Orlando Wins Chapter of Distinction Award;
Members Achieve Society Honors

For the third time in as many years, the Orlando Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) has been identified as a Chapter of Distinction, which is the Society's highest chapter award. The award honors a chapter that has demonstrated outstanding, innovative and sustained performance in advancing the goals of STC in education, community awareness, professional recognition, and service to local membership.

The challenge increased in this year's contest because the growing chapter had to compete against historically larger metropolitan chapters throughout the United States. But the Orlando Chapter's recognition, outreach, employment, and education programs continued to distinguish it from competitors.

Chapter President Mike Murray, a senior information developer in the Customer Care Writing Center of Excellence at Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems, was excited about the award. "STC continues to recognize the work we do in Central Florida to promote training, employment, and awareness of the contributions that technical communicators make to companies and projects in this area. We're thrilled to be able to compete at this level – it says a lot about the quality of professional communicators in this area," he said.

Two related honors were bestowed at the society's annual conference in Seattle, Washington. W.C. Wiese, an Associate Fellow, has been elected and was installed as the incoming Treasurer for the organization. Wiese is a Communications Manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando. No previous member of the Orlando Chapter had been elected to hold Society office.

Orlando Chapter Member Mark Hanigan was recognized as a Fellow of the Society. He was honored for dedication and contributions to technical communication and training, the Society, and for mentorship of numerous other professionals. He works as a technical communication consultant at Siemens.

The Society for Technical Communication is the world's largest professional organization in its field with over 20,000 members in 152 chapters worldwide. STC members work as technical writers, editors, illustrators, managers, educators, translators, and other communicators who make technical information understandable and available to those who need it. Information about STC can be found at its website at www.stc.org.