President’s report September 2023

By Margaret Trudgeon AE

The new Editors Victoria committee has hit the ground running after the ABM back in July. Our new members are settling into their roles, after handovers and assigning email addresses, and we are starting to make headway with our planning for the next few months. It was very heartening for me to chair our first committee meeting of the year and see all those new faces! Keep an eye out for short bios on each of our committee members in the coming issues of Gatherings, presented by Bonnee Crawford, our new Communications Officer.

On 1 September we held another of our popular “Ask an editor” cuppa sessions for students. The event attracted a healthy 40+ registrants to see a panel of mid-career editors talk about their experiences and offer up their wisdom to current editing students. Our panellists for this session were Michaela Skelly, Kirby Fenwick and Imelda Cribbin, with questions presented by our current Student Adviser Cai Bardsley. One aim of the event is to help us find our next Student Adviser, as Cai will be finishing up soon. Thank you to Cai for all your enthusiasm and capability in the role, and all the best for your new position at the Small Press Network! Thanks also to Stephanie Holt who provided some great assistance in the background too.

PD has continued to run its popular workshops, including an Intro to ebook editing held in last August, with another double workshop of the grammar refresher with Linda Nix booked out for 12 and 19 September. And after recently moving to Ballarat, our Accreditation Board rep, Susan Pierotti, organised a regional get-together at a local cafe for members living in the area, which was held in the Ballarat region on 30 August. Stephanie Holt is planning a similar get-together for the Castlemaine region. Keep an eye on your emails for details.

Ann Philpott, our new Projects and Outreach Officer, has been helping to organise a launch of Dr Renée Otmar’s second edition of Editing for Sensitivity, Diversity and Inclusion, recently published by Cambridge University Press. It will be held via Zoom as a free event on 25 September, 2–3 pm. Renée will be interviewed by our Inclusion and Access Adviser, Thirangie Jayatilake, as part of her role to encourage diversity and inclusion in editing. All are welcome to attend from around Australia and New Zealand. A free copy of the book will be given away on the day and there will be a 20% discount for purchases for a limited time.

Our new Events Officer, Lee Ellwood, is busy planning events for the rest of the year, with the assistance of Kylie Howard, one of our new subcommittee members. Among the plans is a Christmas in-person dinner and speaker event to be held on Wednesday 6 December at Mr Tulk (near RMIT, Melbourne). Well-known linguist and author Kate Burridge will be joining us to speak about her take on the English language. More details will be available soon, but mark it in your diaries!

As you can see, there’s lots to look forward to!