Re: HUMOR: STC Conference Time!

Subject: Re: HUMOR: STC Conference Time!
From: Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 08:36:33 -0800 (PST)


"Darren Barefoot" <> wrote

> Now, I respect Mr. Plato and think he's got a pretty valid point about
> the STC conference. But, in the interests of full disclosure, I do
> recall Mr. Plato speaking at the Region 7 STC conference in 1999. I'm
> afraid I missed his seminar (I was a dedicated full timer at the time).

This is no mystery, Darren. I've mentioned this plenty of times. So you're not
lifting up the rug and showing everybody my cockroaches.

> Perhaps this was where he came to understand the full scale of the
> STC's, uh, dodginess. Could this particular speaking engagement have
> been where the balance shifted? Where Andrew, at the 37 minute mark,
> realizes "what a second, what am I talking about? This is all just
> bollocks!" Where he stood on the table, kicked aside the computer
> projector and yelled "I'm mad as H-E-double-hockey-sticks and I'm not
> going to take it anymore!" Where he tossed aside his PowerPoint
> printouts and strode defiantly from the Doubletree Hotel, never to
> return? Only he can say for sure.

Something like that.

But you're basically right. I was marginally active in STC from 1993-1999, but
in 1999 was my final moment with them. I get this email from some conference
organizer that said "as a leader in the tech writing community" (or some crap
like that) "you have been selected to speak at the regional conference."

I felt like I had really gotten something cool. I felt honored.

So I put together a presentation on network diagramming. It was instantly
rejected. So I changed and put together a rather lame lame presentation on a
one-off topic on contracting. It was accepted without question.

Then about six or seven days before the conference, I get a call from some
conference organizer.

STC Moron: "Hey, Andrew, we haven't received your payment for the conference."

Andrew: "Oh, I'm speaking."

STC Moron: "Yes, but you still have to pay to attend the conference."

Andrew: "But, I'm speaking. Don't I get in for free."

STC Moron: "No, you get a special discounted rate. The normal price of $175 is
$150."

Andrew: "That's absurd. I am speaking at the conference, and I have to PAY to
get into the conference. Well, I won't pay."

STC Moron: "Blah, blah blah - rah rah STC. If you don't pay, then we'll have to
cancel your seminar. And a lot of people were signed up to attend."

Andrew: "So I have no choice here. I either pay or you pull the plug on my
seminar and make me look like a no-show."

Basically, STC invited me to submit a proposal under the pretense that I was
"selected." It was pure BS. I wasn't selected at all. That same "you have been
selected" went to every member in the region - from clueless newbies to the STC
warlords. My membership had even expired by that point. They were just rounding
up suckers to pay to come to the conference.

After that, my feelings on STC were sealed. They were a worthless organization
that had virtually no interest in technical communication. It was a social club
and either you obey the local and regional warlords or you can F.O.A.D. You
either fall lock-step with the obsession de jour or you can just take your
business elsewhere.

Andrew Plato


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