Free P&P SIG Webinar Scheduled for March 28, 2019

Annette D. Reilly, Ph.D., PMP, CSDP, CSEP, will present a webinar entitled “It’s a Standard Procedure” on Thursday, March 28, from 12:00 -1:00 p.m. (EDT). She will discuss how policies and procedures are applied for the development of international standards. The webinar will be recorded.

 

The webinar is free to P&P SIG members and our guest, the STC Washington DC/Baltimore chapter. However, you must register to receive the link to the webinar and the recording.

 

The registration link and information was sent to P&P SIG members via the SIG’s Announcement List.The Leadership Team hopes you can join us for a discussion of this
important topic.

 

If you have questions, please contact Ann Marie at AQueeney@stc-techedit.org.

P&P SIG at the 2018 Summit

The Policies and Procedures SIG was active throughout the 2018 Summit in Orlando, beginning with the Welcome Reception event on Sunday. Dawnell Claessen, treasurer and past SIG manager, and Ann Marie Queeney, SIG co-manager, greeted Summit attendees at the P&P SIG table. Unfortunately, Emily Kowal, SIG co-manager, was unable to attend the Summit due to an illness in her family. We thank Emily for her time and contributions in planning our Summit activities.
The P&P SIG celebrated fun and Florida with a flamingo-themed table and motto, “Let’s flamingle.” Keeping with the theme, attendees participated in a word game (How many words could they create from “flamingos” in one minute). Two word-savvy competitors tied with 21 words and were awarded a flamingo-decorated tote bag and giveaways.
In addition to a P&P SIG info sheet, the SIG gave away mini flamingo bubble bottles, flamingo stickers, P&P SIG pencils, and temporary tropical tattoos.
The P&P SIG presence continued on Monday with a well-attended program (53 participants), entitled “Policies and Procedures – Communicate the Future”, presented by Dawnell and Ann Marie. Emily was also scheduled as a co-presenter and had co-created the presentation. For P&P SIG members unable to attend the Summit, the SIG leadership is planning to hold a webinar of the presentation later in the year.
On Tuesday, Dawnell and Ann Marie hosted the SIG’s business meeting, where they updated attendees on SIG activities and discussed ideas for improving the SIG. One popular suggestion was a SIG virtual bookshelf, where members write reviews of books covering our profession. Following the meeting, SIG members enjoyed lunch at the hotel’s B-Line Diner, compliments of the SIG. The lunch provided an opportunity for members of our virtual community to meet other members, socialize, and share information regarding our profession.
On Wednesday, the closing day of the Summit, people said their good-byes and made plans to meet at next year’s Summit in Denver. The P&P SIG’s two yard flamingos (who were stationed at our table), found a home with an STC member and former Floridian.
Dawnell and Ann Marie enjoyed meeting P&P SIG members and thank you for your membership. See you at next year’s Summit in Denver!

Procedure Professionals Association Announcement

P&P SIG Members, Mr. Mike Brewer of the Procedure Professionals Association has provided this post.  Our SIG has members in common with these folks, and lots of professional interests in common.  Their Symposium sure looks interesting.


 

The Procedure Professionals Association will host the 29th Annual Procedure Symposium at the Opal Sands Resort on Clearwater Beach June 20 through 22, 2017. In this format, we will continue to provide a forum for professionals in procedure writing, administration and control to obtain the latest information regarding procedures and the procedure process. The technical program will consist of formal presentations as well as facilitated breakout sessions. As is customary, we will have a strong focus on providing greater and more diverse networking and benchmarking opportunities. All levels of management, procedure writers, work planners, procedure administrators, training specialists, and procedure users will benefit by attending the specialized breakout sessions that deal with the issues related to their specific areas.

We will also offer the full PPA Writer Certification Training Course in conjunction with symposium attendance. With an emphasis on human factors and classroom exercises, this training focuses on the following technical writing objectives:

 

  • Documents are organized using a hierarchical structure.
  • A human factored layout and format is consistently applied to all documents.
  • Instructions enable action, achieve compliance, and minimize the potential for error.
  • Instructions are written clearly, concisely, and consistently using standard American English.

