HTML Writers Guild Newsletter
Volume 4 Number 7, Late July 1998
http://www.hwg.org/
editor@hwg.org
Table of Contents
1. Guild Town Hall Meeting July 30
2. Grand Opening July 28: 'The Bookmark' Online Bookstore
3. Membership Levels Update: Disabled Member Discounts now available
4. Online Classes to begin August 17, 1998!
5. New Volunteer Opportunities: Mentors, FAQs, and VDP
6. Are you wearing a HWG T-shirt right now?
7. The Jobs and Contracts/RFP Area
8. Update your Member Profile to Receive Special Offers!
9. Frequently Asked Questions about the HWG-News Newsletter
1. Guild Town Hall Meeting July 30
(Fred Barnett, fred@hwg.org, Leanne Phillips, leanne@hwg.org,
Governing Board members)
All Guild members are invited to our first monthly Town Hall meeting!
Each month, the Guild provides an opportunity for real-time discussion
and chatting via HWG Interactive. These monthly meetings are hosted by
members of the Governing Board (and likely most of them in attendance),
and give our members the chance to voice your views about the HWG. The
scheduling information for this first meeting is:
30 July Town Hall Meeting
Date: Thursday, 30 July 1998
Time: 6:30 p.m. PDT, 9:30 p.m. EDT, 01:30 (31 July) GMT
Hosts: Fred Barnett and Leanne Phillips
Server: HWG Interactive, http://interact.hwg.org/
Room: Meeting Hall
To connect, surf to the URL above for HWG Interactive, and create a
HWG Interactive account. (This will not be the same as your HWG member id
and password.)
2. Grand Opening July 28: 'The Bookmark' Online Bookstore
(Dain Anderson, Online Bookstore Manager, bookstore@hwg.org)
The HWG is proud to announce the grand opening of our new online bookstore:
The Bookmark. As an affiliate of Barnes & Noble, the Guild is now able to
offer members a full range of Internet and Computing related titles, as
well as a portal to other genres. Pricing at the bookmark is identical to
Barnes & Noble pricing, so you retain their customary online discounts,
often 20% or more off the cover price!
The Bookmark will be providing additional value to members through complete
reviews on most titles, chats with authors, and many more amenities to
come! Start your book shopping at The Bookmark, and the Guild receives a
commission on all purchases, at no extra cost to you: support the Guild
through your normal shopping activities!
Visit the Bookmark at http://www.hwg.org/bookstore/
3. Membership Levels Update: Disabled Member Discounts now available
(Kynn Bartlett, Vice President of Marketing and Outreach,
membership-questions@hwg.org)
You should all have received a copy earlier this month of the Guild's
new membership levels FAQ, explaining Trial and Full membership. The
Board has recently voted to extend a discount to disabled HWG members,
identical to that for students and educators.
The FAQ itself has also been updated, and now includes answers for
these questions:
A5. What is the Disabled Member Discount?
A6. What are Volunteer Credits?
B5. How do I upgrade my membership from Trial to Full?
D6. How can I become a Full member without paying any money?
D7. Will I be kicked out after a year at Trial membership?
By the way, the short answer to D7 is: "No, you won't be kicked out."
For the longer answer, please see the FAQ online at:
http://www.hwg.org/member/levelsFAQ.html
Any questions about the new membership/dues structure can be sent to
membership-questions@hwg.org. To upgrade to Full membership, please
go to http://db.hwg.org/cgi-bin/member/edit_profile
4. Online Classes to begin August 17, 1998!
(Charlotte Crothers, Vice President of Member Education,
classes@hwg.org)
Looking for a solid introduction to HTML? Itching to learn Perl? Trying to
design your Web pages in a universally accessible manner? Sign up to attend
a class and dive right into these and many more subjects in the months to
come. Classes are 4 to 8 weeks in length, and make use of threaded message
boards for class instruction and participation. Fees for Full or Discounted
Members are $25 per class, Trial members pay $50 per class. A printed
certificate of completion is available for an additional $5 per class.
Upgrade your membership today, and save!
Information on courses and policies is available online at
http://www.hwg.org/services/classes/
5. New Volunteer Opportunities: Mentors, FAQs, and VDP
The Guild is entirely volunteer-run, that means there are
many opportunities for active members to become involved
and help contribute back some of what you have gained
from your guild membership. Volunteering is a great way
to gain valuable experience, learn new skills and make
friends.
Some of the positions available with the Guild are:
POSITION: Mentors
REPORTS TO: Larry Behrens, Manager, Mentor/Apprentice Program
DESCRIPTION:
The HWG Mentor/Apprenticeship program is always in need of more
Mentors in all subject areas. Especially needed right now are Mentors
in:
* Web Development and Administration
* Java
* Web Scripting
Who can be a Mentor?
Any member of the HWG whether Trial or Full member, can apply to be
a Mentor.
Why should I be a Mentor?
Mentors gain documented experience for their resumes, and
advance the free-exchange spirit of the Internet and the World Wide
Web, in addition to earning credits toward Guild dues and education
classes.
How do I know if I qualify to be a Mentor?
Mentor applicants submit URL addresses showing examples of their
work. The sites are reviewed and evaluated by a HWG Mentor Review
Panel. If you can design sites that
* validate to W3C standards
* maintain their quality regardless of what browser is used to view them
* show that you design for accessibility, low bandwidth, and ease of
navigation
* and demonstrate advanced skills in your desired Mentor subject area
then you are well on your way to qualifying as an HWG Mentor.
