Helen Eby and I, Lorena Ortiz Schneider, your Interpreters Division (ID) Administration team, together with our Leadership Council, want to let you know what we’ve been up to over the last couple of months.
ATA Report
We sent our report to the ATA Board in January 2019. It includes a summary of the activities we’ve engaged in, the response from you members, the concerns we have as regards ATA’s interpreter ethics requirements and comprehensive guide to our communications practices. Check it out here.
Blog
Our new Blog Content Editor, Roxane King, has hit the ground running publishing some fantastic posts! There is a new Code of Conduct developed by a talented team of interpreters in WA State, a seasoned conference interpreters’ take on what really happened with President Trump and the interpretation at the G20, and a first-person article about presenting at the ATA conference for the first time. Be sure to read them when you get a chance.
Do you want to write for the blog? Drop the editor a line at GralEditor.ATAID@gmail.com. Have a sample of something you have published or a short paragraph about what you want to write about? Send it on to Roxane. Know a colleague who’d write an interesting article? She’ll be grateful for the referral.
ATA Conference Proposals
Speaking of presenting, time is running out to get your proposals in to the ATA conference! If you want to discuss ideas, please come on over to the discussion groups in Linked In and the Google Discussion Group (ata-interpreters@googlegroups.com). We would love to know what you need or want to talk about. Your proposals are due by March 1, and we look forward to a very strong selection of Interpreters Division proposals! Keep in mind that conference proposals make good outlines for blog posts, so we would love to hear from you even after the proposal deadline on March 1, 2019.
Resources
Check our Resources page. We constantly update it with material that will help you as professionals. We just added a link to an article from The ATA Chronicle on the notes interpreters take. What else would you like to see here?
We’ve also launched a Training Events page (under the Events tab) where folks offering interpreting relevant educational opportunities can sign up to list their upcoming events. To view what is on offer thus far, go to the Calendar of Events.
ATA Interpreters Connect!
Remember, the division is about you. We want to connect with you. Because of that, ATA Interpreter Connections, a new way of connecting for ATA interpreters, is coming to a location near you soon! We plan to get together and have a fun, relaxing time outside a professional conference environment. Our goal, as we meet, is to talk about our experiences, the issues our profession faces, think about ways we can collaborate and help the profession advance, and share work opportunities. Do you need a booth mate? Can’t make it to an event and want to offer an assignment to a colleague? You might need to debrief after a tough session. You could have someone we might all like to meet, like a local judge who loves working with interpreters! No matter what, even though we are in the era of social media, meeting in person often helps us make better connections and develop better relationships. People work with people they know, like and trust, so getting to know each other is a great first step for setting up teams.
Whatever your intentions are, there is nothing better than face-to-face get-togethers to create unity and foster change.
This is how it works:
Interpreter Connections is free and lasts about two hours. Everyone pays for their own drinks and meals. The event will be held at a conveniently located restaurant to facilitate participation. ATA members and non-members are encouraged to attend, and the host can answer questions about the benefits of joining ATA.
We’d love to have Connections every couple of months and host it in as many cities in the United States and abroad as possible. We are counting on your help, members, so we encourage you to let us know when and where you’d like to host one. We will announce locations and details on the ATA ID site. The first one is already scheduled in Toronto, hosted by our council member Flavia Lima. Stay tuned for the particulars! We will have an update on our blog soon.
Stay in Touch
We invite you to stay in touch with the Division by following our blog as well as following us on Facebook and Twitter.
It is an honor to serve you.
Your colleagues,
Helen Eby, Administrator
Lorena Ortiz Schneider, Assistant Administrator
divisionID@atanet.org
February 26, 2019
Image kindly provided by the author.