Community Manager’s Manual A way to retain and sustain best practices in your community

Your presenter I am a … senior technical communicator with over 20 years' experience in writing for software development, financial, oil and gas and engineering clients. …the immediate past co-manager of the Instructional Design Special Interest Group, past president of the Canada West Coast chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, a judge/evaluator for STC Community Achievement Awards, Pacesetters Awards. I’ve acted as judge for the International Summit Awards and I’m currently a judge on the panel for the IDL SIG’s new Student Outreach article writing competition. I run … 5Ks, and my own freelance technical communication business (“tech writer on call”) in Vancouver, BC. I’m currently exploring the world of API documentation to remain relevant and employed! Talk to me about: Instructional Design and Learning, Flare, Word, plain language, editing, mentoring, and especially, volunteering to keep STC healthy and strong!! May 7, 2017 Summit 2017 Leadership Day Mellissa K Ruryk, B.Ed. (Sec.) Technically Right Technical Writing Services Ltd. Sr. Technical Communicator Vancouver, BC

You will learn: Manual Sections Content Sources Your CAC team liaison May 7, 2017 Manual Sections Content Sources History Current operations Contact list Calendar Awards Regular activities Teams Communication Policies and procedures Succession/transition planning Your CAC team liaison Group files in the cloud? Past leaders’ notes and files Emails STC website and office staff The CAA application form/process Past budgets Summit 2017 Leadership Day

Typical Sections Table of contents The one- page primer About us May 7, 2017 About us Group by topic or list alphabetically Keep to three levels (4 at the absolute maximum) Don’t get too fancy! “Content is king” This is a handy cheat sheet of everything a leader needs to know – quickly – and have access to, in the event of emergency. ID, user name, web URLs for Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, etc. NO PASSWORDS The “secret” page Passwords DSSA/DCSA applications Possibly, stipend applications/ approvals Share at transition time and revoke access after it’s no longer needed Get your longest-term members to write down all they know about your community. This info might not seem interesting or exciting now – but in 10, 20 or 50 years from now, every word will be treasured. What is your community’s mission? Values? Vision? It’s a great team-building activity to hammer this out. Keep track of your community’s awards, citations, and numbers. This can be useful in so many ways, not the least of which is “bragging rights.” Summit 2017 Leadership Day

Sections, continued Policies and procedures Monthly meetings May 7, 2017 Policies and procedures Monthly meetings Communication channels Volunteers who are not STC members? Leaders’ absence(s) from regular meetings Pricing for students, Community members, non-members at events. What if STC but not your community? Job descriptions Experience requirements Organization Schedule Reports – format and timing Community management vs. educational or programme offerings “Mailman” accounts: Announcements and Discussions Webinars – Adobe Connect or other tools Team meetings – open to all members? Just team leads? Website – STC hosted? Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, Hootsuite, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube Newsletter – Blog style? Hardcopy? Slack? Yammer? IM? Facebook messenger? Summit 2017 Leadership Day

Sections, continued Tokens of appreciation Awards Applications May 7, 2017 Tokens of appreciation Awards Applications Productivity assists One of society’s ills (society in the larger sense, not STC specifically!) is a lack of connection. Overcome this by sincerely noticing your members and acknowledging their presence and accomplishments. Encourage application for Society awards, certification, and talk often about what membership has done for you. Member spotlights, Distinguished awards – and don’t be afraid to create your own community awards. Often most meaningful. “I appreciate you . ” Use the CAA application form to guide your annual activities. Put all the deadlines on a calendar and set up reminders to give you enough time to do a great job of the application with time to spare. Shared Cloud options (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) File organization mimic the manual or vice versa open to all members or just team leads? Yammer, Slack and the like (pros and cons) Summit 2017 Leadership Day

Managing a community is not a one-person job. May 7, 2017 Summit 2017 Leadership Day Unless that person is a woman, or has ADHD & insomnia, or CdO….or all three Many hands make light work and gets better buy-in…

More stuff to document… Summit Planning Special events May 7, 2017 Teams Community get-together at the Summit Highlight those from your community who are presenting Highlight any opportunities to meet ‘n’ greet Celebrate any awardees For SIGs, prepare a “Track” for your members (special interest) For chapters – consider bidding to host the Summit! Distribute mementos from your community to others For geographic chapters, you may hold an annual conference, an Annual General meeting, or a regular Elections meeting. Document these including sample agendas, budgets, guidelines, forms needed, etc. YMMV, but some suggestions: Manager(s) & Assistant manager(s) Mentoring Nominations Programs Secretary Scholarships/ Outreach/ Students Treasurer Surveys Publicity / PR Social Media Newsletter Content Curator Membership Summit 2017 Leadership Day

The Manual’s Table of Contents May 7, 2017 Summit 2017 Leadership Day

Questions? Thanks for attending. May 7, 2017 Thanks for attending. Download a skeleton Word doc from Dropbox and fill it in with your community’s content: Email me: mruryk@shaw.ca Don’t visit my website unless you want to redesign it for me: www.tek-right.com http://bit.ly/2pEA01q Summit 2017 Leadership Day