In their own words, the ISTC is:

the largest UK body representing professional communicators and information designers

I joined the ISTC a couple of years ago. They’ve been on my radar for a while now, but to be honest I’ve never been sure of what the benefits have been, nor have I found much need to be a member of a professional body. So what does the ISTC offer members? Well the ISTC website states that:

the ISTC offers opportunities to exchange views and information with other professional communicators. Members enjoy discounts, news, training events, networking and recognition of professional status including the use of FISTC or MISTC (for suitably qualified people).

OK, so you can now refer to me as Gordon McLean MISTC.

Yes, that’s much better than “Oi, twit!”.

I’ve been a member of various committees and charities in my time so there is one thing that I know holds true. When it comes to any organisation you get out what you put in, which would explain why I’ve recently been struggling to justify my ISTC membership.

It’s not that I don’t put in, I write a monthly column for the newsletter and happily volunteered to be on the newly formed members panel which is in the midst, thanks to the outstanding efforts of Rachel Potts reviewing those very same benefits that the ISTC offer.

And it’s not that I don’t get value back out, the ISTC mailing list has proven useful and I’m sure when I attend the conference this year, my first, I will learn a lot and benefit from speaking to my peers

So the question is, am I getting value for money?

Ultimately I believe I am, but I do feel I could be getting more. When I joined the ISTC I was already following some technical writing blogs and already had the beginnings of a network of people who were offering some good advice and interesting thoughts about this profession of ours. Some of those were discovered through the TechWR-L mailing list, others by chance encounters or links from other blogs. It’s the one thing that, as yet, the ISTC hasn’t really managed to grasp hold of, the idea that what they are facilitating is a community of like minded souls.

In a way an organisation such as the ISTC has the advantage over ad-hoc groups, given that all of the members have paid to be part of the organisation. It’ll be interesting to see the outcome of the review of member benefits, to see where the community aspect of being a member rates with everyone else. Perhaps it’s just me but I truly believe the ISTC would benefit from increasing the networking/community aspect of membership.

(OK, mainly aiming at West of Scotland)

Following a recent discussion about ISTC local area groups, a few of us based in the West of Scotland have decided to try to set up a local group.

Our first meeting will be on Thursday 15th January 2009. If you work in the area (or further away), please come along to meet other writers and talk about technical writing.

We’ll meet at 7 p.m. in the offices of Sumerian in Glasgow city centre, at 19 Blythswood Square, Glasgow G2 4BG. Tea & coffee provided.

If you plan to come along, please email me so we can get a rough idea of how many writers might be attending:

gordon [DOT] mclean AT gmail [DOT ] com

(if you can figure out the email address you are allowed to attend ;-) )

Now, what on earth will we talk about??

I got home this evening to find the next issue of Communicator sitting on the mat. Thankfully it was in one piece so obviously the cat hadn’t found it…

Anyway, just to confirm that, yes, I am the same Gordon McLean who features in the final piece in the magazine. Worryingly that means you now know what I look like, so I can only hope it doesn’t put you off visiting my blog again in the future.

I’m also going to be featuring in the monthly newsletter, but more on that when it happens.

The article was a “day in the life” style piece and although re-reading it brought a few omissions to mind, it remains a fairly accurate portrayal of a typical working day. Truth be told I don’t actually have many days like that at the moment as we are nearing a release date but the main bones of the article are still valid.

For those that aren’t ISTC members (and why not?) I’ll be posting a copy of the article soon, meanwhile I’m off to read the rest of the magazine.