News, events, tips and updates from Editors Canada
In this issue:
- SHAPE EDITORS CANADA: Leadership opportunity available on the national executive council
- GET INVOLVED: More volunteer opportunities
- WEBINARS: Professional development at a 40% discount
- CONGRÈS DES LANGAGIERS ET LANGAGIÈRES: Early-bird registration ends November 1!
- ACADEMIC EDITORS: Coming soon: Communities of practice
- MEMBER SERVICES: Affordable insurance and free mediation support for Editors Canada members
- 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 leadership positions is now open on our national executive council.
Director of volunteer relations
As a volunteer-run organization, Editors Canada relies on the active involvement of its members. At any given time, hundreds of volunteers are working to keep our organization running and to support editors across the country. Our members serve on national and branch executives, organize our conferences and webinars, serve on committees and task forces, develop publications and maintain our professional certification program. In short, volunteers are essential for Editors Canada to function.
The director of volunteer relations position is vital in our association. The bulk of the director’s work revolves around overseeing the volunteer management committee, which helps to support the association’s many volunteers, and the member services committee, which maintains and arranges valuable benefits for Editors Canada members. According to a former director of volunteer relations “an outgoing people person” would do well in this position!
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? 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.
2. GET INVOLVED: More volunteer opportunities
Career builder committee
Are you interested in volunteering with a committee dedicated to supporting editing careers at all stages? The career builder committee is seeking enthusiastic volunteers of all sorts, but specifically those with experience writing project proposals and people who are bilingual in French and English. If you’re interested or would like more information, contact committee chair Holly Vestad.
Certification steering committee
The certification steering committee (CSC) oversees our landmark professional certification program. Are you interested in learning how to manage and administer a professional certification program, from planning process through marking? Join the CSC!
Here are the roles the committee is looking to fulfill:
- general committee support
- social media support
- scheduling
Interested? Email Sara Abdul at the national office.
The Editors’ Weekly
Get a head start on your 2025 portfolio!
What do you want to learn in 2025? What do you want to share with others? The Editors’ Weekly is seeking pitches for blog posts about editing tips, editorial niches and life as an editor. Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned professional, we’d love to hear your insights! If you have questions or an idea to suggest, write to Laura Bontje.
Chair, mentorship committee
This committee runs the John Eerkes-Medrano Mentorship Program, which offers members and student affiliates the opportunity to participate in one-on-one mentoring relationships.
We’re recruiting a chair to lead the committee as it refines and expands this important program.
This committee is for you if:
- you’re interested in how to structure, promote and expand a successful program,
- you like connecting with other editors, and
- you’re interested in event planning.
Here are the roles the committee is looking to fulfill:
- general committee support
- educational programming
- social media support
- event planning
Interested? Email Sara Abdul at the national office.
Training and development committee
Our training and development committee runs Editors Canada webinars. The committee is currently exploring new and engaging ways to conduct our webinars, including introducing panels and workshops, and is also experimenting with video marketing.
This committee is for you if:
- you’re interested in learning about and researching educational programming, and
- you’re interested in making reels and creating TikToks and are looking for social media experience in that area.
Here are the roles the committee is looking to fulfill:
- social media support
- video editing
Interested? Email Sara Abdul at the national office.
Looking for more volunteer opportunities?
If you want to volunteer for Editors Canada, check out VolunteerConnect, our resource for matching volunteers to tasks. You can use this searchable tool to
- find opportunities of interest to you
- list yourself as a potential volunteer
Volunteering lets you give back to your organization, but you also receive so much in return: experience, skills, contacts, friendships and a wonderful sense of accomplishment. Volunteer today!
3. WEBINARS: Professional development at a 40% discount
Reminder: as an Editors Canada member, you get 40% off all our webinars! We have live sessions coming up that are perfect for proofreaders, fiction editors, freelancers and anyone who wants to learn something new. Take a look at our November lineup:
- November 6: Proofreading for Businesses and Ad Agencies (Sharon McInnis)
- November 12: Know What You’re Getting Into: How to Vet Projects for Sensitive Themes (Amelia Winters)
- November 14: So You Want to Be an In-House Technical Editor? (Claire Fossey)
- November 19: AI Editing Uncertainty: Navigating Ethics, Copyright and Privacy (Perrin Lindelauf)
- November 21: Rendre les documents inclusifs et accessibles (Julie Hutsebaut)
- November 27: The Freelance Editor’s Guide to Low-Stress, Authentic Selling (Erin Brenner)
Learn more and sign up on our webinars page.
Plus, learn with SFU this fall
Our friends at Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies are offering a number of flexible online courses for writers and editors this fall. Registration is now open for:
- Stylistic Editing
- Structural Editing
- Introduction to Public Relations
- Plain Language Principles
- Freelancing for Editors
4. CONGRÈS DES LANGAGIERS ET LANGAGIÈRES: Early-bird registration ends November 1!
Early-bird registration is now open for Editors Canada’s third congrès des langagiers et langagières, but only until November 1! This is a one-day conference with content specifically geared toward French-speaking editors. The event, which is held entirely in French, is a unique opportunity for professional development and networking in a friendly atmosphere.
The congrès des langagiers et langagières takes place November 28, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., EST, on our online conference platform, Pheedloop. Visit the congrès website for more details.
5. ACADEMIC EDITORS: Coming soon: Communities of practice
There are many ways to be an academic editor and to do academic editing: working in-house, freelancing or side hustling; supporting faculty, students, publishers, postsecondary institutions and journals; working on books, articles, dissertations, grant applications, patient materials or marketing—the list goes on and on.
To help all different kinds of academic editors to excel in—and to enjoy—your work, your Editors Canada / Editorial Freelancers Association Academic Editing Special Interest Group (SIG) is announcing a new initiative: communities of practice. Communities of practice bring together people with specific interests and niches within the broad field of academic editing, enabling us to discuss areas of common concern, engage in collective learning, and improve our skills, knowledge and editing practice.
The idea is that these communities of practice will enable people with specific interests, disciplines, clients or regional foci to interact regularly, share experiences, solve problems and maybe even perform advocacy work. Each community of practice will be able to decide for itself what it wants to be and do; as a SIG, we’ll provide the space for you to connect synchronously and asynchronously.
The first community of practice (CoP) to get up and running will be the Research Grants and Awards CoP, which will be led by Letitia Henville. The inaugural meeting of the Research Grants and Awards CoP will take place on Thursday, November 21, at 1 p.m. PST / 4 p.m. EST. RSVP for the Research Grants and Awards CoP.
A Humanities CoP is also in the works and details will be announced soon.
For clarity: at this time, the Academic Editing SIG has not allocated a budget to these CoPs, so we’re not offering to pay y’all to host your own in-person retreat among the sequoias, to bring in paid speakers, or to attend niche conferences to represent the SIG. In the future, the SIG may be able to allocate some small budget line to CoP work, but in the short term, please anticipate that you will not be allocated any funding for your work.
Is there a topic or theme around which you’d love to connect with fellow editors? Are you interested in leading a CoP around this topic or theme? Please contact Education Committee Chair Shifra Diamond to share your ideas and wishes.
6. MEMBER SERVICES: Affordable insurance and free mediation support for Editors Canada members
APOLLO Insurance
Did you know that Editors Canada members have access to affordable professional liability through APOLLO Insurance? Through APOLLO, you will have access to the best rates for your business insurance, including coverage for:
- Errors and Omissions (E&O) up to $2 million
- Privacy Breach up to $2 million
- Optional Commercial General Liability (CGL) up to $5 million
- Contents coverage up to $100,000
- Free legal advice
Download the product flyer to learn more.
Purchase your business policy today through our easy-to-use online platform and get coverage in minutes. It’s professional liability insurance made effortless!
This product is available in all Canadian provinces and territories, except Quebec. Editors Canada’s member insurance task force is researching options for members in Quebec.
Mediation
Are you having a conflict with a client over your services? Experiencing difficulty resolving a dispute with another member?
Free mediation support is available to members of Editors Canada and their clients who wish to resolve an issue with the help of a neutral third-party mediator. You can contact Monica Gill, Editors Canada’s mediator, by sending an email to mediator@editors.ca.
Looking for other benefits of membership? Check out the Editors Canada member resources and member services pages.
7. MEMBER NEWS: A round of applause!
Editors Québec member John Sweet won the award for Best Spoken Word Show at the Buxton (England) Festival Fringe for his autobiographical queer monologue, outside, in the laneway, under the stars.
Editors Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph member Carolyn R. Wilker will release a new poetry collection this fall, “Seasons: Selected Poems.” Visit Carolyn’s website store to watch for its arrival.
Carolyn’s client Angela C. Charles received the 2024 Word Guild Award in the Romance and Writer of Colour categories for her novel His Perfect Timing.
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
Welcome to fall!
The NEC had their first meeting after the summer break on September 15. We welcomed several new directors and had a member of the equity, diversity and inclusion committee join us to discuss how we can all work together to ensure inclusive communications.
The NEC met again on October 20. Discussion at this meeting focused on the conference and the strategic planning process. The NEC will meet for the final time before the holidays on November 10. As a reminder, meeting agendas are posted to the website in advance of each meeting. Meeting agendas include the Zoom meeting information, and members are welcome to join and observe the meetings.
The NEC is looking to welcome a new director of volunteer relations. We hope you will consider joining this awesome team for a rewarding volunteer experience!
Kaitlin Littlechild
President
The national e-news update is produced on behalf of the national executive council by the national office.