steered me to a couple of my early jobs and set me on the path to a great career in technical writing. He retired and left Pittsburgh in 1987 so

probably only our older colleagues remember him.

Read his obituary here.

Janis Ramey

I am very enthusiastic about our profession, the professionals in it, and the technical communicators yet to come. I am running for STC Vice President because the growth of our profession is dependent on a robust, active, and vibrant STC, and I want to help lead the way.

From my experience as an STC Director, as well as an STC Chapter leader, I know the members, the Society, and the issues. From my 17 years of experience as a technical communicator, I know the profession and the challenges our members face every day.

I want to take my years of management, leadership, tech comm, and STC Board experience, and use them to move STC and the profession forward, and to continually improve member value.

STC has tackled some big initiatives in the past few years (including a new website, the “MySTC” social network, work with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, partnerships with other international tech comm organizations, and certification), while still providing important core services such as publications, the Summit, and recognitions.

I plan to build on that foundation, and champion some new ideas, such as holding virtual “summits” with industry leaders, producing YouTube videos to educate the public and potential students about our profession, and creating STC apps and content for mobile devices.

My professional experience includes writing and developing information for software products in a variety of industries. I have presented talks at the STC Summit, WritersUA, tcworld, CIDM, and LavaCon on many topics. I have been published in STC’s Intercom, Tieline, STC conference proceedings, tcworld magazine, TechCom Manager Newsletter, and the WritersUA and the Content Wrangler websites. I also teach Technical Writing at the Community College of Allegheny County.

My STC leadership experience includes service as an STC Director for four years. I am the Board Chair for Recognitions, where I oversee the guidelines and processes for the Society’s extensive recognitions program. I also serve on the Audit committee. I am a past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter of STC. I am currently conducting a survey project to assess how software development managers view technical communicators. The data will help STC formulate a strategy to promote our profession and its professionals—as well as STC—to these managers.

I have served as an STC International Student Technical Communication Competition judge, an STC Pittsburgh Technical Publications judge, and as a reviewer for the STC Summit and the Technical Communication journal. I am a member of the Pittsburgh Chapter, as well as the Instructional Design and Learning, Single Sourcing, and Usability and User Experience SIGs.

To learn more about me, please see my website: www.nickybleiel.com. It includes my biography; a list of recommendations from members; a list of my presentations, articles, and podcasts; and a rundown of my service to STC over the years.

Albert Einstein said “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” STC is about opportunity, pure and simple. There are opportunities to lead, teach, learn, mentor, write, serve, judge and win awards, and interact with other professionals. Every technical communicator should want to be a member, because STC is a rich source of opportunity. And that is why I am running for Vice President, because I want to keep those opportunities coming, and to help develop even more.

I kindly request your vote. Polls open March 2. (Reminder: you must renew your membership by Feb. 29th to be eligible to vote.)

Thank you.
Nicky Bleiel
STC Director-At-Large
Candidate for Vice President
www.nickybleiel.com
Follow me on Twitter: @nickybleiel

Sidebar

Here are just a few of the endorsements I’ve received from members:
“Nicky Bleiel is a leader with practical know how and good sense. As the STC moves forward it will be important to draw on the leadership of talented individuals who can not only work well in teams, but who can also enlist the trust of the membership. Nicky has a track record of making the value of STC more visible in the professional lives of its members. She is prepared to take on new challenges and devise new strategies for making the STC even more responsive to its membership. I urge you to vote for Nicky Bleiel for STC Vice President!”
Karen Schriver, PhD
President, KSA Communication Design & Research
STC Fellow and Recipient, STC Ken Rainey Award for Excellence in Research

“I have known Nicky Bleiel for many years, both on and off the STC Board of Directors. I know that she is passionate about doing the right thing for STC and that she follows through on her promises. She is a great team player and is just as wonderful as a team leader. I give my endorsement to her as STC VP. I know that she will continue working at her usual high level as she approaches and then embraces the STC presidency.”
Linda Oestreich
STC Fellow and Past President

“STC needs Nicky at the helm to see it through these times of rapid change, financial challenge, and redefinition of our field. She has shown her dedication, giving freely of her time and energy to the tasks of directorship, and I’ve seen her openness to listen to new ideas. She brings the fairness and assertiveness that we need to get past inevitable disagreements and misunderstandings. And Nicky is grounded in that critical capacity, a strong sense of humor, which defuses hostility and wins good will.”
Mary Connor
Documentation Architect, Advanced Solutions International
STC Senior Member

Alan was STC Pittsburgh Chapter President in 2003, and the STC Pittsburgh Regional Conference “Writers Without Borders” was held in 2004, during his tenure as Past President of the chapter. Alan has been involved in the planning of the last four STC Technical Communication Summits serving as the Program Manager in 2009, Conference Chair in 2010, and Conference Manager in 2011.  He has also served as the STC liaison to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) and at the 2010 STC Summit he was awarded the rank of STC Fellow.

He is President of Group Wellesley, Inc., a company that provides authoring, content management, and workflow services to technology-oriented businesses. Alan has 20 years of experience in technical writing and publishing, and is a distinguished consultant and trainer in the fields of XML, XML technologies, publishing workflows, and authoring and publishing tools. His interests include developing solutions to support information management and information for reuse, and developing enterprise-wide processes for authoring, maintaining, and publishing technical documentation.

