The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2020 - 2

American Translators Association
225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590
Alexandria, VA 22314 USA
Tel: +1-703-683-6100
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Editorial Board

FROM THE PRESIDENT
TED R. WOZNIAK
president@atanet.org

State of the Association

2

020 has certainly been a unique and
challenging year for ATA, as it has
been for all of us. The Association,
or should I say the hundreds of volunteer
members and ATA Headquarters staff, have
demonstrated a degree of resilience and
fortitude in the face of an unprecedented
global health and economic crisis of which
we can all be proud.
ATA remains strong, vibrant, and
flexible. We have adjusted to the
temporary reality and restrictions imposed
on us by the pandemic. ATA Headquarters
staff have maintained their high standards
for member services while working from
home. All our volunteers-from division
listserv moderators and blog or newsletter
editors, to the members of the various
standing and special committees-have
risen to the challenge and advanced their
work during these challenging times.
While they all deserve recognition, the
people involved in our professional
development program deserve special
thanks for rapidly expanding our
free training offerings, especially for
interpreters who have been particularly
hard hit by the impact from the pandemic.
These individuals have worked to increase
both the quantity and quality of remote
professional development opportunities
for our members.
ATA's advocacy efforts have also
been running at full steam this year as
we worked to obtain amendments to
California Assembly Bill 5. While not as
successful as we would have wished due
to the political realities in California, we
would not have achieved the exemptions
we did get without the grassroots efforts
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The ATA Chronicle | November/December 2020

spurred on and supported by ATA
members working on advocacy.
But all is not peaches and cream. ATA
continues to face financial challenges,
primarily due to a very slow but steady
decline in individual membership. We have
seen about a 15% decline in individual
membership since its peak in 2010.

ATA must continue to work
on improving and expanding
its professional development
program and other member
benefits to increase the value
proposition of membership.
That's why ATA must continue to
work on improving and expanding its
professional development program and
other member benefits to increase the
value proposition of membership. And we
need to do a better job of demonstrating
and selling that value proposition.
One positive change in membership
is that the share of voting members
(active and corresponding) versus nonvoting associate members has increased
by almost 10 full percentage points in
the past 10 years, from 21.0% in 2010
to 30.4% in July 2020. I would like to
see the day when almost all individual
members are voting members.
Thank you for your support and
membership in 2020. Together, we will
continue our work building a stronger
association in these challenging times.

Jost Zetzsche (chair)
Paula Arturo
Lois Feuerle
Ben Karl
Barbara Inge Karsch
Ted Wozniak

Publisher/Executive Director
Walter Bacak, CAE
walter@atanet.org

Editor
Jeff Sanfacon
jeff@atanet.org

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The ATA Chronicle (ISSN 1078-6457) is published
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©2020 American Translators Association

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The ATA Chronicle - November/December 2020

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