STC, RIP

A post on the TECHWR-L mailing list today broke the news that the Society for Technical Communication (STC) has filed for bankruptcy and will be dissolved. From the STC web site:

Despite significant efforts over the past several years by the various Boards of Directors and STC leadership, financial liabilities coupled with falling membership numbers have created a situation where we are not able to offer the education, resources, and outreach that this membership expects and deserves. Various cost-cutting measures and attempts to generate revenue have not been sufficient, and our debt and operational expenses now outweigh our ongoing revenue.

After an exhaustive look at finances and extensive research and discussion with the organization’s legal counsel, we have decided to dissolve the organization. The Board approved a motion to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy and secured a bankruptcy attorney to draft the required paperwork and submit it to the court on STC’s behalf.

This is sad news though it's not a surprise. When I was making the transition from bookkeeping and office administration to technical writing in the early 1990s, the STC was an invaluable resource. Membership brought me into contact with the burgeoning (at the time) technical writing community in Toronto, gave me access to educational material that helped me develop new skills, provided credibility with my management at work. 

Through it I met many other writers, both locally and at out-of-town conferences, some of whom are still friends. And the conferences gave me an opportunity to do a bit of travelling. 

But as time went by, the STC became less relevant. At its peak in the late 1990s, the Toronto STC chapter had hundreds (I think around 600) of members and was large and organized enough to host the annual Summit conference in 1997. But the dot com bust wiped out most of that membership and the attendance at chapter meetings dwindled to less than 50. 

And the STC became less relevant to my work. When I started out as a technical writer, it was a major source for information about the field. But by the time I was laid off in 2018, I had let my membership lapse. There were too many other places where I could find out what I needed to know. It seemed to be more relevant to writers who were contracting, as they needed the personal contacts.

Then the pandemic hit and there were no more in-person conferences or meetings. 

The world and the technical writing profession changed dramatically between 2000 and 2025. When was the last time you got a manual for a piece of software? Even hardware manuals are going the way of the dodo. Information still has to be presented to users but now it's online or part of the software interface. Agile development took over the software development world and development cycles went from years to weeks. The STC just couldn't keep up. 

It is a sad day for the technical writing profession, such as it is now. I think it will be hardest for beginning writers, who have lost a place to meet other writers,  and academics, who have lost a place to publish their research. I hope that the STC can find a place to archive back issues of Intercom and the Technical Communication journal; those are still a valuable resource.