 

For additional information, please visit the Procedure Professionals Association at www.ppaweb.org or contact Carolee Schmidt at cschmidt@ppaweb.org.

 

— Posted on behalf of Mr. Mike Brewer of the Procedure Professionals Association.

P&P SIG Call for Progression Session Speakers

Next year’s 2017 STC Technical Communication Summit will be held 7-10 May in Washington, DC. (National Harbor, MD).

The Policies and Procedures SIG plans to submit a proposal to present “Topics In Policies and Procedures” in the Progression Session format at the 2017 STC Summit.  P&P SIG is looking for presenters (and their topics). We’d like you to join our proposal!  If you plan to attend the conference and have an idea for a topic, we’d like you to develop your topic and present as part of our Progression Session.

We’d especially like to invite the SIG members from the former QPI and ES&H SIGs to join with P&P SIG and present with us in Washington, DC

Any STC member may join our proposal.  But you will have to act soon; the deadline for submission is 12 September 2016. I will need your information no later 09 September 2016. If you are interested, send me as much information as you can right away. mail at dawnell.com.

Of course, we encourage all SIG members to develop and propose their individual Summit topics directly to STC.  If you plan to do that, here is a link to some tips and tricks.  http://notebook.stc.org/tips-for-your-best-ever-summit-proposal

What is a “Progression Session” anyway?

“Progression Session” is a format for an educational session at conference that has as many as 10 different speakers presenting on various topics simultaneously. Each speaker will host a table with a presentation on a topic they have developed from their own area of practice. Attendees will choose a topic and sit at that table to hear a 12-minute presentation about that topic, and then move to another table to hear the next 12-minute presentation. This process repeats 3 times throughout the hour long time slot. This means attendees will hear 3 of the topics presented.

Sessions in this format are very popular and are among the best attended at the conference. Progression sessions are a great way to share a lot of information in a relatively short time. Veteran presenters and new speakers alike can hone their speaking and presenting skills as they present new topics and research.

Subject Matter for Topics

Naturally, we will be looking for topics of relevance to members of our SIGs. But this covers a wide area of related and relevant topics, such as compliance, content management, career development, process improvement, documentation management, and the tools and technologies that we all use in our profession. Of particular interest are case studies and success stories that would benefit our attendees and members.

How to Join our Progression Session

Send me your information as soon as possible and I will submit the proposal. Send me as much information as you have right away.  mail@dawnell.com

You will need the following information:

* Your name and contact information

* Working title for your topic.

* A short abstract or description of your topic

* A short professional bio about you, especially about any speaking or presenting experiences you may have had.

* Any further details about your topic, such as an outline or graphics (if you have them).

More information is better, but even if your presentation is not fully developed, please DO propose it anyway!

* Be sure to mention any SIG affiliations you may have.

Summit link:  http://summit.stc.org/

Any questions … email me!

Dawnell Claessen, Co-Manager, P&P SIG

mail@dawnell.com

The P&P SIG is pleased to announce a free webinar for our members!

Webinar 28 September 2016 – So mark your calendars!

The P&P SIG is pleased to announce a free webinar for our members!

6 Steps to Writing Effective Procedures

Introduction This topic is a brief description of 6 Steps to Writing Effective Procedures, the presentation that Information Mapping’s David Singer will deliver to the STC Special Interest Group on Policies and Procedures on September 28, 2016.
Presentation Description  

The Information Mapping Method is an internationally recognized content standard that makes information easier to write, easier to access and easier to understand. 6 Steps to Writing Effective Procedures introduces the fundamental concepts of the Method. Using real-world documentation samples to illustrate key points, the presentation emphasizes practical strategies that attendees can apply immediately to improve the quality and usability of procedures.

6 Steps to Writing Effective Procedures is approximately 40 minutes long and is followed by a question and answer session.

