STC_Spectrum2020 was the BEST

STC_Spectrum2020 just wrapped up and as a volunteer, I almost feel bad about how much I got out of it. I don’t know how to pay STC Rochester back so I’m defaulting to hyperlinked shout-outs:

Ann Wiley, Chuck Campbell, and Kelley Schrank are all very sharp and funny. Secretary Johanne Lavallee seems to know a butt-ton about this profession. My own mentor Bobbi Werner was a Co-Program Manager.

Man though, I won the dopest, possibly best-possible, career tool yesterday at a prize giveaway. Not all technical writers still bother with Word but I sure do so who’s the patron saint of TechComm because I have a thank-you communication to draft.

Shortly after I won that ridiculously rad prize I had to turn my camera off for a moment because I was tearing up. It’s oddball to cry over software (winning it, anyway) but it wasn’t just the raffle, you see.

2020 has felt like some kind of slow-burn Armageddon and apparently receiving good news was enough to confuse me. That, coupled with how welcoming and kind these people have been, seemed to have short-circuited me for a second there. They took every opportunity to thank me even as I was feeling weird about getting free attendance in exchange for monitoring a few sessions’ chats.

I also made out like a bandit when it comes to knowledge received. Even the stuff I didn’t understand (you could practically hear the whoosh of Dale Waldt’s XML session flying over my head) showed me areas of opportunity.

SO GLAD I participated in this!

Have you ever felt like you got more out of volunteering than your benefactor? Tell us a bit about it in the comments! Just going to keep suggesting comments on these blog posts and mentally choreographing a dance to do for the day somebody actually posts one.