Minutes of the Law Division 2022 Annual Meeting

Minutes of the Law Division Annual Meeting (Virtual)
American Translators Association
October 3, 2022

Present:

Administrators
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet

Monique Longton

 

Leadership Council

Dmitry Beschetny

Arnold Winter

Caroline Kim

 

The meeting was attended by approximately 30 division members.

1. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m. ET by Elizabeth Herron-Sweet. She welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for their attendance.

2. Approve minutes of last year’s meeting

Those present were informed that the division’s 2021 annual meeting minutes have been posted on the division’s website and they will be considered formally approved if no comments are submitted by October 31.

3. 2023 Elections and Nominating Committee

Participants were informed that the division will hold elections for administrator and assistant administrator in 2023 and that under ATA rules the election will be handled by a Nominating Committee consisting of at least two members. Two members volunteered to comprise the committee, Tom Fennell and Yasha Saebi.

4. Announcements for 2022 Annual Conference

Elizabeth introduced the division’s Distinguished Speaker this year, Professor Bruna Marchi, and encouraged members to attend her sessions. She also reminded those present that the division will be hosting a networking lunch during the conference and that we are expecting around 40 division members to attend. She noted that there is a blog post on our website listing all the legal T&I sessions, asked attending members to tweet and tag the division’s twitter account, and asked members to volunteer to write a review of a legal T&I session for the division’s blog.

4. Law Division Overview for 2022

Elizabeth reported on how the Law Division has served its members in 2022.

With respect to networking, for the first time our division offered virtual networking sessions. The first was held in April and the second in July. Both had good participation and received positive feedback, so we will continue to offer these sessions quarterly.

With respect to webinars, the division conducted a survey in March 2022 to identify specific topics of interest for legal T&I webinars offered by ATA, and used the results to follow up with many potential speakers and schedule several webinars.

With respect to educational sessions at the annual conference, the division nominated a Distinguished Speaker, provided feedback on conference session proposals, and posted several legal-related session reports from the 2021 conference on our blog, along with slides from those sessions.

With respect to our blog and website, Elizabeth reported that we increased the number of blog posts in 2022 compared to prior years, especially due to the new strategy of cross-posting from other blogs (with all due permission).

With respect to our online forum and social media, we have fairly active listserv, Facebook group and Twitter account, but need more content, and asked members to post and interact. Elizabeth also thanked Dmitry Beschetny for being our first-ever Social Media Manager, having greatly increased our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn presence, and also thanked Arnold Winter for being our listserv moderator.

5. New Business for 2023

Elizabeth noted that she and assistant administrator Monique Longton will be inviting new Leadership Council members and asked for volunteers.

Regarding ATA64, division members were encouraged to submit the proposal form online or ask the division to invite potentially excellent speakers.

Members were invited to volunteer in the following ways: help organize our offsite networking event at next year’s conference (if a Miami local); send links or content for our blog; post and interact in our Facebook group, listserv, Twitter account and LinkedIn group; suggest speakers for legal webinars; participate in our upcoming virtual networking events and ask for suggestions of specific topics to discuss.

6. Questions from Members and Closing Remarks

Participants brought up some interesting topics for further discussion, including:

• The suggestion that a Division Leadership Council Committee be formed to debate an official position of the Division on lobbying state courts to require ATA certification for translations submitted in court, noting that this could be in conjunction with the ATA Advocacy Committee.
• The possibility of verified signatures for ATA-certified translations (a step beyond the verification code).
• The challenges of machine translation.

Elizabeth thanked all for attending the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

Submitted by
Elizabeth Herron-Sweet, division administrator