For those not familiar with Information Mapping, our presenter, David Singer, suggests P&P SIG Members visit the link below and sign up and view the free “Information Mapping: What is? Why Use it?” webinar.

http://www.informationmapping-webinars.com/webinar1/webinar-register.php?trackingID1=home&trackingID2=all_events&landingpage=default&expiration=default

About our presenter / speaker:

David Singer

Content Development Manager, Information Mapping US

 

David Singer’s Background
David Singer has more than 30 years of experience helping organizations achieve better control over their business-critical information. In the early 1980’s, he joined Information Mapping, Inc., founded by Robert E. Horn to bring the Information Mapping® Method for structured authoring to the marketplace. The Method is now a content standard within large enterprises and government entities around the world, and more than 600,000 people have been trained to use Information Mapping techniques.

 

David has held several positions within the Information Mapping organization. He is currently Content Development Manager at Information Mapping US, writing and speaking to audiences all over the country about content management and the Information Mapping Method. David frequently addresses these and other topics in the Information Mapping blog.

 

 

Procedure Writer Course

Absolute Consulting is offering STC Policies & Procedures SIG members a $100 rebate on their next PPA Procedure Writer Certification course, November 30 – December 2, 2015 in Nashville, TN.

Developed and managed by the Procedure Professionals Association (PPA) using input from an array of industry experts, the PPA Procedure Writer Certification is recognized as a value added approach to aligning procedure writers with best practices.

For more information on this course, visit the PPA Website (ppaweb.org) or the Absolute Consulting Website (absoluteconsulting.com).

To take advantage of this offer, see Nathan Rightmer’s Nov 10th post to the P&P Discussion List.

P&P SIG Webinar

Wednesday, 02 December 2015
12:00 noon – 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight time, USA

Using Zoupio for Publishing Policies and Procedures

This webinar focuses on using Zoupio by Lexum for internal publishing of policies and procedure documents sourced from MS Word files. Throughout many organizations, Word is the preferred drafting platform. See how Zoupio (SaaS) can propel that Word file to the next web level (hosted & mobile ready responsive design).

By the end of the webinar, you will have learned how process and publish text-heavy documents with Zoupio from MS Word files. We’ll show you how to facilitate web publishing from those Word files as well as the general best practices of web publishing for text-heavy documents.

One lucky attendee will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card.

Register now to attend.
Send an email to mail@dawnell.com for instructions on how to join the webinar.
This webinar is free for STC Policies & Procedures SIG members.
Not a P&P SIG member? Current STC members can join this SIG for only $10.

For over 20 years, Lexum has enabled the web publishing of tens of millions of pages of content, both on the public internet and client intranets with private industry, professional editors, international & domestic government entities, education, legal and medical sectors as well as the telecommunications industry.

Discussion Threads

This is a list of topics on the P&P SIG Discussion List.
You can read the full thread in the discussion list archives.
See the Mail Lists page for instructions.

  • “A P&P inquiry for the SIG” on Standard Operating Procedures (August 2014)
  • “Use of the second person – you and your” (August 2014)
  • “Policy” – Alternative terms (Oct 2014)
  • “Policy and Procedures Library Name” (Oct 2014)
  • “SOPs vs. other Procedures” (Dec 2014)
  • “Q&A on Tech Com for Aerospace” (Dec 2014)
  • “Cross Post from STC Lone Writer SIG” on why people do or don’t remain STC members (Jan 2015)
  • “Use of video in technical documentation” (Feb 2015)
  • “Authorization of policies” (Feb 2015)
  • “Good source for defining different levels of P&P?” (Feb 2015)
  • “Document Type Definitions?” (April 2015)
  • “What volume of information/change can someone absorb in a day?” (April 2015)
  • “Use of the second person – you and your” (April 2015)
  • “Tools for Policies & Procedures” (May 2015)
  • “Taxonomy of documents” (May 2015)
  • “Student Requesting Examples of Process Documentation” (June 2015)
  • “Policies or related materials on transgender topics” (Junly 2015)
  • “Reference Style in Policies?” (Aug 2015)
  • “Policy and Procedure Repositories” (Sept 2015)