Leadchange Archives - Page 4 of 4

31
Aug 10
2

Writing the Next Chapter

Category:Infosec Communicator,Leadchange,STC,STC Rochester,Uncategorized Tags : Business Communication leadership Marketing RIT Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester New York Society for Technical Communication STC Rochester Technical Writing value proposition vision statement

Change is necessary but change is uncomfortable.

We should ignore the past. We should value the past. We should just do it. We should learn from past efforts. Do we dash forward, make our mistakes and sort things out as we go? Do we assess the path forward and move carefully down it? How strong should our sense of urgency be? How fast can and should we move forward? How do we mold individual desires into a shared vision?

We need to attract new members. We want to retain existing members. We have many senior members who have contributed faithfully to STC Rochester. We have new members who may not know our past but who are willing to pour themselves into redefining our organization and positioning ourselves for the future.

These are some of the issues we face as the council charged with stewarding the Rochester Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. We are a chapter with a long history of excellence. It’s time to write the next chapter.

I’m trying to find a path that allows us to retain the distinctiveness of what has made us STC Rochester while moving to a model that is sustainable and will foster growth. Part of this path forward includes implementing a marketing strategy. We’ve received our marketing plan from Neil Hair’s RIT Marketing Concepts class. The plan identifies key opportunities and strategies for growth. We’ve set up a subgroup to study the plan and bring forward recommendations to our October council meeting.

Our kickoff meeting is September 21st. We’re inviting prospective members and want to be sure we can articulate why they should join STC. There is a good bit of angst surrounding this.

We need to remember to have fun.

Why I Value STC Rochester (benwoelk.wordpress.com)
Value Proposition or Vision Statement? (benwoelk.wordpress.com)
STC’s Project Phoenix – The Rebirth and Renewal of STC (techcommdood.com)

17
Aug 10
11

Why I Value STC Rochester

Category:Infosec Communicator,Leadchange,STC,STC Rochester,Uncategorized Tags : Communication leadership Organization Society for Technical Communication STC Rochester Technical Writing value proposition vision statement

If you’ve been following this blog over the last month (Thank you!), you know I’ve been writing about how our local STC chapter is redefining its value proposition and rethinking how we engage our membership and the community. This blog entry provides a personal view of how STC Rochester is valuable to ME.

Benefits–Why I’m in STC Rochester

The opportunity to network globally with leading technical communications practitioners.
The opportunity to network face-to-face with the local chapter.
Engagement with high level and challenging thinkers in the technical communications profession helps me sharpen my own thinking. Iron sharpens iron.
Opportunities for recognition through tech pubs competitions at local and international levels.
The opportunity to be a change agent, to impact a close circle of fellow practitioners in a positive manner.
The opportunity to help an organization reinvent itself to keep pace with a changing profession and society.
The opportunity to use my skills and knowledge to mentor others and help them advance in the profession.
The opportunity to forge friendships with a great group of people who face similar challenges.
The opportunity to participate in regional and international conferences.
The opportunity to learn.
The joys and challenges of casting a shared vision.
The opportunity to learn and practice servant leadership.

Cost–The flip side

$240 in direct costs for international and chapter membership (subsidized by my employer)
Another $80-100 for different meeting fees, tech comms publication entries, etc.
One evening each month for our admin council
One evening each month for meetings, programs, etc.
One full day for Spectrum, our regional conference
Ten-twenty hours to prepare a presentation at spectrum
Many “spare” moments thinking about what we can achieve this year as a chapter. (I’m not sure if this is a cost or a benefit.)
Countless hours at the keyboard communicating with chapter leadership and the chapter as a whole.

Your turn

Why are YOU active in your organization?

Determining our Value Proposition (benwoelk.wordpress.com)
Value Proposition or Vision Statement? (benwoelk.wordpress.com)
Servant Leadership: Now in 3-D (https://knowledgebishop.wordpress.com)

13
Aug 10
4

Value Proposition or Vision Statement?

Category:Infosec Communicator,Leadchange,STC,STC Rochester,Summit,Uncategorized Tags : Business leadership Marketing Society for Technical Communication STC Rochester Technical Writing value proposition vision statement

Our STC Rochester Council is working with Neil Hair‘s Marketing Concepts class at the Rochester Institute of Technology to develop a marketing strategy as we seek to redefine our value proposition as an STC chapter. Some members of the council had a status meeting with the Marketing Concepts class team earlier this week. The team is analyzing similar organizations in our area (ASTD, ISPI, IEEE, etc.) to determine how we compare on key activities and services.

The Marketing Concepts team’s initial slide was:

Value proposition

STC is the best network for excellence in technical communications

In our discussion at council and in following correspondence, we’ve had an extended discussion of what constitutes a Value Proposition. Although there’s been some confusion, including “what is networking,” I think we’ve decided that this is more of a Vision Statement than a Value Proposition.

Value propositions can be expressed in different ways. One way of looking at them is

Value = Benefits – Cost

When STC raised its dues for 2010 to $240 per year for International + Chapter membership, membership renewals plummeted. For many of the members, the perceived Benefits were outweighed by the Cost.

According to Rackham (stolen from wikipedia), a Value Proposition should include the following:

Capability – what it is you do and how you do it
Impact – what benefits or difference your capability will make
Proof – what evidence substantiates your impact
Cost – the cost (or risk) of your capability and impact

If our Value Proposition includes these elements, it’s obviously a bit more complicated. We would have different value propositions for members, employers in our community, etc.

What about Personas?

Usability practitioners use Personas to help programmers visualize the different users of the software they’re creating. A Persona is a fictional person whose “attributes” are based on different types of users and the business processes for which they might use the software. (This is obviously highly simplified.)

Could we use the concept of a Persona to help develop and articulate value propositions? Would it make sense to start with testimonials of specific members? Can I articulate the Value Proposition of STC Rochester for myself?

Determining our Value Proposition (benwoelk.wordpress.com)

Category Archives: Leadchange

Aug 10

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Writing the Next Chapter

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