In our latest survey, question #5 asked, “What is the most important thing the chapter should do right now?” I put the survey responses in italics, and then I responded to them in regular font below.

more blog posts

I definitely agree. If you want to see my collection of tech writer blog feeds, let me know.

Uhh… Dunno. It’s too early.

You’re always welcome to send feedback when you’re prepared.

continue having relevant topics of interest to everyone

I will follow the topic suggestions from the survey. What topics are of interest to you?

Provide useful information.

I agree that we could have more useful info on the site. We need someone to help track this info down and scout out important links. Would you or someone else like to help? Send me an email at tom@techwritervoices.com.

Plan monthly meetings with maximum interest to members to increase attendance (to which end these lively surveys are an excellent step).

I agree — I’ll keep with the surveys. But we have had some amazing speakers for the last three months: Karen Bachman, Susan Burton, Mike Hamilton, Neil Perlin. We also just lined up some topics that match the requests from the last survey.

Band together to fight aliens from the planet Zorgon who will be landing on Friday at dawn.

Defending our planet must be our first priority.

I’m a new member, I don’t know enough about the chapter to respond.

Surely you can elaborate about the types of topics you’re interested in learning about.

Increase participation (not just membership). Since the chapter website has gotten so comprehensive, we need to get chapter members used to going there on a regular basis for new info and answers. Maybe a regular reminder (on Wednesdays?) could go out electronically to the listserv, and maybe it could list/link areas where there have been new postings since the last reminder. This might encourage better attendance and participation, which could lead to all kinds of good things.

I agree that we need a weekly reminder of all the recent site activity. The current service I use to distribute email notification of new posts is Feedburner, and it delivers it every time there is new content. I will see if I can’t flip a setting that converts it to a once-a-week broadcast. Maybe we need someone to compile a weekly email of sorts.

Persuade the members to be more participatory.

I need to be more active in soliciting member involvement. Look for two upcoming requests for help soon.

Help us workers find ways to keep our Managers apprised of state-of-the-art in the field of technical communications, and how it can improve the bottom line.

This is an important topic. Thanks for the input.

Simplify for those of us who don’t have the time or wish to Blog or equipment to podcast.

Someone asks for simplicity! Remember, the blog and podcast are not mandatory. They are like extra dessert after a meal.

Keep members current about industry trends, software, etc.

I agree.

start sending messages through the listserv that look like they are coming from a “Technical Communicators” group. They contain to contain extraneous symbols and code and are unpleasant to look at

I’m sorry the messages you receive are garbled. Our listserv manager looked into it. It’s basically some kind of plain text vs. html email conflict. Can you email me offline and we’ll try to tackle the problem again?

The chapter should focus on helping its members with their professional development. Perhaps offering mini-seminars on current industry-related topics would be a good way to strenghten the chapter and possibly help it to grow. Maybe some of the members who are particularly good at a particular thing would be willing to do a session and just collect a fee for their time, if not volunteered. So often, I hear people in the chapter talking about what someone else in the chapter is an expert with or how great they do with a particular task and I think, “Gosh, sure would love to pick their brain.”

I agree that we have a lot of experts in the chapter that could deliver mini-seminars. I’m going to try to get a workshop coordinator to spearhead that. Do you see workshops and mini-seminars as essentially the same thing? Any recommendations on topics and members to present?

Thanks everyone for all of your responses.