Voting is a Privilege

By Carol Velandia

 

Fourteen years ago, I was unaware of the importance of voting.  I never took this democratic duty very seriously. It wasn’t until I fell in love with this country that I realized how much I wanted to be part of the election process. I realized that by becoming a citizen, I would be able to help select the next American president. Living in a nation whose decisions affect the rest of the world, this really meant something! I started to see voting as a privilege, not just an obligation or a duty, but a privilege.

I draw the same comparison to the voting process at ATA. Next month we will have an opportunity to select the leaders of our organization, an organization with nearly 11,000 members from around the world, with more than 3,000 of them interpreters. The role of the Board of Directors is to oversee ATA’s activities and make informed decisions. The more informed our board is about interpreter issues, the more visible these issues become and the better prepared they will be to develop useful strategies.

This year, on Thursday November 5^th, we have the privilege to vote for the next members of the board. If you are not attending the conference, you may submit your proxy online.

https://eballot4.votenet.com/AmericanTranslatorsAssociation/login.cfm

Read all the candidate statements here:

https://www.atanet.org/governance/election2015_candidates_statements.php

I trust that you are in love with your profession, that you want to see it flourish. It has taking me 16 years to be able to vote for a president of the United States because I became a citizen just last year. If you are already an ATA voting member, you will only have to wait a few weeks.

Exercise your privilege and vote!