Our chapter is excited to announce that we have earned a Platinum Community Achievement Award (CAA) for our community’s efforts in 2023.
Last year, the CAA Committee noted that STC-MGL remains one of the most consistent and active communities in the CAA process and recognized us for that commitment this year as well. For our initiatives and activities in 2023, the citation on our certificate will read:
For excellence in the areas of Leadership and Membership
Our community will be recognized during the 2024 STC CAC Virtual Leadership Program and members are invited to the STC Summit Honors Event where the Community of the Year and Most Improved Community will be announced.
We wish to extend a special thanks to Heather Barthell, STC-MGL Vice President, for spearheading the process for submitting our application and to the several community members who shared their documented activities, spent time reviewing the form, and providing feedback over the past few months.
We’ll be meeting via Zoom on November 15 to discuss The Revolutionary Author: Write Smarter With AI Tools & Reach New Levels Of Productivity, by A.C. Hamilton.
Hamilton covers a wide range of approaches to writing with AI that technical communicators may find helpful to their professional and personal lives. Readers can expect chapters ranging from how ChatGPT and other generative AI models work, how to prompt ChatGPT effectively and create content with it, to using it in creative writing, marketing, and even music generation!
Attending STC Summit is a wonderful opportunity to learn new skills and techniques for writing, network with new and familiar faces, gain inspiration from seasoned speakers, and interact with vendors that support our professional development goals. But STC MGL attendees Kelly Smith and Kylie Jacobsen made sure to enjoy all the conference has to offer, especially the social events.
Speakers
The Summit welcomed three keynote speakers this year.
Andrew Lawless: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals
On Monday, Andrew Lawless, founder of the High Performance Consultant Academy, a Behavioral Scientist and Certified High Performance Coach gave a presentation on how to energize yourself to achieve your goals.
Judith Glick-Smith: Using Flow to Craft a Life of Excellence in Tech Comm
On Tuesday, Dr. Glick-Smith tech comm expert and past president of the STC discussed the concept of Flow as featured in her book Flow-based Leadership: What the Best Firefighters Can Teach You About Leadership and Making Hard Decisions. She related how the concept of flow can help us in our tech comm careers.
Scott Abel: Inclusive Language: Survey Findings and Best Practices for Content Strategy
On Wednesday, Scott Abel, content strategy evangelist, pointed out that inclusion is just being mindful of how we talk about and treat other people. He presented best practices for adopting inclusive language in the workplace.
Networking events
Every day, the host chapter, STC Atlanta, planned a special outing for STC members. These events required pre-registration, and offered the opportunity to stretch our legs and hang out with new friends.
Illuminarium: After Dark
Unfortunately, neither Kelly nor Kylie could attend the first social event of the conference, but on Sunday evening, attendees were invited to meet up at the Illuminarium. The Illuminarium is an all-encompassing sensory experience which places guests in a room filled with lights, sounds, scents, and even in-floor haptics. STC members were admitted to the After Dark experience, which was described as the daytime experience, but 21+.
Sky View Ferris Wheel
Several groups walked from the hotel down to the Sky View Ferris Wheel, where for $17 we got a view of the city, Centennial Olympic Park, the World of Coca Cola Museum, and the Georgia Aquarium. We took selfies and pics of the tall buildings and blooming magnolia trees.
Kylie and her first-time attendee buddy, Jodie, at the summit of the Sky View Ferris Wheel.
Dine Around
Kylie volunteered to host a dinner at Big Kahuna, a late-night spot to order surf-themed Mexican food in Downtown Atlanta. A group of 10 people made the short walk from the conference hotel to the restaurant by dodging the rain in the enclosed pathway through Truist Plaza. The best part of the dinner was that Kylie got to carry a sign that read “Big Kahuna” the whole way!
Kylie with STC members ordering dinner at Big Kahuna
Kelly attended dinner at Gus’s Famous Fried chicken with about 25 people, including our student volunteers. The food was simple and delicious! We ordered appetizers of fried green tomatoes and fried okra, then enjoyed juicy fried chicken with a very subtle kick of spice.
Georgia Aquarium
After the final keynote, several of us went to the Georgia Aquarium and took the Behind the Seas tour! In addition to viewing the sharks, rays, otters, sea lions, sea turtle, fish, frogs, and other creatures through windows, some of us got to go topside and look down into the 6.2-million-gallon saltwater tank, just a few feet from the giant whale sharks and other creatures. We learned where they came from, how they were rescued, and that if we were daring (and had a few hundred dollars to spare) we could swim or scuba dive with them! We also got to see the trainers working with the beluga whales and learn about the aquarium’s coral restoration project.
The tank view from below deckKylie topside of the same tank
As summer winds down and your STC chapter begins to make preparations for another successful season, we thought we’d share a bit about our STC Summit 2023 experience to inspire your programming goals or cement your professional development plans for 2024. Please enjoy a reflection of our trip to Atlanta for STC Summit!
Arriving in Atlanta
The STC held their seventieth Summit from May 13 through 17 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia. Kylie Jacobsen and Kelly Smith attended on behalf of the MGL chapter.
If you’ve never been to Atlanta, the city earns the title Hotlanta! At one point the humidity was 81%! Rain and thunderstorms cooled things down a little later in the week. The food was spectacular, even at the breakfast and lunch buffets and always featured little touches of southern delicacies.
New this Year
This year’s event featured a new buddy system where first-time attendees were paired up with experienced Summit-goers. Kelly signed up to be a buddy and really enjoyed the experience.
“I got to introduce my newbie to others in the Society, give her pointers, answer questions, and help her feel more comfortable. We shared several meals together, and she always had a familiar face to look for in a crowd if she had a question. I look forward to doing this again next year!”
Kelly Smith, STC Senior Member and Gold member
Kylie coordinated the group of student volunteers who helped manage some of the daily tasks of the conference. Eighteen university students signed up to volunteer to staff the registration desk, monitor the rooms during sessions, and help distribute awards at the award ceremony. Students represented schools from New Mexico, Florida, Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia.
“Summit really can’t operate as smoothly without our student volunteers!”
Both the first-time attendees and student volunteers had the opportunity to meet each other and tour the conference space on Sunday evening, before the majority of attendees arrived.
Inside the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. Photo credit: Kelly Smith
Chapter honors
A society-favorite, the annual Honors Celebration, occurred over lunch on Tuesday, May 16. The Michigan Great Lakes chapter was awarded the Platinum Community award for providing our “members rich opportunities to shape technical communication, both within and beyond Michigan Great Lakes Chapter.”
In addition, our immediate past president, Katherine Baeckeroot, was awarded the Distinguished Community Service award for her “exceptional leadership as STC Michigan Great Lakes chapter president, innovative programming and inexhaustible enthusiasm for providing additional value to the membership, and for your wisdom, experience, and sound advice.”
Please join us Thursday, June 17, to celebrate the end of another great program year. We’ll announce awards, recognize our active members, provide a brief business update, and introduce you to the 2021-2022 STC-MGL chapter council. This is a free event and all are welcome, registration is required.
Reminder! If you’ve achieved at least 15 points by being an active member, send an email to president@stc-mgl.org with the list of your activities and points total by June 15. Refer to the Active Membership Program page for details.
