News, events, tips and updates for members of the Editors’ Association of Canada
In this issue:
1. CONFERENCE 2014: Wrapping Toronto and going global
2. AGM 2014: EAC members vote to approve governance changes and revised edition of Principes directeurs
3. ELECTIONS 2014: New national executive council and national committees
4. KAREN VIRAG AWARD: EAC announces a new award
5. CERTIFICATION: EAC awards six honorary Certified Professional Editor designations
6. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Namita Kumar
7. GET INVOLVED: Volunteer opportunities to enhance your resumé
8. PROMOTE YOURSELF: Member news and the member website logo
1. CONFERENCE 2014: Wrapping Toronto and going global
From June 6 to 8, more than 200 editors, writers and communication professionals from across the country gathered at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute in Toronto for a full weekend of learning, networking and fun. Here are some of the highlights.
- Toronto’s Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke, opened the conference with humorous tales and readings from his collections. The audience was treated to a remarkable oration—his delivery was described by some as sounding “like thunder and lightning.”
- Publisher and author Douglas Gibson opened Saturday with a keynote address that featured highlights from his Stories about Storytellers series. The audience delighted in his engaging stories. Many wished he could have continued speaking for hours.
- The conference’s terrific sessions ranged from financial planning and project management to medical writing, editing translations and XML. The most popular sessions by attendance were “How to Leverage LinkedIn to Showcase Your Editorial Expertise” and “Brave New World: e-Reading, e-Editing, and e-Publishing.”
- We congratulated the newest Certified Professional Editors and certified editors.
- The Claudette Upton Scholarship was presented to Daniel Polowin. Daniel was not able to attend the banquet, so last year’s recipient, Catharine Chen, accepted on his behalf.
- Jacquie Dinsmore introduced the President’s Awards for Volunteer Service and the Lee d’Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award. A news release to announce the recipients will be issued soon.
- Peter Midgley was named as the winner of the 30th annual Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence. Finalists Trevor J. Adams and Paul Payson were also congratulated for their outstanding achievements.
- James Harbeck and Nancy Foran presented the best of the bad as we recognized the “winners” of this year’s Oops Awards.
- Terry Fallis closed the conference with a sidesplitting talk about his journey from self-published writer to bestselling, award-winning author.
Thanks to our sponsors, the hard-working volunteers, speakers and attendees for making Conference 2014 a success!
Speed Mentoring update
The 2014 conference committee regrets the problems some attendees had signing up for Speed Mentoring. If you tried to sign up for the Speed Mentoring session at the conference and did not have the opportunity to participate, please forward your original sign-up email directly to Rachel Stuckey.
The Toronto branch has graciously offered to host a speed mentoring event in September and will ensure that attendees who missed out at the 2014 conference will be given priority.
If you aren’t in the GTA (or even if you are), please feel free to contact any of the conference speed mentors via the membership list or social media—they’re all generous people who would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
Conference 2014 in photos
Photos Copyright © 2014 Carol Harrison
To see more pics from Conference 2014, visit EAC’s Flickr page.
Conference 2015: Editing Goes Global!
After the closing keynote, Greg Ioannou announced that EAC is going global with the 2015 conference. With a long history of successful conferences in Canada under our belt, it’s time to take the next step. Next year Toronto will host an international conference of editors. We’ve already reached out to our colleagues at the American Copy Editors Society; the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (UK); the Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders and Indexers in Ireland; and the Institute of Professional Editors Limited (Australia) to put the wheels in motion for our first international conference.
Dates and location are to be determined, but Conference 2015: Editing Goes Global will likely take place in June at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
It’s going to take a lot of volunteer effort to pull off an international conference of editors. Want to get involved? Join the Conference 2015 Facebook group.
2. AGM 2014: EAC members vote to approve governance changes and revised edition of Principes directeurs
After more than a year of consultations, EAC’s governance task force put forth a number of motions for members to vote on to comply with the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (the “Act”). Federally incorporated not-for-profit organizations such as EAC must transition to the new rules or face dissolution. The task force’s leader, Lynne Massey, gave members some background on the requirements of the Act and on the consultations that had been conducted with members across the country over the last year. We’re happy to report that all motions required to continue the association under the new Act passed.
