The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2021 - 7

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The New Year, New Look,
and Board Meeting Highlights
The new year brings hope and opportunity. For ATA, it also brings
a new look. The new ATA website will be online shortly. You'll find it
visually appealing, the content completely reviewed, and with better
navigation. We have more to do with the directories. In addition to the
website, the new year brings a new look to The ATA Chronicle. This
year marks the 50th anniversary of ATA's flagship publication. We look

WALTER BACAK, CAE

forward to recognizing this milestone throughout the year.

walter@atanet.org

ypically, the Fall Board meeting
would have been held in conjunction
with the Annual Conference. Instead,
the Board met virtually a week after the
conference, October 31-November 1. Here
are some highlights.

Opening the Certification Exam
to Nonmembers
The Board rescinded the previously approved
motions to open the certification exam to
nonmembers. The decision followed the failure
of the proposed Bylaws amendment clarifying
the rights and privileges of membership.

Reimagining Membership
The Board continued its discussion on changes
to the membership structure, including
looking at tiers of benefits and services. The
Governance and Communications Committee,
led by President-Elect Madalena Sánchez
Zampaulo, is charged with rethinking/
restructuring membership and strengthening
the value proposition of ATA membership.

Investigating a National Registry
and a Basic Credential
The Board approved establishing ad hoc
committees to investigate and make
recommendations on the establishment of a
National Registry of Individual Translators
and Interpreters and a basic ATA credential for
translators and interpreters.

www.ata-chronicle.online

New Committee Chairs

ATA Petitions CDC to
Include Interpreters

The Board approved the appointment of the
following Committee chairs:
* Advocacy Committee: Lorena Ortiz Schneider
* Certification Committee: Michèle Hansen
* Chapters Committee: Yolanda Secos
* Divisions Committee: Daniel Sebesta
Thank you to the outgoing chairs for
all their time and work for ATA: Ted
Wozniak (Advocacy), David Stephenson
(Certification), Tony Guerra (Chapters),
and Percy Balemans (Divisions).

ATA Monograph Series
The Board approved Translation in Transition:
Bridging Human and Machine Intelligence as the
next volume in the ATA Monograph Series. The
Series, published by John Benjamins, is a peerreviewed scholarly publication. Recent volumes
include The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter
and Translator Education and Innovation and
Expansion in Translation Process Research.
The Board meeting summary is posted
online. The minutes will be posted once
they are approved at the next Board
meeting. Past meeting summaries and
minutes are also posted online at
www.atanet.org/membership/minutes.php.

Following the release
of the U.S. COVID-19
Vaccination Program
recommendations, ATA
and 20 other language
organizations and
associations petitioned the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention to explicitly
include on-site medical
interpreters among the
listed examples of health
care personnel eligible
for Phase 1 vaccinations.
Twenty other organizations
co-signed the ATA letter.
You can read the letter on
ATA's website:
http://bit.ly/CDC-petition.

Be Sure to Renew
Don't go it alone. ATA
provides a community and
a professional home. If you
haven't already renewed
your membership dues for
2021, please do:
www.atanet.org/renew.

American Translators Association

http://www.bit.ly/CDC-petition http://www.atanet.org/renew http://www.atanet.org/membership/minutes.php http://www.ata-chronicle.online

The ATA Chronicle - January/February 2021

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