Alan earned an MA in professional writing and a BA in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in the city of Pittsburgh with his wife Mary, and his sons, Sam and James.

This event is open and FREE to everyone in, or interested in, the Pittsburgh Technology community. There are many interesting technology groups in Pittsburgh who meet on a regular basis, and they are all invited to attend. This is a great opportunity to find out more information about them in an innovative social setting, AlphaLab, in the South Side. The keynote speaker is will be Ian Rosenberger, Social and Emerging Media Director of Strategic Images.

The event will include:
* FREE appetizers and soft drinks
* Valuable door prizes
* Networking opportunity for technology professionals and students
* Informal space and time for technology not-for-profit groups to talk to people interested in your mission
* Presentations on social networking for business

Thank you to our sponsors!

Date: Thursday, September 9, 2010
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Penn Brewery 800 Vinial Street Pittsburgh, PA 15212 412-237-9402
www.pennbrew.com

Questions? Contact Alan Houser, arh@groupwellesley.com or Nicky Bleiel, nickyb@componentone.com.
RSVP: http://stcmixerpitt.eventbrite.com

Photo of Nicky Bleiel - STC Candidate for Director

Author: Alan Houser

All members and friends of the STC Pittsburgh chapter can be proud! Pittsburgh chapter member Nicky Bleiel was re-elected to the Society for Technical Communication Board of Directors as a director-at-large. Nicky’s second term officially began on May 3, 2010 at the annual STC business meeting, held during the STC Summit in Dallas, Texas. Among five candidates for three open board seats, Nicky had the highest vote total. She ran for re-election with nearly 3 years experience on the STC Board of Directors, and endorsements from many prominent members of the Society. Nicky’s re-election is a historic event for the STC. Under previous Society by-laws, directors could serve only for a single three-year term; they could not run for re-election for consecutive terms. Under the by-law revision of 2009, the director-at-large term was shortened from three years to two, and directors were permitted to serve two consecutive terms. Nicky is the first director to run and win re-election under the revised Society by-laws. Nicky sought re-election to the STC Board of Directors out of her commitment to the Society and the profession. She says, “I think being a technical communicator is a fantastic career that requires a wide variety of skills and is never, ever boring. I ran for director to be a part of the effort to promote this profession.” The Society by-laws state that “The Board of Directors shall manage and direct the business and affairs of the Society in accordance with the Articles of Incorporation of the Society.” The Board of Directors meets at least once per month, usually by telephone conference, and interacts daily by email. In addition to her general duties as a Society Board member, Nicky is Board Liaison for the Society’s recognition efforts, which includes oversight of individual and community-level awards and honors. Nicky is the Lead Information Developer for ComponentOne Doc-To-Help and a Doc-To-Help trainer. She has 15 years of experience in technical communication; writing and designing information for software products in the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmaceutical industries. She has presented talks at the WritersUA, STC, tcworld, LavaCon, and DocTrain conferences on many topics, including embedded help, tools and technologies, user assistance design, single sourcing, wikis, Web 2.0, and convergence technical communication. Nicky is a past president of the STC Pittsburgh chapter. She earned a BA in Journalism from the Pennsylvania State University, where she was a member of the University Scholars Program and the Kappa Tau Alpha Honor Society. Nicky is bullish about the future of the Society. She says, “I think the future of the Society is strong. STC has so much to offer its members: Traditional opportunities include networking, education, mentorship, competitions, awards, and leadership. Non-traditional offerings include a virtual community on Facebook, the STC Notebook blog and Twitter. Both options make it possible for members to communicate, learn, be recognized, and find employment in many ways. And we are constantly working on new opportunities for STC members.” Nicky’s continued leadership at the STC international level is a statement of her dedication to the profession and is another proud event in the long, strong history of the Pittsburgh chapter. Congratulations, Nicky!

I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to our officers for the 2010-2011 event year:

Jose Amayo, President
Robin Davidson, Vice President
Ben Hardesty, Secretary
Nancy Carpenter, Treasurer

These individuals bring the prespectives of seasoned veterans and new blood that make for strong leadership and innovative ideas. I feel confident that our new slate of officers will successfully meet the challenges we face as a community and a society and take STC Pittsburgh to the next level. These folks have been taking on increased responsibility and leadership capability in the past year, and thus are poised to make a smooth transition into their new roles.

I’d also like to thank all those who contributed in the past year, including our speakers, vendors, and others too numerous to name who have helped us.

As Immediate Past President for the 2010-2011 event year, my role in STC Pittsburgh is to mentor the new officers and offer a helping hand whenever and wherever needed. Although you won’t see me “front and center” as much, I’ll still be around.

Right now, I’m feeling a hodgepodge of emotions: I feel excited to see new faces taking charge, sad to see familiar faces leave and sad to know that I won’t be seeing other familiar faces as often, relieved that I made it through another event year, and even regretful that plans that the board and I had made didn’t make it to fruition.

As the current event year ends and a new one begins, visit STC Pittsburgh’s Web site, stcpgh.org, and our blog to keep informed of our latest events and news.

Once again, thanks for your support and all the best in the new event year!