Members also voted to approve a revised edition of the association’s French editing standards, Principes directeurs en révision professionelle. Principes directeurs were first published in 2006. The revised edition will serve as the cornerstone for the development of agrément, the association’s French-language certification program. The revised Principes directeurs will be available for download July 1.
Weren’t able to make it to the AGM? You can read the details about the governance motions, agenda and supporting documentation on the AGM 2014 page. The motions to approve the 2013 AGM minutes, the annual report and the auditor’s report, as well as the motion to appoint a new auditor for 2014–15 carried. Members can expect to see draft minutes of the meeting on the EAC website in the coming weeks.
3. ELECTIONS 2014: New national executive council and national committees
The 2014–15 national executive council will take office on September 2. Here’s who EAC members elected at the 2014 AGM.
President: Jacqueline Dinsmore (QAC)
Vice-president: No candidate
Secretary: Randee Holmes (TO)
Treasurer: David Johansen (QAC)
Director, Professional Standards: Moira White (NCR)
Director, Training and Development: Gael Spivak (NCR)
Director, Communications: Barb Crawford (PP)
Director, Publications: Anne Louise Mahoney (NCR)
Director, Francophone Affairs: Marie-Christine Payette (QAC)
Director, Volunteer Relations: Emily Staniland (PP)
The national executive council also has three voting members who are not elected at the AGM.
Past President: Greg Ioannou (TO)
The directors of branches and twigs (west and east) are selected by the members in their respective regions.
Director, Branches and Twigs (west): Lesley Cameron (BC) (acclaimed)
Director, Branches and Twigs (east): Barbara Dylla (QAC) (acclaimed)
Most of the association’s project and development work is done by national committees of members. The following members were appointed at the meeting of the national executive council on June 9.
Agrément/Principes: Sandra Gravel (QAC)
Francophone Affairs: No candidate
Marketing and Public Relations: Andrew Wright (TO)
Member Services: Suzanne Purkis (NCR)
Volunteer Management: Patricia MacDonald (NST)
Newsletter (editor-in-chief): No candidate
Publications: No candidate
Training and Development: No candidate
Certification Steering: Anne Brennan (BC) and Janice Dyer (HH)
Conference: Greg Ioannou (TO)
Professional Standards: Janet MacMillan (TO)
Member Communication: Susan Chambers (BC)
External Liaison: Carolyn L Burke
Human Resources: Jacqueline Dinsmore (QAC)
Nominating: Greg Ioannou (TO)
The national executive council also appointed the following national volunteer positions.
Mediator: Michael Benedict (TO)
Forum (Interactive Voice) Monitor: Joanne Haskins (TO)
List Monitor: Nancy Wills (KEG)
4. KAREN VIRAG AWARD: EAC announces a new award
At the awards banquet on June 7, EAC president Jacquie Dinsmore announced the creation of a new association award named in honour of our late colleague, Karen Virag. The Karen Virag Award will acknowledge an individual or organization’s successful efforts to raise the profile of editing in the community.
Karen’s own outreach to raise the profile of editing included her long-standing participation as EAC’s representative on the Cultural Human Resources Council and her frequent appearances on CBC Radio as one half of the dynamic Grammar Gals duo, with Virginia Durksen. She also travelled widely and was a lover of languages and fluent in many. She respected the power of the written word and was a published author across different genres. For 16 years, Karen was the supervising editor of publications for the Alberta Teachers’ Association. She was also a book reviewer for the Edmonton Journal and a writer for The Tomato, taught courses in grammar, and edited fiction and non-fiction works.
5. CERTIFICATION: EAC awards six honorary Certified Professional Editor designations
There was another special announcement at the awards banquet, this time by Iva Cheung on behalf of the certification steering committee. Development of EAC’s landmark certification program began in the 1980s and was mostly conducted with the help of numerous volunteers. EAC is proud to recognize six of these volunteers with honorary Certified Professional Editor [CPE (Hon.)] designations. The recipients of the honorary designations are Lee d’Anjou, Peter Moskos, Maureen Nicholson, Jonathan Paterson, Frances Peck and Ruth Wilson.
