Communications-related Professional Organizations

American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)

• Headquarters

American Medical Writers Association (AMWA)

• Headquarters
• Northern California chapter
• AMA Style Guide's index

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)

• Headquarters
• Mount Diablo ASTD chapter
• Sacramento ASTD chapter
• San Francisco ASTD chapter
• Silicon Valley ASTD chapter

American Society of Indexers (ASI)

• Headquarters
• Golden Gate chapter

American Translators Association (ATA)

• Headquarters
• Northern California chapter

Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)

• Headquarters (part of Intecom)
• ACM SIGDOC (Special Interest Group for Documentation)
• ACM SIGCHI (Special Interest Group for Computer-Human Interaction, with chapters worldwide)
• BayCHI (San Francisco Bay Area chapter of ACM SIGCHI)

Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ)

• Headquarters

Australian Society for Technical Communication (ASTC)

• Victoria chapter
• NSW chapter

Bay Area Editors' Forum (BAEF)

• Database of Editors

Bay Area Publications Managers' Forum (BAPMF)

• Headquarters

Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS)

• Headquarters

Conseil des Rédacteurs Techniques (CRT)

• Headquarters (French organization for technical communicators, part of Intecom)

Content Management Professionals

• Headquarters

Council of Science Editors (CSE)

• Headquarters

Editcetera

• Services include training and job-matching

eLearning Forum

• Headquarters

Enterprise Content Management Association (AIIM)

• Headquarters

Graphics Arts Guild (GAG)

• Headquarters

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)

• Headquarters
• Bay Area HFES chapter

Information Architecture Institute (IAI)

• Headquarters

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

• Headquarters
• IEEE Professional Communication Society (PCS), part of Intecom

Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC)

• Headquarters (UK organization for technical communicators, part of Intecom)

Intecom

• Headquarters
• Member societies (a dozen non-STC, country-specific technical communications organizations serving the US, UK, France, Finland, Sweden, Canada, The Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Germany)
• European technical communications resources

International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)

• Headquarters (international organization with chapters in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, HongKong, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the US)
• Sacramento IABC (meets fourth Wednesday)
• San Francisco IABC (meets second Thursday)
• Silicon Valley IABC (meets second Thursday)

International Society for Performance and Improvement (ISPI)

• Headquarters
• Silicon Valley IPSI (mostly virtual meetings)

Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA)

• Headquarters

National Association of Science Writers (NASW)

• Headquarters
• Northern California Science Writers Association

National Writers' Union (NWU)

• Headquarters
• San Francisco chapter
• BizTech Division (for Technical Writers as well as writers in business, instructional, non-profit, government arenas)

Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

• Headquarters
• East Bay PRSA
• Sacramento PRSA
• San Francisco PRSA (meets first Thursday)

Société Québécoise de la Rédaction Professionnelle (SQRP)

• Headquarters (part of Intecom)

Society for Technical Communication (STC)

• Headquarters (international association of Technical Writers, Editors, Indexers, Illustrators and similarly skilled professionals; part of Intecom)
• List of SIGs (special interest groups)
• Membership directory
• National Job listings
• Online seminars

• Berkeley STC (meets second Wednesday)
• East Bay STC (meets first Thursday)
• North Bay STC (meets third Thursday)
• Sacramento STC (meets third Wednesday)
• San Francisco STC (meets third Wednesday)
• Silicon Valley STC (meets fourth Thursday)

• East Bay STC Professional Development SIG
• Silicon Valley STC Technical/API SIG
• Silicon Valley STC Consultants & Independent Contractors SIG
• Silicon Valley STC Medical, Science, and Biotechnology Writers SIG
• Silicon Valley STC Networking SIG (for person-to-person networking, not computer networking/telecom)
• Silicon Valley STC Tools SIG

Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand (TCANZ)

• Headquarters (part of Intecom)

Technical Publications Managers' resources

• Publications Managers SIG (formerly associated with the SV STC, now autonomous)
• Bay Area Publications Manager's Forum (BAPMF)

Tekom

• Headquarters
• Archives of "tcworld" (newsletter on European information-management issues)

Usability Professionals' Association (UPA)

• Headquarters

Xplor International

• Headquarters (worldwide association of users and suppliers of products and services that create, modify, and deliver customized information using a variety of document technologies)

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