atw: Re: Agencies, contractors and other gripes (another longish contribution)

Well said Warren - who wants who to do what? I certainly wouldn't want my ability to get a job affected by a non-official release of a 'what you must do to evaluate a tech writer' document to an agency. In fact, if I think about it, I don't want it affected at all (except by myself) and I am sure I am not in a minority. Those that employ will always have the upper hand I am afraid unless there is a meeting ground somewhere in the middle. 
Jill
----- Original Message ----- From: "Warren Lewington" <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 3:22 PM
Subject: atw: Re: Agencies, contractors and other gripes (another longish contribution)
Yes, Bruce, I agree with you about the ASTC's and STC being driving forces, 
but hear me out, I am not sure they are the organ to drive it. Problem is
that some members of this list are not members of either society, so will
feel unrepresented. Agenda's within ASTC committees drove some of the desire 
to not deal with the Westies proposals, (which BTW I understood and had no
problem with). The committees were already working hard doing more mundane
management things. Sadly too, there seemed to be histories with
personalities that hindered future working together, and that happens too.
Volunteering for the committees is becoming more and more rare, and those
left have been burnt out and overrun by dumber stuff. I think a ground swell 
of people doing it from the coal face with society representation, and
recruitment agent representation, along with industry representation is
something we may have more success with.
I guess we at the Westies felt the time wasn't right to push it any further 
than we did. They were good first draft proposals.
Politically and economically, the new industrial relations laws are going to have a more repressive impact on our lives, I am in a situation relating to employment and a recruitment agent at the moment. The person with the least 
power to use in relationships will ultimately lose out. That will be
individuals like us. So perhaps the issues of accreditation and protecting
our interests is now more prescient, so much so that the talk now might be
the start of a better run towards finishing the idea with something
practical and workable.

I don't necessarily think it will be the magic elixir, but it just might
help us gain a better hand in the future. And help us gain better public
awareness. Once the accreditation system is running, the real work of the
societies will begin, by administering and providing public support and
marketing us representatively. My experience with that is that you employ
staff, rather than trying to do everything on the cheap. That costs, but in 
the long run the benefits will be tangible.

Warren.

-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bruce Ashley
Sent: Wednesday, 17 January 2007 12:32
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Agencies, contractors and other gripes (another longish
contribution)
As our 'representative' bodies, both ASTCs should not only be involved, but should be driving this (they have tinkered with it many times in the past). In theory, the TW community appoints the committee members of both societies 
to act on their behalf so why (in theory) would we need to go outside the
societies? As such, I believe the correct forum for this activity should be 
via a joint working group sponsored by both ASTCs. This could lead to a
paper distributed to members who could then add their 5c worth. After a
submission period, a final recommendation could then go to the committees
for ratification and an accreditation method would then be in place, good or bad, like it or lump it. It could then be tweaked as needed over the coming 
years and this would form the foundation of what a TW is ... someone
accredited by the ASTC(s). But I recommend waiting until you hear from the
ASTCs before having any meeting, even if just out of consideration for the
work they already do for us. Their phone numbers and contact details are
also on the websites. As for the STC, what have they done in this regard
Jill (et al.)? Anything you'd like to share? :)

My 0.05.

Cheers,
Bruce

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