Topics in this Issue
How to Extract Information from Subject Matter Experts
by Diane FitzGibbon
Holiday Party, Fun, and Prizes
by Keith Albert
President's Notes and News
by Susan Becker
Chapter Member News
by Larry Pastori
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On December 17, 2003, our chapter held its fourth annual holiday party at the London Wine Bar. The event drew over 40 technical communicators from the San Francisco chapter, as well as a few of our neighboring chapters. Partygoers had the opportunity to visit with their peers and enjoy the large selection of hors d'oeuvres, beer, wine, and soft drinks.
Highlights
The evening included the traditional networking game and distribution of door prizes. The highlight came when the grand prize, an edition of RoboHelp X4 provided by eHelp, was given away to Carol Fager-Higgins, who produced the winning ticket. Carol also proved herself to be the best-informed guest by dropping the bombshell that Macromedia was in the process of acquiring eHelp. This purchase was announced on October 22 on the Macromedia web site and finalized on December 19, 2003.
Networking Game
Susan Becker explained the rules of the evening's game. Players were to interview one another. When interviewees had an affirmative answer, they signed their names on a questionnaire. Some of the twenty questions included: Who has been a judge in Touchstone? Who works in the biotech industry? Who has written or edited HTML documents professionally? When the contest ended, prizes were awarded on the basis of the following three criteria: the most names, the most questions answered, and the widest variety of names.
Web team member Emily Wilska garnered the most signatures. Secretary Reyn Johnson and Yasaman Sohrabi tied for the most questions answered. John Tinonga collected the greatest number of different names. These winners were awarded pairs of SF STC logo wine glasses. The remaining prizes were raffled off.
Prizes from Our Sponsors
Peachpit Press provided us with six of their titles, including Adobe Acrobat 6 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide, FrameMaker 7 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004: Training from the Source, Real World Digital Photography, Robin William's DVD Design Workshop, and Web Design on a Shoestring .
Other prizes and donors included RoboHelp t-shirts from eHelp, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard from Adobe, and Doc-to-Help 6.5 from ComponentOne. Our chapter contributed Microsoft Project Standard 2002 and several SF STC logo wine glasses.
Heartfelt thanks to all of our donors and guests. May you all have a happy and prosperous year!
Keith is a member of the programs committee.
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