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

2. 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

3. 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 s
STC website and office staff
The CAA application form/process
Past budgets
Summit 2017 Leadership Day

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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…

8. 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

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

10. 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:
me:
Don’t visit my website unless you want to redesign it for me:
Summit 2017 Leadership Day