The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2017 - 7


OUTREACH REPORT

ATA at the California Federation of
Interpreters 2016 Conference

T

he 2016 California Federation of
Interpreters (CFI) Conference was
held on October 7-9 in Los Angeles,
California. CFI is a large and highly
visible court interpreter association in
California. It's actually both a professional
organization and a union. CFI negotiates
with the California state courts on behalf
of its members, many of whom are staff
interpreters, and advocates for per diem
interpreters. According to its website
(www.calinterpreters.org), CFI's mission
includes:
 Uniting interpreters who believe strongly
that the recognition and advancement of
the profession can only be achieved by
providing quality oral interpreting, sign
language, and written translations.
 Uniting interpreters who know that their
role is vital to the justice system. Reliable
and impartial interpreting and translation
are important to ensure due process of
the law and adequate representation by
counsel for linguistic minorities and the
hearing impaired.
 Advancing and upholding the profession
of court interpreting and translating.
 Promoting high standards of proficiency
by developing and implementing
continuing education activities and
supporting those of other interpreter/
translator organizations.
 Promoting professional ethics and
compliance with all laws, including
antitrust laws.
 Representing the collective professional
and legal interests of interpreters before
the court and any local or state entity.
In recent years, ATA has been a visible
presence at CFI conferences by sponsoring
an ATA representative/featured speaker. This
year, that honor fell to me. I delivered two
90-minute presentations-one on Saturday,
the other on Sunday.

www.atanet.org

My first presentation, "Applying the Rules
of Professional Conduct," stressed that while
court interpreting is, generally speaking, a
solitary pursuit, our actions never take place
in a vacuum. Our collective behavior must
reflect a shared code of professional conduct.
During this interactive session, individual
experiences and knowledge served to enrich
group discussion as attendees analyzed the
why's and how's of ethical professional
practice for court interpreters.
My talk on Sunday, "Professional Ethics:
Another Perspective," addressed aspects
of ethics and professional responsibility
that are not often covered in presentations
for court interpreters: Are interpreter
ethics situational? How are the codes of
practice for court, medical, and conference
interpreters similar or different? Why? Are
all aspects of professional responsibility
covered by our codes of ethics? The
presentation focused on the effects of
individual protocol, as well as how
business and professional decisions effect
one's peers and the profession as a whole.
Both presentations were well attended,
and I took the opportunity to speak
about solidarity among professional
associations as a means to promote and
improve upon our profession as a whole.
Attendees welcomed the non-sectarian
approach to professional ethics, as well
as the broader perspectives achieved by
comparing and contrasting various codes
of professional practice.

BY MELINDA GONZALEZ-HIBNER

My presentations were just a small
part of the overall conference agenda.
The program also offered academic
presentations reporting on empirical
research currently being done on remote
interpreting in mediation/police settings,
skills-oriented presentations for the three
traditional interpreting modalities used in
the courts, as well as new developments
in hybrid modalities. Attendees could
also choose from a variety of specialized
subject area presentations relevant to court
interpreters, including a plenary session on
the current implementation of video-remote
interpreting in the California courts.
My presence was fruitful on more than
one front. ATA was visible as an involved
and committed actor in the interpreting
world. I gained a deeper understanding
of issues that are near and dear to
interpreting professionals on a regional
and national scale, as California courts
often offer a glimpse into the future,
given they serve the largest number of
limited-English-speaking individuals in
the nation in a wide variety of languages.
Finally, I was asked by ATA and non-ATA
members alike to convey heartfelt thanks
to ATA for supporting the conference.
I highly recommend that ATA
continue to send a speaker to represent
ATA at future CFI conferences. 
Melinda Gonzalez-Hibner
is an ATA director and the
chair of ATA's Interpretation
Policy Advisory Committee.
She is a state and federally
certified court interpreter
(English<>Spanish). Her interpreting career has
been diverse, covering conference, court, and
community assignments at all levels. In 2004,
she became the first full-time administrator of
the Court Interpreter Program for the Colorado
Judicial Department. Currently, she works as
a staff interpreter for the U.S. District Court
of New Mexico. In addition to her state and
federal certifications, she is qualified as an
interpreter by the U.S. Department of State. She
is a founding member and past co-chair of the
Colorado Association of Professional Interpreters
and a past director of the National Association
of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators. She
holds a BA from the University of Texas and
an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Contact: melindagonzalezhibner@gmail.com.
American Translators Association

7
http://www.calinterpreters.org http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2017
