where is our value, folks?

[Anne Halsey <AHalsey -at- SYSTEMONE -dot- NET>]

Much like Elna Tymes, I've been an on-again, off-again
member ... but of this listserv.  I recently resubscribed to
ask for help/information about Novell's certified internet
professional (CIP) program.

I guess everyone was too busy rehashing the cyclical
certification question - again - because I had a whopping
three responses.  Two were to ask me to forward whatever
information I gathered, because they'd heard of the program
and wanted information.  The third (thanks, Daniel!) offered
viable alternatives to the program.

My point - and I do have one - is that, for this group, certification
seems to be the equivalent of the Mac-versus-PC holy war .
Everyone has an opinion.  Basically, there are two valid
ones: yea certification or nay certification.  A hell of a lot
of bandwidth has been wasted in the past couple of days,
rehashing (but not resolving !!) an issue that, if memory serves,
crops up on this list approximately every five-seven months.

Can we bag the holy war and return to helping one another
with solutions to our everyday TC problems?  Please??

     Anne Halsey
     senior documentation specialist, system one
     ahalsey -at- systemone -dot- net

 ----------
From: etymes
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Certification Issues
Date: Tuesday, June 17, 1997 12:49PM

Beth Mazur wrote:
>
> At 10:06 AM -0700 6/17/97, Elna Tymes wrote:
> > ... The most charitable view is
> >that STC is a group of wannabes and academicians who have formed a
> >self-help group in the hope of improving their status. The notion that
> >this group is a source of reliable judgments about what constitutes high
> >quality professional writing is truly a sick joke, in my opinion.
>
> You had me up until this paragraph. As a two and a half year member of
> STC who does not label herself a technical writer and is against
> certification, even I'm offended by this.

Beth -

You can take offense at the fact that the sun rose this morning.  I have
no influence over that either.

I've been an on-again-off-again member of STC over some 20 years.  Every
time I give the group one more chance, I find that my dues have been an
incredible waste of money.  The latest such attempt was last year; I
didn't pay my dues this year as a result of yet another failed attempt
to find value for money in STC.

My opinion of STC is just that: my opinion.  There is no requirement
that you - or anybody else - agree with me on any point.  I am simply
another voice on this newsgroup, and what I've said is the product of my
experience.  You may well fault my conclusions - as obviously you have -
but you can't deny my experience.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html