While fans were lining up in the rain for Revenge of the Sith, we gathered at Dempseys for our Chapter Social! 

Kurt - our righteous dude! 

Michael - looking serious (momentarily) 

John 

STC Sacramento Newsletter

STC Sacramento Newsletter

May 17, 2005

Hello Rolfe ,

I hope all is well with you


The May edition of The Capital Letter is now posted on our website. It is a 805KB .PDF file that you can access in one of three ways:

the newsletter link on the home page
http://www.stcsacramento.org/newsletters.asp (the archive of all newsletters on the site – the April newsletter will be at the top of the page, the first newsletter of the 2004-2005 section)
http://www.stcsacramento.org/content/newsltrs/CL05_2005.pdf (direct download)


This issue’s theme is Lone Writer/Independent Contracting. We have several outstanding articles:

Our lead article, “Contracting/Lone Writer: A Personal Choice” from Cherie Woodward provides an excellent look at lessons learned when she went independent (page 10).
Based on his own experience plus that gleaned from friends and colleagues, Barry Schoenborn’s “The Hazards of Being the Lone Writer” (page 15) is a must read.
We also have a very insightful article from the editor of the Lone Writer SIG’s newsletter, The Solitary Scrivener. It is reprinted on page 13.


As always, we have a number of other outstanding articles not directly related to this month’s theme:

Chuck Petch, our employment guru, provides some outstanding observations if you’re considering going independent (page 9).
Looking at one solution to the ever-increasing need for localization, we have a fascinating article on machine translation “Babel Not: Machine Translation for the Technical Communicator” on page 20..
Our own Sacramento Chapter election of new officers for 2005-2006 is still underway. We have reprinted the candidates statements starting on page five.
Last, but definitely not least, The Capital Letter received an Award of Merit in the most recent STC newsletter competition. I wish to thank and commend all the members of the newsletter staff for their hard work and effort! A copy of the award is on page 26.


Next month the theme is Single-sourcing and/or Management. XML is becoming a fact of life for all of us. Do you have a comment on that or possibly some good tips to pass on? Maybe you have been managing technical writers for a while now and have some insight you can share. Take some time and write an article, it can only help you (and us) in the long run. Contact me at jimcol@charter.net.



I hope to see you at the general meeting on May 18!



Jim Collins

Newsletter Editor

Sacramento STC

XML for Writers Workshop

XML for Writers Workshop