Last time you said you had more to talk about Technical Publications.
Right. Tech Pubs. Last time I told you how it usually went. Job comes in. I separate the sketches from the text. I edit them and so forth.
And now?
Well, talking about that brings back memories of things that happened. Some big, some small.
Okay.
First thing that comes to mind is that my engineering background came in handy a number of times. You see, we had maybe eight or ten tech writers in our group. But they came from different backgrounds. Some had been English majors, for instance. So if any of them were puzzled by some technical terminology in what they were editing, they would come to me.
I could generally figure out what was meant and suggest what they should do.
I see.
And one time, I remember, a secretary came to me. Her boss had dictated some technical stuff, and she had taken shorthand.
But she wasn’t sure of one of her — what do you call them? Shorthand scribbles? So she read to me the sentence that surrounded it and I suggested a word or two that it might be.
And?
And she was overjoyed. One of my suggestions was the mystery word. The last thing she wanted to do was go back to her boss and admit that she had missed a word. So my technical background saved her day.
Good.
I handled a mixture of jobs. Most were classified — Secret or Confidential — that had to be worked on at the plant. but a few were unclassified, so I could work on them at home.
And, in the summer, if the weather was nice, I could even work on it poolside.
Not bad.
I’ll say. And some of the unclassified jobs involved producing 35-millimeter slides.
I did one such job for a microwave engineer who was going to put on a slide show for his group’s dinner meeting. And when the job was done he invited me as a guest to the dinner and presentation. His treat.
There was another time similar to that. A women’s technical group wanted someone from Tech Pubs to show them how to produce what we called viewgraphs. They’re the transparencies placed on an overhead projector.
The boss asked me to do it. I created a series of viewgraphs showing how to do it. And I gave a presentation of my own. Got a free dinner out of it too. And a pen.
Of course, those visuals were unclassified. There was one downside to working with classified materials. If they weren’t in my possession, they had to be locked up. Nothing left on an unoccupied desk. All my classified material was locked in a cabinet and only I had the combination.
On one job a certain photograph was classified. I delivered it to our Reproduction section where they made a screened negative for printing. Then I got the photo back and locked it up. And went home for the night. At 2 a.m. I got a phone call from the night shift.
The neg they had made wasn’t of high enough quality and they needed the photograph back so they could shoot it again. So I had to get up, get dressed, go in to work to open the locked cabinet, and bring the photo back to Repro. Some fun in the middle of the night..
I guess.
But there was one other incident involving classified material that did have an upside. We were providing the radar part of a proposal that a California aircraft company was to deliver to the Air Force. It was crunch time. I had edited our material, but we had to type it, print it, and deliver it to the aircraft company by the next morning.
Big job.
So I talked with my boss.
See, I have a sister-in-law in California. I offered to supervise the whole job during the night if I could then hand-carry the finished pages to the contractor AND stay with my California relative for a few days. He agreed to my offer.
Our facilities weren’t available, so we subcontracted the typing to a nearby shop. And I spent most of the night shepherding the job through their typing and art department. Then I carried the camera-ready copy back to our Repro section. And while they printed the pages I went home to pack for the trip.
I went back to Westinghouse, made sure the job went through our Security department okay, and that it was packaged in a way that I could personally carry it.
By then it was the following morning. And as other employees were coming to work, I was hand-carrying the package of pages to the airport.
Okay. This cartoon is an exaggeration. The package was smaller and had a handle on top. But it was heavy.
And here’s the thing. Because it was a Secret package, it had to be in my sight at all times. Which means I couldn’t sleep on the plane. Which means I couldn’t leave it alone at any time. Not when I was renting a car. Or getting something to eat. Never.
And it worked out?
Yep. And I was dead tired by the time I got to my sister-in-law’s place. But after a bath and some sleep I was ready to reap my reward. A couple of days of visiting my relatives and enjoying California. San Francisco, for instance.
Another time I worked out an arrangement with my boss, but that time I didn’t have to carry anything. I had worked many overtime hours on a job. Way beyond what they could pay me. But it so happened that I was a member of the Society for Technical Communication. That’s a professional organization for tech writers and others in related fields.
And it so happened that the STC was having its annual convention in Chicago that year.
So, I suggested, instead of paying me money, wouldn’t it be reasonable to pay my way to the STC convention? My boss agreed, and so I was able to attend relevant educational sessions as well as visit the city where I had served my time in the Army.
Not bad.
Yeah, it was good to see the old neighborhood again. And the STC meeting was useful too.
Now here are some other activities that happened because I wa with Tech Pubs.
At Westinghouse there was a Veteran Employees Association. After 20 years with the company I was eligible to join. And I volunteered to write their newsletter, and I put it together in Tech Pubs. Repro printed it.
By that time I owned a Nikkormat 35-mm camera.
And a Panasonic micro-cassette tape recorder.
Because of the classified work that went on in the plant, they were very stingy in allowing recording equipment in there. But, because of my position, I was issued a pass for the tape recorder. And so I could interview people for the newsletter. The camera I used at events outside the plant. For instance, we had an annual dinner and occasional bull roasts or theater parties.
