Jan 23
2010Joining the Society of Technical Communication (STC)
Filed Under: Technical Communication/Writing
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I joined the Society of Technical Communication (STC) back in September when I first joined Google. This is my first time joining STC and the experience has not been positive. The membership fee for people outside of the U.S. is a lot more expensive due to the supposedly extra cost of international mailing. I paid $110 USD for the membership ($45 for prorated membership dues, $35 for international postage, and $30 for processing fee). Considering that I joined towards the end of the year and was only going to receive ONE of the four quarterly STC magazine, I thought it was a rip off that I still had to pay the entire $35 for postage and not the prorated amount. I emailed STC to complain about this but nobody replied to my email. Instead, I got an email saying it is time to renew my membership for 2010!
Just last week (it’s January!!), I finally received my November 2009 edition of the STC quarterly magazine. I have yet to receive any issues of Intercom and I’m not sure I ever will! I know I can access the magazines and journals online, but after paying $35 for international postage, I kind of expect to receive them in my actual mailbox. I’m not sure if I’m going to renew my membership for this year. Even though Google pays for the membership fees as part of our professional development/education/training, I’m not sure this is the best use of company resource.
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Yeah, $35 to ship one magazine seems a little steep! They should tweak their payment model for cases like yours.
I just joined STC for the first time too. I do find that I feel more “tuned in” to the industry now that I’m a member and take advantage of their resources.
I also doubt whether I will renew this year. For me, the $215 fee for Basic Membership is too high for the limited value that membership provides (especially for a US expat like me living in Taiwan where there isn’t even the benefit of a local chapter). Most employers don’t care whether one is a member. And although I enjoy reading STC’s publications on occasion, $215 per year is just too much for that, especially now that the Web provides so many free sources of information such as blogs. Finally, I find it unfathomable, if not unconscionable, that STC would raise its membership fee in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. STC should really reduce its cost structure if they want to remain relevant as a professional organization. I suspect that their new, higher membership rates will alienate many members this year.
Just find online version good enough for me. By the way, Shanghai library does have copies for past proceedings, but no Intercomm unfortunately
I think I read in an email that the regular membership for 2010 does not include magazines sent by postal mail anymore. Everything will be accessible online, but you have to pay extra to receive the journals and magazines.
Susan´s last blog ..Joining the Society of Technical Communication (STC)
I’ve been a member of the STC twice in my career — first time in about 1998, and the second time last year. I never saw much value in the organization, and didn’t get much out of my membership at either time. Both times, the supposed value proposition wasn’t there.
While I found that my local chapter was quite progressive (at least the second time around), the main body of the organization … well, it was only late last year that they got social media.
Let’s face it: just about everything you get with the STC you can find online for free. I wrote a blog post about that (http://bit.ly/4qrpqa) last June.
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