🚀 go-pugleaf

> We have a saying in our technical writing group: We're the people the
> engineers call in when they've only got $10 and two weeks left in the
> project.{All-too-common horror story deleted; you know it by heart anyway}

>    Now I've seen other tech writers on here talking about being valued
> members of the team, involved from day one; they've been put on patent
> applications; they've been given milk and honey; they've been succored in
> their hours of need. I find these claims hard to swallow.
>   Are we the only ones facing this kind of treatment?

The claims are justified.  I've been in exactly the happy situation you 
describe, and I've often seen and occasionally experienced the horror
show.  I'm not really sure about the exact, helpful details that you're
looking for on how to improve your lot.  But I can offer you a bromide:
"Cultivate good relationships!"  

Go shoot the breeze with principal investigators or lead engineers or 
whatever you call 'em at NASA.  Take advantage of formal meetings and 
opportunities for sales pitches, but also just to visit -- get your 
coffee in a technical area instead of in the tech-comm department; let
them get used to your face, then your name, then your profession.  Talk
up your capabilities and your potential for "value-added" contributions
(*not* your gripes) to management.  If you're not invited to team meetings,
have the person whom you'll assign crash them, both to learn and just to
be there.  The entire goal here is acceptance as one of the guys/gals 
rather than as the nameless, faceless clerical serf down in the basement.

THEN, with a relationship -- a human and professional connection -- as a
foundation, you can start talking business:  selling the importance of 
clear communication (and the time and money to accomplish it!) and the
idea of service departments as partners in mutual success.

Plainly, this is easier for those of us who actually work full-time in
the client organizations than for people whose job it is to sit in the
editorial bullpen and take on all comers.  But it is possible.

Obligatory Plug: If you go to the IEEE Professional Communication 
Conference (Oct. 5-8, Philadelphia, PA) or the STC Annual Conference
(in May in Dallas, I think -- look for Binion Amerson's posting),
you'll find plenty of opportunities to buy a beer for colleagues who
have faced and maybe, partially, licked problems like yours.

Courage, sir: in the computer industry it's more like "Here's a laptop --
there's a swivel chair -- can you whip up a user guide while we push you 
and the master disks down the hall to Manufacturing?"   :)

Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"