By Bill Bryan, Newsletter Copyeditor

This year’s Vision Day took place July 19 at Progress Software in Morrisville. More than a dozen chapter members attended; chapter president Andrea Wenger led the meeting. The group discussed several possible ideas for both monthly meetings and special events, such as Saturday workshops.

Specifically, attendees considered:

• workshops on authoring tools
• workshops on working with graphics, and
• workshops on modern video techniques.

For monthly meetings, the participants suggested programs centered on:

• writing skills
• soft skills (program and people management)
• employment opportunities and job searches
• DITA, and other ideas.

The group also considered whether to implement an online discussion forum for the membership and whether to attempt to revive the SIG meetings, but agreed not to pursue either of these ideas this year.



Participants also talked about various options for partnering with other organizations with similar focus and interests. Members offered ideas regarding the format of meetings, such as “open mic night,” afternoon programs followed by a social dinner, and roundtable discussions.

The group also considered various options for mentoring students over the course of the next year, and how to recruit additional technical communicators to participate in chapter activities. Andrea and Betsy Kent both encouraged all attendees to sign up for judging the Carolina Chapter Competitions. Judging day this year will be Nov. 3.

In all, the participants had interesting and productive discussion, and our chapter officers will implement many of the ideas that we considered.

If you'd like to help your chapter, please consider volunteering.

Bill can be reached at wlbryan at wlbryan dot net.