Minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Slavic Languages Division

of the American Translators Association

September 29, 2024, 2:00 EDT

Held online via Zoom

Steven McGrath, Administrator; Natalia Postrigan, Assistant Administrator

1. Short introductions were exchanged (attendees’ locations and specializations) before the meeting was called to order.
2. The meeting was called to order at 2:03 PM EDT.
3. The minutes from the annual meeting of 2023 were shared in the chat for the attendees to review, and it was mentioned that the minutes were also previously published in the Slav File.
4. The agenda for the current meeting was also shared in the chat. Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya seconded to approve. The 2024 agenda was accepted with no changes.
5. Division members presented an overview of Division events in the past year:
6. Blog update: Eugenia shared an update on the SLD Blog. There have been challenges this year related to the changes in the content regulations for ATA division blogs. Also, currently there is no way to subscribe to the blog, leaving no way to let members know about new posts: the only way at present is to request a broadcast to all through ATA communications. Steven said that he would bring up this issue in the quarterly report to the ATA board.
   • Eugenia will be at the conference in Portland inviting people to submit reviews of the conference sessions for publication in the blog.
   • Aleksandr Lukoff asked what input would be wanted from the conference. Eugenia explained that members would be invited to share reviews of the conference sessions.
   • Steven expressed appreciation for Eugenia’s work, and for Viktoryia Baum for contributing an article to the blog.
   • Viktoryia commented about her willingness to share reviews on the sessions, if possible.
   • Steven added that in addition to Slavic track sessions, because in the blog format we don’t have a page limit anymore, anyone is welcome to submit reviews of sessions in other tracks, as well as other content.
7. Website update: Eugenia shared an update about the website. Eugenia would like to build the resource page on the website, and she invited everyone to supply links and resources.
8. SLD podcast: Halla Goins was not present to report progress. Steven reported that the podcast is going well. Steven mentioned that there had been two episodes this year and that a new episode is coming soon. Steven expressed appreciation for Viktoryia for participating in the podcast.
9. Facebook, LinkedIn, and the online forum: The volunteers in this area were not present to report. Steven expressed appreciation for the volunteer effort to grow our social media: Anna Livermore for Facebook, Julia Thornton for the Google forum, and Mikhail Yashchuk for LinkedIn.
10. Steven asked if anyone would be interested in managing the division’s X (formerly Twitter) account. There was no interest expressed.
11. New business for 2024:
    • Next year, an election is coming up for the administrator and assistant administrator. Steven called for volunteers for the nominating committee (at least two members). Eugenia and Shelley Fairweather-Vega volunteered.
    • ATA’s 66th Annual Conference will be held in Boston, MA, October 22-25, 2025.
    • Steven invited suggestions for speakers, in particular, for a Distinguished Speaker. Eugenia encouraged members to send proposals to present on their specialization, because the Slavic track usually is slow to fill up. Language-specific sessions are of particular interest. Eugenia said that we are all experts in something and great in what we do, and it would be interesting for all to hear these presentations. Steve joined this call for proposals, sharing that presenting is a good experience and helps you think about your specialization in a new way. Aleksandr commented that interpreting for worker compensation cases appears to be an area of high demand at the moment.
    • Eugenia reminded attendees that Nora Favorov had suggested literary translator Robert Chandler on several occasions, and Boston would be a logistically easier destination for him traveling from England. Shelley commented that if someone like Robert Chandler is recruited, the Literary Division might join SLD to have a joint Distinguished Speaker. The Literary Division also needs to find a distinguished speaker for the next year.
    • Eugenia mentioned immigration lawyer Jan Albrecht as another potential distinguished speaker. Aleksandr mentioned that a colleague of late Ukrainian émigré linguist Sviatoslav Karavanskyi could be a good speaker, but he would need to research a suitable candidate.
    • Steven mentioned that distinguished speaker suggestions would be reviewed by Paul Gallagher.
12. Call for feedback and suggestions from the members
    • Eugenia spoke about the survey for her and John Riedl’s upcoming presentation at the conference. The survey was sent by the ATA in the past month. The subject was “SLD survey request,” and the email went out on September 25th. The survey is primarily on the topic of Russian>English translation.
    • Viktoryia expressed appreciation for the work of SLD administrator and assistant administrator and mentioned being nominated for ATA president-elect.
13. Call for newcomers to introduce themselves
    • Anna Kostorna made her introduction. She is looking to expand her business in translation and interpreting work in Ukrainian and Russian.
    • Steven encouraged attendees to share their contact information in the chat.
14. Annual dinner: Natalia reported on signups for the annual dinner in Portland and encouraged people to sign up soon, as we are getting close to capacity. Viktoryia suggested that next year SLD and LTD consider a joint dinner.
15. ATA election: Steven mentioned that the ballots for the ATA election should be going out tomorrow.
16. The meeting was adjourned at 2:46 PM EDT.