News, events, tips and updates from Editors Canada
In this issue:
- SHAPE EDITORS CANADA: Leadership opportunity available on the national executive council
- WEBINARS: Professional development at a 40% discount
- PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION: Get prepared for the 2025 exams
- ACADEMIC EDITING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP: Upcoming events
- MEMBER SERVICES: Get a free Coursera licence until November 30, 2025!
- GET INVOLVED: Volunteer with the student relations committee
- MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
- NEC: Notes from your national executive council
1. SHAPE EDITORS CANADA: Leadership opportunity available on the national executive council
Want to help shape Editors Canada at the national level, develop new skills and broaden your professional network? A position is open on our national executive council (NEC).
Director of volunteer relations
Volunteers are essential for the healthy functioning of Editors Canada. The director of volunteer relations attempts to ensure that the association’s volunteers are provided with meaningful volunteer opportunities and are acknowledged for their service. Part of this work is done by overseeing the volunteer management committee and the member services committee, as well as several national positions, including the Facebook group moderators, the forum monitor and the mediator.
The director of volunteer relations communicates and encourages Editors Canada volunteer opportunities as much as possible and devises methods that reach the entire Editors Canada volunteer pool. Part of this is accomplished by ensuring the volunteer management tool, VolunteerConnect, is kept up to date and used properly. They also look for and make connections with committee chairs, committee volunteers, Editors Canada members and leadership for any projects that are in the works in order to match volunteers with volunteer work that suits their interests.
The director also comes up with ways of expanding the volunteer pool (to include voices from across the country) and keeping committees filled with engaged volunteers and fresh ideas.
The ideal volunteer for this director position is organized, has great communication and people-management skills and is open to collaboration. A sense of humour is also an asset!
If you’re driven to create rewarding volunteer experiences while gaining valuable professional development experience and growing your network with other editors across the country, and at different levels of the association, please contact Suzanne Aubin for more information.
More information
Looking for more information about volunteering for Editors Canada and the expected time commitment and responsibilities for directors on the national executive council? See Heather Buzila’s series on the NEC in detail in The Editors’ Weekly, and visit the volunteer resources page and check out The Volunteer Handbook and The Directors Handbook.
Need help logging into the website?
Visit the member portal and click the “Click here if you forgot your password” link.
Looking for tips for using the Editors Canada website? Here are some of the most common issues and workarounds.
2. WEBINARS: Professional development at a 40% discount
Reminder: as an Editors Canada member, you get 40% off all our webinars, and there’s still time to fit in some training this fall! Take a look at our November lineup of sessions:
- November 12, 2025: Beyond the Gender Binary: Editing for More Inclusive Fiction (Tanya Gold and Eliot West)
- November 15, 2025 (FREE WEBINAR!): Decolonizing Editing (Amber Riaz), held in collaboration with The Festival of Literary Diversity
- November 19, 2025: Where Do You Come In? Explaining Editing to Writers (Amanda Lewis)
- November 25, 2025: Introduction to Editing Speculative Fiction (Tanya Gold and Genevieve Clovis)
- November 27, 2025: Handling Hard Stories: Tips for Editing Distressing Content (Jahleen Turnbull-Sousa)
Register now on our webinars page.
Plus, courses for communicators at SFU
Our friends at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies offer a wide range of flexible online courses for professional communicators. Register now for courses in October and November, including:
- Plain Language Principles
- Ethics and Legal Issues in Writing and Publishing
- Grammar
- Internal Communication and Change Management
- Research, Analysis and Information Design
- Indexing: An Essential Art and Science
3. PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION: Get prepared for the 2025 exams
If you’re registered to take this year’s professional certification exams, please note they will be based on the 2024 edition of Professional Editorial Standards. Our website is being updated to reflect this.
Beginning in 2024, we started offering limited feedback based on marker comments to candidates who did not pass. While the feedback is not exhaustive, it identifies strengths and weaknesses for candidates who did not certify.
The Certification Test Preparation Guides are a great way to practice on a past exam as a dry run. Visit the Editors Canada website to order your Certification Test Preparation Guides today. Please note the practice exams in the guides are based on the 2016 edition of Professional Editorial Standards; however, they’re still a good way to prepare for this year’s exams, which are based on the 2024 edition.
4. ACADEMIC EDITING SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP: Upcoming events
Coffee Chat
November 10, 2025
11 a.m., PST / 2 p.m., EST
Topic
Post-project follow-up. Debriefing with a client and privately summarizing the project—as well as the work you performed—can inform future projects and client interactions. Join us for a casual conversation on tips and strategies for all things project follow-up.
Hosted by Jenn Rossiter and Jennie Seitz
To register, email academic.editing@editors.ca.
Book Club
November 21, 2025
10 a.m., PST / 1 p.m., EST
Come join us for a group discussion on Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe (of xkcd comics). This will be a fun, end-of-year exploration of how simple terms can be used to explain complex ideas in an academic context. Read more about it in our blog post in The Editors’ Weekly!
Hosted by Tara Penner
RSVP via Zoom
5. MEMBER SERVICES: Get a free Coursera licence until November 30, 2025!
Coast Capital has partnered with Coursera, an online learning platform featuring courses, certificate programs, and tutorials from more than 300 leading universities and companies, including Stanford, Duke, Google and IBM, and is providing free licences to non-profits and community organizations.
The licence has a total annual retail value of $538, provides unlimited access to 13,000+ courses and certificates, and is valid until November 30, 2025.
Please note that this offer is available to individuals who have not previously received a free Coursera licence from Coast Capital.
Looking for other benefits of membership? Check out the Editors Canada member resources and member services pages.
6. GET INVOLVED: Volunteer with the student relations committee
Would you like the opportunity to connect with other editors and to support student affiliates? The student relations committee works to recruit, retain and represent the interests of student affiliates. We host virtual student socials, facilitate discussions, share information on learning resources, and we’re continually looking for new ideas and projects to stimulate student engagement. To volunteer with us (or to get more information), send an email to the chair of the student relations committee.
7. MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
Iva Cheung, Editors British Columbia member, Certified Professional Editor, and previous recipient of the Tom Fairley, Karen Virag, and President’s Awards, is self-publishing a cookbook. In time for holiday meals, After the Feast offers readers ideas on creative ways they can use the leftovers from their turkey dinner. As of the September 30 publication date, the PDF is free to download. Proceeds from print copies support food security initiatives in Canada’s North through the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre. See Iva’s website for more information.
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.
8. NEC: Notes from your national executive council
The 2025–26 national executive council met for the first time on October 5, 2025. Updates from that meeting will be shared in the November e-news update.
The November NEC meeting is scheduled for November 30, 2025. As always, members are welcome to attend.
Kaitlin Littlechild
President
The national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.