Re: Volunteer TW Services (was: Ethical Questions)

[Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

Wow, Rays, what incredibly bad luck.  Hope you find some more organized and
better run groups than that.

On the other hand, you make a good point.  The average person doesn't know
what a tech writer does or can do.

I've found several writing-related opportunities locally.  For example, a
group of employees at local water municipality put together a really good
volunteer program set up to do "environmental" things they can't get funding
for.  One project involved writing a brochure for home owners and
landscapers that educated about activities, types of plants, and of course
fertilizers that can be beneficial or harmful to area streams.

Another local organization is helping bring computer education to the inner
city.  With monetary help from Microsoft and Allen, they've set up a really
promising program that includes classes, internships, etc for both school
aged children and adults looking to improve their job skills.  They require
lots of volunteer work to set up curriculum and training materials.
(Actually, most recently they've had plenty of help in this area, but are
sorely lacking in people to actually conduct the classes.)

(Personally, when it comes to volunteering, I've been steering away from the
kind of work I do every day.  I'm going to be spending the summer tramping
through Bellevue, Washington's streams assessing the habitat and making
Bellevue safe for migrating salmon.  About as far away as I can get from
being writing user guides.)

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database