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The strangest thing about this teacuplet for me has been this:
The STC is an organisation that no one is compelled to join. It is apparent
from this list alone that it is entirely possible to be a successful
technical writer and not be a member of the STC.
The STC conference is an event that no one is compelled to attend, even if
they are members of the STC, and appears to exist entirely for the benefit
of STC members and the STC itself. (Presumably the STC members believe that
the continuing existence of the STC is a benefit, otherwise why would they
be members?)
Yet from the discussion thread that got started from the annual anti-STC
post (no, I've not read all of it, and don't intend to try) it would appear
that some people on this list resent both the organisation and the event as
if both were compulsory.
Years ago I worked for a company where every year the boss organised an
annual Christmas party combined with AGM. The party was free, the boss
provided a free bar after the AGM, and his intent was that we should all
have a good time. But because attendance was compulsory, unless you could
provide a doctor's note proving you had some disabling and highly contagious
disease that weekend, I don't know anyone who worked there who didn't resent
having to give up the best part of a weekend in order to go. If the STC
conference was like that, I could understand people getting aggravated about
it.
Why oh why (tribute to Barry Took, who died unobtrusively on 30th March)
must people who don't want to belong to the STC or go to the STC conference
blast everyone else with their criticisms of an organisation they don't want
to belong to and an event they don't want to go to? (That's a rhetorical
question, not a poll.)
Jane Carnall
Apologies for the long additional sig: it is added automatically and outwith
my control.
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