How do I apply to become an HWG Mentor?
Read the Program information at http://www.hwg.org/services/mentor/
then simply fill out the form at
http://www.hwg.org/services/mentor/menap.html
Apply today to do something truly worthwhile for the Internet community.
POSITION: FAQ Team Member
REPORTS TO: Nancy Coulter, FAQ Coordinator
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Team members write/maintain the Frequently Asked Questions
(with answers) found in the HWG's Resources section. You may
either start a completely new FAQ, or maintain one that has already
been started. Please see
http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/howtoFAQ.html
for a detailed description of the position and a list of the open topic
areas.
POSITION: Vendor Discount Program Volunteers
REPORTS TO: Jobine Hume VDP Manager
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Updating the website and managing communications with
vendors. For more information about the program, which
allows vendors to offer discounts to Guild members, see:
http://www.hwg.org/services/vdp/index.html
6. Are you wearing your HWG T-shirt right now?
(Ann Navarro, VP/Finance and Personnel, ann@hwg.org)
If you don't have a Guild T-shirt, limited numbers of the first print
run are still available! Display your Guild colors with these distinctive
tees printed in full color on high-quality white cotton. Each t-shirt
features the world-famous HTML Writers Guild logo on the front; you, too,
can look like a web page!
T-shirts from the first printing are available in XL and XXL sizes
only; future printings -may- feature different sizes. These shirts
look good and support the Guild; you can buy your own for only
$24 (shipping and handling included) within the U.S. or Canada,
and $28 overseas. (All amounts are in US dollars.)
A copy of the order form is available at:
http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/guildwear/
7. The Jobs and Contracts/RFP Area
(Damon Zirkler, Jobs & Contracts Manager, jc-manager@hwg.org)
If you have a project, or part of a project, that you would like
to contract out to an outside source, you need to submit a
Request For Proposals through our RFP Service.
If you are looking for a contractual or freelance opportunity,
then you will want to take advantage of the Request For
Proposals Service to see if any Guild members are requesting
proposals for projects which require the skills you possess.
You can do this by searching through the archive of active RFPs.
You may also want to subscribe to have newly- posted RFPs
e-mailed directly to you.
Note: These services are available to full members of the HTML
Writers Guild. We offer a portion of these service to trial Guild
members, as well as the general public.
For more information see:
http://www.hwg.org/services/jc/
8. Update your Member Profile to Receive Special Offers!
(Mike McGhan, Database Administrator, dbadmin@hwg.org)
Your record in our database is the only connection we have to you,
so make sure that we don't lose touch! If your email address or
postal mail changes, remember to update your Guild information! In
fact, you may want to check it out now to confirm that your
information is current, while you also answer an important question
for us:
Would you be interested in receiving special offers from the Guild
or our strategic partners via postal mail?
To let us know, and to update any of your other profile data, go to:
http://db.hwg.org/cgi-bin/member/edit_profile
If you don't remember your HWG Member ID or password, please send mail
to dbadmin@hwg.org, with your email address, full name, and member ID
if known.
9. Frequently Asked Questions about the HWG-News Newsletter
(Shelly Ross, HWG-News Newsletter Editor, editor@hwg.org)
Some questions you may be asking:
Q: Why did I get this mail?
A: You received this newsletter because you are a member of the
HTML Writers Guild. This message came from hwg-news, the Guild's
mandatory mailing list for all members. If you need more information
about hwg-news, please see the List Charter at:
http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-news/index.html
Q. Why doesn't this newsletter talk about web design or HTML?
A. The newsletter is the Guild's administrative bulletin to the
membership. If you are interested in the topics of Web design
and HTML, then you might want to subscribe to some of our
discussion lists devoted to those topics. More information on
the Guild's offering of discussion lists can be found at:
http://www.hwg.org/lists/mailinglists.html
Q. How can I find out more about Guild activities?
A. The Guild has set up a one-way announcement list, HWG-Announce,
that carries bulletins of day-to-day Guild business. For details
on how to subscribe, please see:
http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-announce/
Q: How do I unsubscribe from hwg-news?
A: Since this is a required list in order to maintain your
Guild membership, unsubscribing is the same as resigning from
the HTML Writers Guild.
If you have your Member ID and password, to resign your membership
in the Guild and to unsubscribe to hwg-news, visit:
http://www.hwg.org/member/resign.html
Fill in the pertinent information, and submit it.
If you don't have a Member ID, or have forgotten your password, send
mail to:
newapps@hwg.org
with a Subject of: Resign membership
In the body of the message, provide the following information:
* Your email address(es)
* Your member ID if you have one.
* The list of discussion lists you are on.
Please remember that unsubscribing to hwg-news automatically resigns
you from the Guild. If you have problems with unsubscribing,
please contact the Database Manager for help.
Q: What if I want to comment on this newsletter?
A: The HWG-News Mailing List is a "Read-Only" list -- please do not try
to reply to this message directly.
If you wish to contact the editor of this newsletter, you may do
so by sending email to editor@hwg.org. Each article begins with
the contact information for the author as well.
This issue was edited by Shelly Ross and Kynn Bartlett.
Copyright 1998, HTML Writers Guild, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Published monthly via email and WWW.