The distance between Edmonton and Calgary makes it impossible for most STC members in the Edmonton area to attend many chapter meetings. Consequently, some years ago, the Edmonton members decided to form a subgroup within the chapter.

The Edmonton group meets about six times a year (approximately every two months between September and May). We sometimes meet to discuss technical communication issues, sometimes to conduct technical communication workshops, oftentimes to just chat. If you're an Edmonton area STC member, then consider coming out to our meetings.

For more information about the Edmonton group within the Alberta Chapter STC contact the Edmonton Liaison.

News & Events

Edmonton’s Networking Bonk
- JennyNelson, STC Member (Edmonton)

Clockwise from left: Rick Paisley, Jenny Nelson, Angela Wiens, Hugh Read, Marcia Wright, Serena Beck, Elaine Elrod, and Deanne Wilson.

On November 15th, Edmonton STC held a networking wine and cheese event at local member Jenny Nelson’s house in historic Oliver. Eight intrepid long-term STCers showed up to work the net: Jenny, Marcia Wright, Angela Wiens, Hugh Read, Rick Paisley, Serena Beck, Deanne Wilson, and Elaine Elrod. Melissa Di Natale almost made it, but was stuck, at the last minute, coaching a high school dance team, instead.

The event got off to a rollicking start with an icebreaking bingo game where two teams competed to see who could fill up the most squares on their card. Each square asked a writing-related question such as “Who has worked with a printing press?” or “Who has written dark and disturbing fiction?” or even “Who has written off his or her car?” Who knew three people in our group had been written anonymous love letters? Or more than one person had worked with a printing press. No one, however, owned up to having written a letter to Penthouse. Some of us, however, had our suspicions…

Following the bingo, many topics were discussed with boisterous enthusiasm - none having anything to do with our profession, however, despite Jenny’s intentions. Angela educated us about a word none of us knew could apply to the sort of situation she described. We listened as she told us about a kayaking trip her family took in the Broken Islands off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Angela’s husband, while paddling his kayak, became very ill and “bonked.” A stunned silence befell our group. “He did what while ill in his kayak?” Apparently, Angela assured us, this term can be applied to a state of unresponsiveness when one becomes seriously ill. Dictionaries were pulled out, websites were perused, all in search of the elusive term, “bonk” which several of us knew only, like its cousin “boink,” as a term somewhat more salacious in nature. In the end, we took her word for it. The rest of the evening’s conversation, however, was peppered with thinly veiled references to the word’s baser side.

Elaine sobered the group by pointing out that Melissa Di Natale was unfortunately leaving her post as Edmonton liaison, and asked us to decide what we should do about this. Not one of us threw up his or her arm in a fit of volunteerism. For the remainder of the year, then, we’ve decided to hold ad hoc events and use Angela Wiens’ name and email as a contact point between the Calgary and Edmonton groups.

With the evening’s business out of the way, some of the group yawned and turned in for the night. The stalwart partiers, however, were still in for a treat when two guitars were brought out and placed in Hugh’s and Glenn’s (Jenny’s partner and, as it turns out, an erstwhile technical writer) hands. Both being talented players and singers, they wound the evening down on a great folk/bluegrass sing-along note. Perhaps our next report will include news of our new Edmonton STC band: Manual Overdrive. Or maybe it’ll be Jimmy Pagebreak and the White Outs. Stay tuned…