RE: STC Letter to the Editor

["Mike Hiatt" <mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com>]

I'm involved in the judging in the Lone Star Chapter (Dallas-Fort Worth area) competition as a judge. I don't even see the local entries until they are displayed at the awards banquet. That's because we trade entries with another chapter that hosts a competition. We judge the entries submitted to their chapter and they judge the ones submitted to us. Since they are north of us (almost to Canada), I doubt I'll know any of the authors and may never have heard of the company.

Mike Hiatt
Manager, Tech Pubs
VocalData, Inc.
Dallas, TX (yep, that one)
mailto:mhiatt -at- vocaldata -dot- com
www.vocaldata.com

-----Original Message-----
From: SteveFJong -at- aol -dot- com [mailto:SteveFJong -at- aol -dot- com]
Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 12:35 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: STC Letter to the Editor

Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>, who is no longer an STC member, 
nevertheless says, in effect, that the various chapter publications 
competitions are fixed:

>> [I]n the world of tech-writing, anyone experienced 
>> enough to be a judge would probably also have the connections to know 
>> which company and which writers were responsible for any local entries.

>> I consider prizes of these sorts - whether they're local STC 
>> competitions or the Booker Prize - to be exercises in PR and chances to 
>> bestow favors.

I find this innuendo disturbing, and as an organizer of the Boston and 
Northern New England competition, I categorically deny it. 

Judges are certainly aware of which company provided an entry; the company 
names are on the covers. However, it is rarely known who created an entry.  
I'm as well connected as anyone: I've been in the business for over 25 years, 
I'm an officer in the Boston chapter, and I've been judging for ten years or 
more. Yet only twice have I known the creators of an entry. Both times were 
at Best of Show competitions: Once was for a trade book entry whose author I 
knew (he was listed on the cover), and once was for a technical manual from 
my own company. Both times I recused myself. (The book won Best of Show; my 
company's manual did not.)

We (I) train judges not to let personal biases influence their judgments; if 
they are aware of who wrote an entry, and they feel they can't be objective, 
they are to contact the coordinator and swap entries, or recuse themselves as 
I did. Other than my own recusals, I don't believe it's come up.

If awards are handed out as favors, we grant them only rarely: Our problem is 
that judges are too strict, not too lenient. We have to train on that point.

Now, the Boston chapter has 1,000 members, and gets over 100 entries a year 
in the competitions. If Bruce has past experience with smaller chapters, it 
may be that the smaller pool of members and entries breeds more familiarity. 
I suggest that if it's a problem elsewhere, chapters should consider swapping 
entries. (We're happy to take entries from any chapter, so long as they throw 
in a few judges too.) But I can assure everyone that the competitions--in 
Boston/NNE at least--are unbiased and meaningful.

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