From the President
Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo
president@atanet.org
Twitter: @mszampaulo
As I write this, ATA’s Board has just wrapped up a very successful and productive Winter Board meeting in Los Angeles at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, the conference hotel for ATA63 (October 12–15, 2022). We have lots of exciting things in store for you this year, including an Annual Conference you won’t want to miss! I’ll leave the details about the conference for President-Elect Veronika Demichelis to share (see From the President-Elect), but let’s just say I can’t wait to welcome you to my sunny Southern California!
Okay, on to the meeting! First, I want to thank all the volunteers who provide reports to the Board for our quarterly meetings. We’re always in awe of all the work you do for our members and the professions. These reports help keep the Board apprised of what you’re working on, and each year I serve on the Board I find myself more and more impressed with all that’s happening in our Association and the many benefits we provide our members.
ATA Compensation Survey: One of the many reports the Board received during the meeting was from Past President Ted Wozniak about the compensation survey ATA launched last year. This industry-wide survey was designed to capture a comprehensive picture of the market for T&I services in the U.S. You’ll find a summary of the survey results in this issue in the Compensation Survey article, and the full report is available exclusively to ATA members for free by logging into the Member Center area of ATA’s website (https://bit.ly/ATA-compensation).
Thanks to all who contributed to this effort! As we run these surveys every three years, the next compensation survey will be here before we know it. Please keep this in mind and consider taking the survey when you see it land in your inbox in 2023. Yes, it’s early for me to ask you this, but the more data we have, the more we all benefit!
Bylaws: As you may remember from the results of the 2021 election, the Bylaws now allow for members of any membership class to serve on committees (see Article III, Section 3). Thus, the Board voted to approve a long list of members to serve as full members, rather than assistants (a term I never liked anyway!), to many of our standing committees. Thank you to all who serve as committee members. Your work is vital to the programs and projects we’ve all come to know and enjoy as ATA members.
New Research Study: The Board also approved a research study on the correlation between performance on ATA’s certification exam and proficiency in machine translation post-editing. The study will be conducted by a few members of ATA’s Certification Committee later this year. The results should be of great interest to many in the translation profession, so watch this space for updates!
Celebrating Diversity: Finally, I’m thrilled to share that ATA has produced a new video on the importance of diversity in our Association and professions. It highlights not only the many different voices and cultures, languages, and backgrounds reflected in our membership, but how we appreciate all that makes us different while uniting us as a community. You can find it here: https://bit.ly/ATA-diversity-video.
My column has a space limit, otherwise I could go on and on with all the things to look forward to this year. So, for now, I’ll leave you with this small snippet of highlights. After experiencing two very trying years of the pandemic together, I’m excited for all that’s in store. And I hope you feel the same. ATA will continue to be here to support you, to elevate you and our professions, and to be the voice of professional interpreters and translators, due in large part to the many dedicated and diverse members who run our programs with a vision toward the future.
Useful Links
ATA63 Conference Website
www.atanet.org/conference
ATA Compensation Survey
(You’ll need to log in with your member number and password)
https://bit.ly/ATA-compensation
Bylaws
www.atanet.org/about-us/how-ata-works/bylaws
Diversity Video
https://bit.ly/ATA-diversity-video