I am very pleased to have been nominated by the Nominating and Leadership Development Committee to run for ATA treasurer.
While past presidents are barred by ATA’s Bylaws from running for president-elect once they have served their term as president of ATA, it is not unprecedented for a past president to run for and serve as ATA treasurer.
At this time of so much turnover at ATA Headquarters and with much of ATA’s current Board relatively new to serving the Association, I think I will be able to contribute a great deal as a steadying hand and by providing institutional memory. I don’t think ATA should be stuck in the past, but I also think it is good to be mindful of our history, both so we continue along proven paths to success and to avoid past pitfalls.
Having served as treasurer of the New York Circle of Translators (prior to serving as its president-elect and then president) and as a member of ATA’s Finance and Audit Committee, as well as having been responsible for budgeting, budget execution, and cost cutting in my role as (worldwide) manager of translation at JP Morgan and exercising my craft as a financial translator for over 40 years, I believe I have demonstrated the necessary budget, finance, and investment analysis skills to provide useful input as ATA treasurer.
These are challenging times for the translation industry in general and for our Association as well. During the years I served on ATA’s Board and eventually as president and for several years after, we were continually building our membership base, topping out at around 11,000 in the early 2010s. Unfortunately, that trend has reversed. Our numbers have been declining by a few hundred per year for several years now and several hundred this year, with current membership at around 7,000. We need to focus on stanching that decline by helping our members build their translation, interpreting, and business skills. As the founder of the current Professional Development program and the organizer of the first ATA webinars and one-day and multi-day industry-specific seminars and conferences, I believe I can contribute to membership-building skills development opportunities.
When I was running for president-elect years ago, I said I wanted ATA to become such a vibrant organization that any respectable client will demand ATA credentials, and any serious translator will agree with our colleague Márcio Badra, who says: “The best investment I ever made in my life was to join ATA.” We have made great strides in this direction, with many U.S. multilanguage vendor and government agency clients requiring ATA certification for their translations and many newer translators finding a home, collegiality, and continuous learning opportunities in ATA. I would like to help ATA continue to burnish the certification credential and its value to academics and both clients and translators and interpreters.
Thank you for taking the time to read this statement and consider the skills and experience I have to offer ATA in the position of treasurer.