rd, and 4th place this year ranged from 18 to 24 pages, as compared to 5 for the Central Florida entries that took 2nd and 4th (two tied). Since the guidelines for the international competition allow up to 30 pages, we knew we had to find a way to level the playing field without overloading our judges.
• Currently updating cover letter for mail-out to Central Florida high school instructors, along with CDs of the multimedia materials developed under the grant.
• Currently updating web site.
• Are also updating competition brochure, detailed guidelines, and application form.
• The Lockheed Martin Print Shop has committed to pro bono printing of the updated brochure. (Lockheed Martin is a Corporate Tech Angel in the Operation Rising Stars sponsorship program.)
• Need to edit and recompile multimedia presentation on high school competition because of 2003 date reference and new January 15 due date.

Communication and Publicity

• Several committee members made substantial contributions to Memo for Members
   
• Murray: column, articles
• Kessler: articles
• Jones: article
• Spivey: articles
• Voss: column, articles, copy editing/critiquing
• Major Education Committee-produced stories in Memo for Members included:
   
• Story introducing the mentoring program (with longer, in-depth special edition posted to web site)
• In-depth article on design and mechanics of online judging system for high school competition
• Photo feature on mentoring program kickoff meeting
• In-depth report on Operation Rising Stars fund-raiser (with longer, in-depth special edition posted to web site)
• Promotion and report on Pellegrin scholarships, including profile on recipients
• Article on high school competition results and photo coverage of awards presentation
• Article on job placement progression, including table topics
• Sent out press releases on Spring '04 scholarships, 8th Annual H.S. Contest awards, and international H.S. competition awards
   
• UCF campus newspaper
• Orlando Sentinel
• Memo to Members
• Maintained and updated web site for Education Committee
   
• Added pages for mentoring program and Operation Rising Stars sponsorship/fund-raising initiative. Posted in-depth versions of Memo to Members articles on both subjects as special online editions that reside on these pages.
• Updated page on high school competition; updated awards list
• Updated scholarship page; added awards list
• Added notes from 50th Annual Conference
• In process of adding notes from 51st Annual Conference
• Six committee members also published in national STC forums
   
• Voss: Conference Proceedings (4 articles, one with Ria Voss, two with UCF co-authors, one solo)
• Spivey: Co-authored Proceedings article
• Jones: Co-authored Proceedings article
• Hauptner: Co-authored Proceedings article
• Stultz: Co-authored Proceedings article
• Murray, Spivey, and Voss also published extensively in Achieve!, the online newsletter of the STC AccessAbility SIG (Murray is SIG newsletter editor; Voss is Immediate Past SIG manager; Spivey and Voss co-coordinated SIG fund-raiser [Operation Butterfly], involving the sale of lapel pins bearing the SIG logo and motto)
• An article co-authored by 2003 Pellegrin Award winners Hauptner and Stultz along with Voss and Jones was accepted for publication in the November 2003 edition of intercom, but was pulled when the STC Office refused to endorse the multimedia materials developed under the grant project and post them to the Society web site.
• Two of our H.S. award winners, Eric First and Andrew Lai, eleventh graders at Winter Springs H.S., were published in the November 2003 edition of intercom (350-word summaries of their award-winning essays in the 2003 international high school technical writing competition).
• Andrew First, a 10th grader at Winter Springs (and Eric's brother), who won an Excellence Award in the 2004 international high school technical writing competition, has been invited to publish a 350-word summary of his article in an upcoming edition of intercom.

Job Search SIG

• Formed chapter's first local SIG (Benedicks and Scott) to assist UCF students and chapter members in seeking employment or career advancement via job changes
• Established listserv for SIG
• Future plans include a SIG newsletter and web site (or sub-page on chapter web site)
• Level of activity has been relatively low since SIG was formed. Further promotion will be required to sustain it in the 2004-2005 chapter year.

Professional Development of Chapter Members

• Sponsored 2 of 7 tables at highly successful progression on employment at April chapter meeting
   
• Jones: chapter history (with Gloria Jaffe)
• Voss: resumes, cover letters, portfolios (with Farnsworth)
• Moderated and participated in August 2003 chapter meeting to share professional
enrichment from the 50th STC Conference in Dallas using the traditional potpourri format ("Washlines IX"). We also plan to sponsor "Washlines X" in August 2004, reporting on the 51st Annual Int'l Conference in Baltimore – introducing an exciting all-new "mini-conference format.
• Posted notes from the 50th Annual International Conference to the Education Committee web page; presently working on posting notes from the 51st Conference for "Washlines X."
• Conducted a vigorous promotional campaign (Gaynor) in an attempt to coordinate a local site for STC's telephone seminars and secured a venue (Intuitive, Inc.), but the initiative had to be discontinued due to lack of response from chapter members. They did not take advantage of the opportunity.
• Supported an idea by chapter member Madelyn Bechtold to focus networking activity during the social time at the beginning of chapter meetings, introducing the "Blue Star Networking" motif, displaying the networking digest that is published on the listserv each month just before the meeting at the meeting sign-in table, and providing participants with gummed blue stars for their name tags.

Mentoring

• Researched mentoring and other mentoring programs, including the Lonestar and Silicon Valley Chapters' programs and the STC guidelines; laid plans to implement a formal mentoring program between professionals in the chapter and UCF students beginning in October 2003; drafted and finalized (following Administrative Council approval) guidelines and procedures and administrative forms needed to do so (Spivey and Voss)
• Aggressively promoted new mentoring program in chapter newsletter, the web site (established a new module within the Education Committee's section), and the listserv, as well as via e-mail, telephone, and direct personal contact. Also promoted the program at UCF, especially within FTC (including announcements at its meetings and a posting on the club's web site).
• Met with chapter president to pair mentors and mentees based on applications and personal knowledge of the applicants.
• Kicked off program with special brunch at UCF, including a blind "treasure hunt" format where everybody met their partners. Mentors and mentees completed a pre-assessment and then, after meeting each other, completed their mentor and mentee agreements, which include the establishment of objectives to be achieved in their mentoring relationship.
• Tracked mentor-mentee progress via contact logs throughout the year.
• Gathered data at the end of the year, including post-assessments by mentors and mentees, final contact logs summarizing each team's communication during the year, and program evaluations by mentors and mentees.
• The records show that nine of the 10 relationships were highly successful; one did not get off the ground due to limited participation by the mentee.
   
• Four mentors agreed to serve in that role again in 2004-2005 (one of them wishing to continue with her current mentee) with 2 maybe's, 2 no's, and 2 yet to be heard from on the program evaluations. (We will also pursue new mentors, of course.)
• Six mentees agreed to serve as mentors after getting a couple years of professional experience, with 3 yet to be heard from on the program evaluations (none said no).
• Presently in the process of analyzing the feedback to make improvements in the program for its second year (2004-2005)
• Currently drafting a proposal for a presentation on the mentoring program at the 52nd annual conference.

Operation Rising Stars

• Established and promoted formal corporate and personal sponsorships to raise funds to support our educational outreach initiatives, particularly the Pellegrin Scholarships and the high school writing competition, while still meeting all other chapter needs.
• Researched, wrote, designed, and produced tri-fold brochure for corporate sponsorships, including arranging for printing and negotiating a special price, and a single-page flyer for personal sponsorships (Trickey).
• Established Rising Stars page on web site (Kessler).
• Raised $1,950 ($1,450 in cash and $500 in printing value).
• Distributed awards to sponsors (thank-you letters, certificates of appreciation, plaques, trophies, acknowledgments in newsletter and on web site, newsletter ads, web click-through ads, chapter pins, meeting admissions, and shirts – depending on the type and level of sponsorship).