So I would play Inquiring Photographer at these events and put the results in our newsletter. I would edit and do the layout as usual. Here’s a typical page.
As you can see, I got to meet and interview a lot of big shots from different parts of the corporation.
Very good.
At another banquet I got to meet and talk with Joe Lockard. He was one of the two radar operators who saw the Japanese planes approaching Pearl Harbor on December 7th. It was a Westinghouse radar; that’s why he was there.
Nice.
Okay. Now here’s another group I belonged to. Two groups, actually.
Westinghouse encouraged employees to volunteer in a program called Quality Circles. And we formed one in Technical Publications.
The idea was to improve operations by having employees solve problems. Purposely not a top-down approach. Instead, have the employees pick problems to be solved and then solve them. And the incentive was that, if the employees would meet and work during lunchtime, the company would provide lunch.
We picked our group’s name: The Miracle Workers. Because we always came through for our customers. Getting jobs out the door on time even though the engineers were late in getting the material to us.
We formed a group of about six tech writers. And guess who they picked to be the group’s leader.
You?
Me. The company issued me an American Express card, and I paid for the lunches with it. I would make the rounds of the members with a menu of some shop that delivered. Then phone in the order.
Our main technique at problem-solving was to brainstorm. Members would call out ideas and I would list them on flip charts.
And the first rule of brainstorming is that there is no bad suggestion. Don’t hold back. Call it out. Even if you think your idea isn’t so good, let’s hear it anyway. It may very well trigger another thought in someone else’s mind and I’ll write that one down too.
I’ve heard of that.
It works. And it worked for us. After we had a long list of ideas, and through a method of weighted voting, we narrowed the list down and finally picked what we considered the best project to tackle.
We determined that not too many employees were aware of all the services Tech Pubs offered, so we wanted to compile a book that told our story in words and pictures. And distribute it all over the place. And we did.
Now it so happened that there was a national organization called the Association for Quality and Participation. AQP, for short. Its goal was the same as our Quality Circles’ goal. To improve quality by having employees participate in solving problems.
It had a Baltimore chapter, and our Westinghouse QC program joined it. I was the Westinghouse rep on the board.
There were other local groups that joined too. The gas and electric company. The city government. An affiliate of an area university. Like that. We would have periodic chapter meetings with educational sessions and the like.
And they wanted to put out a newsletter, so I volunteered to write it. Get the feeling I’m a newsletter kind of guy?
I guess so.
In fact, the national AQP held a national conference in Baltimore one year and they asked me to run a workshop on how to write a chapter newsletter. Which I did. With illustrated handouts.
In appreciation the national organization gave me an AQP paperweight, which I have on my desk.
Nice souvenir.
I think so.
But even better than that. The chapter and I received a nice letter from the national organization. I copied it and excerpted the part that mentioned me and my newsletter. They called it the best. And I also received two nice notes from Jo Ann and Frieda. I put it all in one frame hanging on my wall. Here it is.
I’m kind of proud of those compliments.
And on the same subject of complements, if I may be so bold, I’d like to show you one more.
Okay.
By 1988 I had done a few things with Engineering Quality Circles. Leader of my circle, The Miracle Workers. I represented Westinghouse in the local AQP chapter. I wrote the AQP chapter newsletter. I ran the national AQP workshop on newsletters.
So, behind my back, the Westinghouse EQC facilitators — Bob W., Bill S., and Wally B. — planned a presentation. I was scheduled to retire at the end of August, so at a May meeting they surprised me. Called me up to the front. Handed me a plaque. Called me Quality Person of the Year.
Here’s a photo of the plaque, which I have hanging on my wall.
The plaque is engraved. A little hard to read. So, if it’s all right with you, here is a typed copy of what it says. You can have your IT person upload it. .
Fine.
QUALITY PERSON OF THE YEAR
TO
SPENCE COLEMAN
a STRONG and SILENT “MIRACLE WORKER”
Our sincerest thanks for your loyalty and commitment to the
goals and principles of Quality Circles. We will miss your
multi-talented fingers composing, editing, rewriting and
creating-upon-demand for our group. You are truly our idea
of a “Quality Person.” In our book there will never be
another Spence Coleman. We therefore have taken the liberty
of “retiring” your pencil and eraser to the Westinghouse
Writer’s Hall of Fame.
THE SPENCE COLEMAN FAN CLUB
EQC RECOGNITION CONFERENCE
MAY 6, 1988
Nice.
It was icing on the cake. The Quality Circle and AQP activities ware gratifying enough, but this plaque was something special.
But you talked about retiring.
Yeah. If I was age 58 and had enough years with the company – and I had 36 – I could take early retirement. Thing was I was working more and more overtime.
Late nights. Weekends. So I decided to take the early out. And I have no regrets. Had more time with the family. More vacations. It worked out well.
Happy retirement.
But wait a minute. That was 1988. Didn’t a newsletter you showed me have a 1989 date?
Yep. That was the veteran employees’ newsletter. After retirement I continued to go back for board meetings and other events. Continued writing the newsletter. Volunteering was my thing.
In fact, volunteering was a major part of my life. And I want to get into that. But first there are a few other activities I’d like to talk about.
Okay. See you next time.