atw: Re: was: Another "rates" query
- From: "Michael Lewis" <mlewis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 08:12:31 +1100
Andrea Tappe:
> A national body is a great idea - the only question is, how would
> responsibilities be shared between the national body and the various state
> chapters? Some obvious candidates for centralisation IMHO are the
> newsletters and the websites. Geoff has pointed out that he is currently
> paying for the ASTCQ website. The ASTC NSW is likewise paying for a
website,
> as is the ASTC Vic. I'm not an accountant, but I'd guess that the costs of
> this far outweigh the benefits?
I was President of the ASTC (NSW) for three years, and involved on the
committee for about fourteen years longer than that. I assure everyone who
has contributed to this thread that the question of a national body came out
for a warm-up lap quite regularly, and always crashed at the same bend:
practicality.
I must emphasise that I'm no longer active on the committee, so I'm in no
position to present any kind of official view -- I'm just filling in the
historical background.
In NSW, we always found it difficult to attract enough members to provide a
sound financial base and an adequate pool of volunteers for committee roles.
As far as I know, that hasn't changed; and I'd be surprised if the situation
has been any different in Victoria. We also saw equivalent societies created
in Queensland and South Australia, only to go to the wall for the same
reasons. How many practitioners in Qld and SA even know that such societies
once existed?
It's useful to compare the technical communication situation with the
editing profession. The Societies of Editors in Australia are also state
based, but with a far higher and more active level of membership in every
state and territory. They found a way of achieving some national cohesion by
setting up the Council of Australian Societies of Editors -- which is simply
a fancy name for an informal gathering of the presidents of the state
societies. Any closer collaboration is not a practical option.
The simple fact is that a national body requires resources on a different
scale. Yes, it would be nice to have a single website instead of three. But
each "chapter" would still need its own webmaster ('scuse the sexist
language; I don't think a gender-free term has been invented yet), _plus_ a
central coordinating role to maintain the single website itself. Every other
aspect of operation would also still be duplicated to some extent.
The local STC chapter can operate nationally because it's drawing on the
resources of the very large STC itself. But I've yet to see the STC chapter
put together a program of monthly meetings for each city in which it's
represented. That will remain a state activity, requiring the same level of
volunteer labour and the same level of membership participation to make it
worthwhile.
To make matters worse, the level of commitment to the societies has been
falling off. I'm guessing that it's due to the pressures of more work for
less pay; technical communicators don't have a lot of time or energy left to
even attend meetings, let alone take an active part in running things. To
some extent, that's self defeating; members of the Societies of Editors are
under the same pressures, but they recognise the value of peer interaction.
(Editing is probably an even more solitary activity than tech writing.)
On top of all that, there's the attitude that only a national organisation
will be big enough to provide members with what they want. Maybe -- but it
would still need volunteers' time and energy, and that's in very short
supply.
Michael Lewis
--------------------------------------
Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
http://www.brandle.com.au
--------------------------------------
**************************************************
To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to
austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to
austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field.
To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
"unsubscribe" in the Subject field.
To search the austechwriter archives, go to
www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter
To contact the list administrator, send a message to
austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**************************************************
Other related posts:
