The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2024 - 4

FROM THE PRESIDENT
ATA: The Big Tent of T&I
GEOFF KOBY
president@atanet.org
here's always a lot
going on at ATA.
My preparation and
follow-up to the Board of
Directors meeting at the end
of April really brought this
home to me. ATA is truly
a " big tent " organization
that brings together a
wide range of interests,
perspectives, languages,
and specializations in
and connected with the
translation and interpreting
professions. This column
highlights a few areas
around the Association
and their activities that
were on our agenda or are
being developed.
ATA Board
Thanks to the Nominating
and Leadership Development
Committee (NLDC), the Board
very nicely represents the
breadth of the Association.
Collectively, the expertise
of our Board members
currently covers Arabic,
Catalan, Dutch, French,
German, Italian, Japanese,
Mandarin, Portuguese, and
Spanish, with specialty
areas in accounting,
business, communications,
corporate, financial, human
resources, international
development, legal, literary,
marketing, medical, patents,
pharmaceutical, scientific,
and technical translation.
This expertise also includes
interpreting: simultaneous
and consecutive, court,
conference, health care,
and nonprofit. In addition,
some Board members are
certification exam graders
and university teachers. All
of them have been leaders,
4 The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2024
T
ATA Membership: Get Involved,
Get Connected, and Give Back
ATA Advocacy and Outreach
ATA Committees
ATA Divisions and Special Interest Groups
Professional Development and Webinars
Looking to get involved? Check out these
opportunities to contribute!
either in chapters, divisions,
or some other area of ATA,
and currently also serve on or
chair other ATA committees.
The Board represents you, the
members, and we welcome
your feedback about ATA
programs and activities.
(You can find more about
the individual expertise of
each Board member on
ATA's website.)
Committees
and Divisions
There are currently 17
committees in ATA, which
do a substantial amount
of behind-the-scenes
work in their focus areas,
ranging from advocacy
to strategy. Each of these
committees reports
quarterly to the Board
on their activities. Some
highlights: the Certification
Committee announced
that Hungarian>English
testing is available again;
the Standards Committee
is developing a standards
survey, a web page, and a
proposal for a joint standards
event with the International
Federation of Translators
(FIT); and the Professional
Development Committee
is exploring increasing the
number of webinars.
ATA currently has 22
divisions, divided into 12
language-focused divisions
and 10 practice-focused
divisions, which report to the
Board quarterly. Members
often refer to their division
as their " home " within
ATA, with ongoing activities
and, often, a meal event or
other gathering at ATA's
Annual Conference in the
fall. If you haven't joined
a division, take a look and
choose one or more that
match your interests and
professional profile. Division
membership is a benefit
of your ATA membership,
so you can join as many as
you like at no extra cost!
One highlight of division
activities was the Language
Technology Division's report
on its having organized ATA
TEKTalks (part of ATA's
webinar series) along with
the Professional Development
Committee, and its efforts to
develop a guidance document
on AI for ATA.
www.atanet.org
The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2024

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