News, events, tips and updates from Editors Canada
In this issue:
1. TOM FAIRLEY AWARD: Submit your nomination
2. KAREN VIRAG AWARD: Tell us about the editing hero in your community
3. #EDITORS20: Early-bird registration is open
4. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Big changes for our webinars
5. CERTIFICATION STEERING COMMITTEE: Looking back and looking ahead
6. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Laura Van Alphen
7. AGM: Do you have past annual general meeting minutes?
8. COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING: Help us connect!
9. MEMBER SERVICES: Welcome Kit
10. MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
11. EXTERNAL CONFERENCE: ACES (The Society for Editing)
12. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
13. NATIONAL OFFICE: Holiday closure
1. TOM FAIRLEY AWARD: Submit your nomination
It’s our time to shine!
Editing might be an invisible art, but that doesn’t mean great editors should hide in the shadows. Help us shine a spotlight on editing excellence by submitting a nomination for the 2020 Tom Fairley Award.
The $2,000 cash award will be presented to the winner at the banquet of the International Editors Conference 2020, hosted by Editors Canada, in Montreal, Quebec, on Saturday, June 20. In recognition of their outstanding editorial performance, finalists will each receive cash awards of $500.
The deadline to submit your completed nomination form is Friday, January 17.
Please spread this message far and wide. Nominees don’t have to be members of Editors Canada and self-nominations are encouraged.
For complete nomination instructions and other information about the award, visit the Tom Fairley Award page.
More than books!
Editors know that the fine art of editing extends beyond books and print media. While the Tom Fairley Award has been awarded to many outstanding book editors since it was created in 1983, we encourage nominations for a variety of written projects. Whether it’s a magazine, a corporate or government report, software documentation or a book, we want to hear about it. When it comes to editing, the variety of material is limitless!
2. KAREN VIRAG AWARD: Tell us about the editing hero in your community
Who are the heroes of editing? They’re the individuals or organizations that go out of their way to raise the profile of our profession in their communities. Editing heroes are the ones who champion what editors do and how valuable we are.
Editors Canada’s newest award was created in memory of long-time association member Karen Virag, and in recognition of Karen’s many contributions to the profession. The Karen Virag Award recognizes the efforts of an editor or an organization to raise the profile of editing in their community.
Tell us about one of your editing heroes by submitting a nomination for the Karen Virag Award.
Submit your nomination
Nominees may be individuals or organizations, members or non-members. Nominations from members and non-members are welcome! Please help us spread the word about this award.
A nominee’s contribution may take a variety of forms, including one or more of the following:
- writing,
- public speaking,
- teaching,
- participating in broadcast or new media, and
- sponsoring editing-related activities and community building in Canada and abroad.
The deadline to submit your completed nomination form is Friday, February 14.
More information
For complete nomination instructions and other information about the award, visit the Karen Virag Award page.
Support Editors Canada awards
Editors Canada is a federally incorporated not-for-profit organization that promotes excellence in editing and provides resources for editors at every stage of their careers.
Our awards and scholarship are funded by donations. Your generous donation will help us to keep these awards running so we can continue to raise the profile of the editing profession, shine a light on excellence in editing and support the future generation of editors.
Donate to Editors Canada awards now.
3. #EDITORS20: Early-bird registration is open
Be an early bird
It’s never too early to register! Join us in Montreal from June 19–21 for the International Editors Conference 2020, From Papyrus to Pixels: International Editing Trends. Editors Canada will be hosting editors from all over the world for three days packed full of professional development, networking and fun! Early-bird rates will be in effect until Monday, April 6.
Register for the conference now!
In addition to our regular conference programming, Editors Québec will be presenting four premium seminars on Friday, June 19, which you can register for separately on the conference registration form.
Still on the fence?
If you haven’t already, you should read Ann Kennedy’s post about the 2019 conference on the Editors Toronto blog. It provides a great summary of all the benefits you can gain from attending #Editors20 in Montreal.
Dive into volunteering
One of those benefits is building your professional network. Volunteering is an excellent way to do that! The conference committee is currently looking for a francophone speaker coordinator. If you’re interested in this role—or if you’d like to learn more about other volunteer opportunities—please send an email to the volunteer coordinator.
Hang with the flock
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, where you can chat with other attendees, get all the latest information about the conference, and participate in contests.
4. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: Big changes for our webinars
We’ve now been offering webinars for three years, and the program has been far more successful than we dreamed it could be.
Over those three years, we’ve learned a lot about what kinds of webinars editors want. The more educational and practical the topic, the better.
Until now, we’ve been asking presenters to propose topics. The result has been a lot of brilliant presentations and we’re hoping to branch out in new directions. So now we’re starting to intentionally build a bank of webinars that will, over a few years, cover:
- every aspect of editing that’s in our standards,
- the tools we commonly use,
- career development,
- the business of editing,
- in-house editing,
and more.
We’re formally organizing the webinars into semesters. Each semester will have at least one webinar covering an aspect of each of our five Professional Editorial Standards, with the goal of having introductory and advanced webinars on every aspect of the standards within four years. (And yes, we’ll be looking for lots of presenters. Maybe you?)
And each semester will have one free webinar for members only—the first semester’s will be “Edit Your Resumé.”
Watch for more details in January!
5. CERTIFICATION STEERING COMMITTEE: Looking back and looking ahead
Thank you!
As we come to the end of the 2019 Editors Canada professional examination cycle, the certification steering committee thanks all the volunteers—test setters and test shepherds, external reviewers and proofreaders, pilot testers, invigilators, markers and the marking analyst—who made it possible to offer the Copy Editing professional certification exam this year. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Next year’s exam
We’re pleased to announce that in November 2020, we’ll be offering the Stylistic Editing professional certification exam, in several major cities across Canada; a remote writing option is also available for candidates who qualify. More details are available in the Remote Locations section of the Editors Canada professional certification website.
6. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Laura Van Alphen
A passion for literacy drives Laura Van Alphen, a former educator turned freelance editor. After her years teaching high school and community college English, Laura volunteered in various capacities at her daughters’ grade school. As school council chair, she arranged an author visit through Telling Tales, a non-profit literacy organization, and has since become their school liaison across Hamilton.
In 2018, when Laura began considering a shift to an editing career, her previous volunteer experience prompted her to join Editors Canada. Here she discovered many opportunities for professional development, networking and mentorship through volunteering, “the best way to build connections and learn new skills,” she says. Laura soon found herself on the executive of Editors Hamilton-Halton, planning meetings, greeting other new members and—perhaps most importantly—bringing the cookies, tea and kettle to each session. By 2019, she was the twig’s co-coordinator.
“Laura is always ready to help arrange our meetings and brings a calm thoughtfulness to our twig’s planning,” says Julia Kollek, her appreciative co-coordinator.
Laura’s editorial interest remains in education, literacy and writing for children, and her love of language and creative expression has rubbed off on her family: they are all avid fans of musical theatre. Focusing on academic editing and working with children’s authors, Laura hopes to expand further into middle grade and young adult fiction editing.
Attending the 2019 conference in Halifax has been a highlight of Laura’s involvement so far with Editors Canada. “It was incredible to be surrounded by so many like-minded people who share my love of language,” she says. “I’m already looking forward to the conference in Montreal next June.”
– S. Robin Larin
The volunteer of the month highlights the dedicated people who keep Editors Canada going. Volunteers are the backbone of the association. We are grateful for the many members and affiliates who answer the call when help is needed.
7. AGM: Do you have past annual general meeting minutes?
The national executive council (NEC) has been tracking down minutes from our annual general meetings (AGMs), so members can have access to them (for transparency as well as business continuity). We have from 2002 to 2018 on our website but we don’t have previous years’ minutes.
We’ve ordered PDF scans of the AGM minutes that are held in our archives at McMaster University, but they are missing the following years.
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
If you have AGM minutes for these years, please scan them and send them to pastpresident@editors.ca.
8. COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING: Help us connect!
The communications and marketing committee is collecting information from branches, twigs and members to find out how Editors Canada’s social media efforts are working at present, and what we can do better.
This month, branches and twigs will receive a link to a short survey (10 questions) to collect views on social media use from a branch and twig perspective. We welcome your views, too. Here’s where you can complete a similar survey from a member’s perspective.
We’ll be collecting your views until January 12, 2020.
9. MEMBER SERVICES: Welcome Kit
The Welcome Kit for new members was recently updated and is available for download.
