From the President

December 2018

Image of Meredith Evans, wearing a cocktail dress at ITx 2018. She is smiling close-mouthed at the camera and looks very presidential.

Happy December Everyone!

I’m finding it very hard to believe that we’ve rolled round to December again, and also feeling not quite ready for Christmas or the end of the year. I’m sure our strange (and wet) December weather is partly to blame for this. Hopefully I can get my act together soon!

2018 Summary

Yes, 2018 was a good year, and a busy year for our organisation. Highlights have included the Plain Language Webinar series, presented by Shelly Davies, our successful inclusion at the ITx conference in Wellington, and a good turnout at branch events through the year.

Our Board are already making plans for next year and beyond. We're constantly looking for ways to ensure we're still offering good value for money. In the past, we’ve relied on income from workshops, but interest in these seems to be waning (or maybe we're just not offering the right topics). Next year, we want to be offering a lot more to our members.

With that in mind, we’ll be doing some planning early next year around the following subjects:

  • What is the future of TechCommNZ? Where do we want to be in five years, and what’s the plan to get there?
  • How are we offering good value to our members? What else can we provide?
  • Are we attracting the right people to our organisation? Do we need to expand our definition/scope to attract others who are ‘doing’ technical communication, but just don’t call it that? For example, business analysts, UX writers, interaction designers, SOP writers.
  • How do we continue as valuable and useful organisation without burning out our volunteers? Do we need a ‘leaner’ approach or spread the workload more? Or do we need more paid roles (possibly resulting in higher subs).

There’s a lot to think about, but probably nothing new to any volunteer-run professional organisation or club.

We’d really welcome your ideas, feedback, and expertise, so we’ll be sending out a very short survey too. As always, feel free to get in touch with me by email President@techcommnz.co.nz

Salary Survey

We opened up the 2018 Salary Survey in November and responses are looking great. Thank you to everyone who’s completed the survey. It’ll be open till 31 January, but if you complete it before noon on 21 December you can go in the draw to win one of three $100 Prezzy Cards.

All TechCommNZ members get access to all the survey results, as well as a summary report on trends.

Conference 2019

Planning for our conference in Tauranga next year is well underway. In the new year you’ll see the conference website go live and we’ll be calling for presenters.

I hope you’ve all got October 16-18 booked out in your calendar and have spoken to your manager about including this event in the training budget!

Of course, a great conference only happens with a lot of work and we are in need of a Sponsorship Coordinator to help us out. It’s a reasonably easy job and you can do it all from home so if you’re keen or just want to know a bit more, get in touch with Kaye Churches.

Happy Holidays

2018 was a busy year for me, and I’m very aware I haven’t committed as much time to TechCommNZ as I would have liked. Luckily I have a super team of helpers, both on and off the Board who provide invaluable support in keeping TechCommNZ not just ticking along, but also improving. Thank you to all the Board, but especially Kaye, Roy, and Katie, to Steve Moss, Emma Harding, and Earnsy Liu.

I’m very much looking forward to a long summer break, some time at the beach, and some moments to reflect on the year and plan for 2019. See you in February!

Meri kirihimete and ka kite

Meredith

Clipart image of half a yellow sun