Each CPE (Hon.) received a round of applause. The honorary Certified Professional Editors are all volunteers who served on the certification steering committee, each playing multiple roles within the committee. Each recipient also volunteered for a minimum of five years. EAC thanks all honorary Certified Professional Editors for their dedication and commitment to certification testing. A media release to announce the honorary designations will be issued shortly.
Registration for the 2014 certification tests opens July 28
EAC’s Proofreading and Structural Editing certification tests will be offered on Saturday, November 15 in various cities across the country.
Gather your materials!
Each Certification Study Guide contains a practice test with answer keys and studying tips. Each volume of Meeting Professional Editorial Standards contains editing exercises and solutions. Together, these resources will get you off to a good start at studying for EAC certification.
Order the Certification Study Guides.
Order Meeting Professional Editorial Standards.
Get started!
Begin preparing early and follow a study plan. Whether you work alone or join a study group, set time aside on a regular basis to work through the study materials.
Consider your breadth and depth of experience, as well as where you are in your career. This process can help you discover what you like, what you’re good at and what you need to work on.
Even if you decide not to take any exams this year, working through the study materials is a valuable professional development exercise. And it can be fun.
Learn more about EAC certification.
6. VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH: Namita Kumar
Namita Kumar joined EAC’s Toronto branch in 2010, switching her membership to the Quebec/Atlantic Canada branch (QAC) upon her move to Montreal in 2011. “I attended the branch’s first event of the year,” she recalls, “and I found everyone so nice and helpful that I decided to get more involved. It turned out to be a fantastic way to meet people and to feel like I belonged.”
Namita served as professional development chair (English) for QAC from 2012 to 2014. She also volunteered for a number of national initiatives, including the branding task force (2013–14).
Reflecting on volunteering for EAC national initiatives, Namita feels privileged to “e-meet” people from across Canada. “It’s so nice running into someone on the street after they recognize me from seminars or being greeted like an old friend on a teleconference by people I have not yet met in person,” says Namita.
“I have also been lucky enough to benefit professionally from my involvement,” she explains. “Both my in-house job and much of my freelance work have come about as a direct consequence of my volunteer work with EAC.”
The Volunteer of the Month highlights the dedicated people who keep EAC going. Volunteers are the backbone of EAC, a member-run organization. We are grateful for the many volunteers who answer the call when help is needed. Visit the Members’ Area for more information about volunteering for EAC.
7. GET INVOLVED: Volunteer opportunities to enhance your resumé
Looking for a way to get involved in the association and expand your professional development and networking opportunities? Here are some of the positions that are currently available.
Chair and members, Awards Committee
At its Q2 meeting, the national executive council struck an awards committee to oversee the association’s national awards like the Tom Fairley Award, the Claudette Upton Scholarship and the new Karen Virag Award. If you’re interested in raising the profile of our profession by working on awards that celebrate the achievements of editors, contact EAC’s executive director, Carolyn L Burke, to get involved.
Chair, Francophone Affairs
Would you like to see an increase in the number of French-language services offered by EAC? Do you want to earn some valuable national-level volunteer experience? Here’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss!
We’re looking for a volunteer chair to engage the francophone membership and develop promotional tools in French. This is an investment of time that will result in a rewarding experience. If you’re interested, contact the director of francophone affairs, Marie-Christine Payette.
Copywriters, Marketing
If you enjoy writing, and are looking to build your portfolio, EAC’s marketing and public relations committee needs you! We’re looking for copywriters to join the committee and help promote EAC. You’ll have the opportunity to build copywriting experience, enhance your portfolio, and work on a variety of fun and exciting projects!
If you’re interested in this opportunity, contact the committee chair, Tina Dealwis.
8. PROMOTE YOURSELF: Member news and the member website logo
Tell the world about your recent achievement
EAC member news is where we share information about EACers who win awards, publish books and make their mark on the communications world in other important ways.
Do you have a recent achievement? Let EAC tell the world about it on EAC’s Member News page. If you have member news to share, drop our member news coordinator a line.
2014–15 member website logo now available
The 2014–15 member website logo is now available for download. As a current member of the association you are invited to promote your professional affiliation with EAC on your business or personal website with this specially designed logo. Please refer to the EAC website for information on appropriate use and to download the logo files.
The EAC national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.