The Welcome Kit provides a brief overview of our services and resources, with links to the relevant pages on our website. It is a useful guide for existing members as well, and can be used as a quick reference for information on the website.
Special thanks to the member services committee for producing this wonderful resource and to Ellen Keeble for her design.
10. MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
Editors Toronto member Greg Ioannou was recently interviewed for CBC’s “The Sunday Edition.” He joined Patti Tasko of The Canadian Press to discuss the state of editing in Canada today. Listen to the interview, which aired on Sunday, November 24.
Editors Nova Scotia member and PEI resident Virginia McGowan has won a Finalist Award in the 2019 Best Book Awards Competition for her book Harness the Power of Mentoring: How to Find and Work with the Right Mentor–A Guide for the Solopreneur.
Editors Toronto member Michelle Waitzman is pleased to announce the publication of Providing Sound Foundations for Cryptography: On The Work of Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali. Michelle wrote two biographical chapters for this book, the first in a series on winners of the AM Turing Award (the highest honour in computer science), being published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Michelle has also written biographies for upcoming books in the series about Tim Berners-Lee (the creator of the World Wide Web), Stephen Cook (a pioneer of computational complexity) and Leslie Valiant (the researcher who defined machine learning).
Editors Canada Member News is where we share information about members and affiliates who win awards, publish books and make their mark in other important ways.
Do you have an achievement you’d like to share? Are you excited about a new project or opportunity that has come your way? Let us tell the world all about it! Please send your stories to the member news coordinator.
11. EXTERNAL CONFERENCE: ACES (The Society for Editing)
ACES: The Society for Editing
24th Annual National Conference
April 30–May 2, 2020
Salt Lake City
Plan now to join ACES for their 24th Annual National Conference. Editors in a wide range of industries come together to get quality training from recognized experts in the field. Attendees:
- Gain practical, hands-on education that improves their editing skills
- Learn about the latest trends in language, style and usage
- Network with peers from different editing backgrounds
Editors Canada members are invited to attend and receive the member registration rate. When you go to register, simply select “affiliated organization rate.”
12. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
The honorary life membership task force has been working over the last several months to bring together recommendations for new procedures related to conferring honorary life memberships. In the first phase of their work, the task force researched what other similar organizations do and looked for any gaps in Editors Canada’s current policy and procedures. As a result of this effort, the task force put together a comprehensive report for the NEC that outlined their findings and suggestions for moving forward. This included the development of a thorough rubric that will help future committee members by making their decision more objective and quantifiable.
For the second phase, the task force and I (as the task force supervisor) will be asking all members for feedback. The NEC has drafted an updated policy and procedures based on the task force’s recommendations, and these documents have been sent to members. All members are invited to send their comments, suggestions and concerns to HLMconsultation@editors.ca by Wednesday, January 15, 2020. At that time, the task force will reconvene to consider and/or implement member suggestions. The new policy and procedures will then be ready to go to a member vote at the 2020 AGM.
Please be sure to read and respond to these documents so you can have input into the development of the new policy and procedures.
Heather Buzila
President
13. NATIONAL OFFICE: Holiday closure
The national office will be closed for the holidays as of Friday, December 20, and will reopen on Thursday, January 2.
Best wishes for a happy holiday season. See you in 2020!
Welcome to Editors Canada!
Editors Barrie
Fran Kruse
Editors British Columbia
Hannah Watkins, Vanya Wong, Mansi Raj Singh, Cath Ennis, Alliance Babunga, Sarah Neeson, Cindy Paquette
Editors Calgary
Michele Mihalik, Penny Le Maistre, Elizabeth Anderson
Editors Edmonton
Amanda Peters, Tololwa Mollel, Erika Pappas
Editors Hamilton-Halton
Deborah Macdonald, Laura Atherton
Editors Kingston
Camille Croteau
Editors Manitoba
Desirae Warkentin
Editors Nova Scotia
Emily Reiner
Editors Ottawa-Gatineau
Kara Goodwin, Shauna Blake, Stephanie Carbert, Wayne Jones, Elizabeth Brown
Editors Québec
Sophia Dias, Kate Morris, Ruth Joseph, Megan Dean, Martine Dignard, Barbara Vogt, Christian Bergeron
Editors Toronto
Catherine Mentz, Mario Salazar Davalos, Meg Taylor, Jeanine Frazer, Shawn Syms
The national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.