Part 2. The Board of Directors’ work in 2014 and beyond
In this essay, I discuss the Board’s current work and where we envision it will or may take us.[*]
Current Projects
Since Paolo Modigliani came into office as our treasurer in January of 2013, he has done a stupendous job of cleaning up our finances. He has brought membership renewal and management under control, thereby meticulously documenting our member count and breaking down the related payments in spreadsheets. Last year upon commencing his tenure, he migrated our accounts to QuickBooks, furnishing a very professional, ongoing presentation of our finances including detailed balance and profit and loss sheets. His conscientious custodianship has prompted the Board to be more alert and realistic about our financial capabilities and limitations.
Paolo played no small role in the new scheme to reallocate the funds bequeathed to the Circle by founding member Charles Stern. This new arrangement, authorized by Mr. Stern’s executor, Elaine F. Friedman, Esq., allows the Board to use the bequest to fund workshops for members, chiefly to compensate the instructors. Previously, the Circle was not allowed to touch these some $56,000 in our bank account except for the controversial Stern award, which no one wanted to receive (see March/April issue of the Gotham: “Report from the President”). Now, the Board can use the proceeds from the workshop registrations to cover other ongoing expenses, such as the design of the Gotham—now available online only to save costs—and our new paid administrator.
Our first paid administrator, Louise Jennewine, took up her duties as of January 1, 2014. Her activities facilitating and coordinating the Board’s work have been extraordinarily salutary already, improving the member experience and further implementing the association’s principles as stated in the Bylaws. Louise submits a monthly report of her work, including a review of the past month and a list of her goals for the coming month, to Paolo and me.
Louise and I regularly go over these tasks and projects. Some of them have been: 1) helping Edna Ditaranto and Diana Méndez organize our upcoming weekend workshop; 2) assisting with the new Web site project; 3) assisting with our outreach effort; 4) sending out event announcements by e-mail blast; 5) managing our member drive and other tasks involving our paid intern, Miguelina Núñez; and 6) keeping track of incoming messages on our Skype account.
In addition to Louise, Sarah Edelman and I have been involved in organizing outreach events, with one at NYU and another for attorneys in the works. Last fall Diana Méndez and I presented at NYU and Hunter. While last fall we presented to students of masters and undergraduate language programs at NYU, this time we will present to non-credit students.
The main project our intern Miguelina Núñez has worked on is member outreach, which has entailed her finding ATA members in the tri-state area who are not current or former New York Circle members. We have contacted these individuals and corporations outlining the benefits of becoming members of the Circle. In the end, this search yielded us 328 new contacts, but we do not yet have figures as to how many have become NYCT members.
The Web site
Starting in 2012, the Board investigated how the Circle might improve the functionality of the New York Circle Web site. Problems with the Web site first became apparent to me when I attempted to use it to send out e-mail blasts, which resulted in unformatted e-mails that were hard even to decipher. It was an embarrassment to me, the Board, and the organization. Other problems also surfaced: membership renewals had to be processed manually by the Board; members often got error messages when they attempted to renew; there were multiple typos on the site; and the calendar function did not work.
Although, not before long, we were able to remedy the announcement problem by setting up an account with Constant Contact, the member database in particular turned out to be a persistent headache. Besides the above-mentioned manual processing of renewals, if we deactivated any old member, we would not be able to review their data by generating a member report. In other words, it made it so we could only review the records of deactivated members manually, by sifting through them one by one on the Web site.
By end of 2012, it was obvious that we needed a new Web site. The database was a source of frustration for members and the Board, but the Web site itself was designed in the antiquated asp.net format and would continue to cause glitches, such as manifested in the ill-formatted e-mail blasts.
After a protracted search, Secretary Gigi Branch-Shaw and I were able to find a designer and programmer who came well recommended and would migrate our site to WordPress. This would enable us to update and maintain it much more easily and use a basic theme that would be compatible with countless plugins. The designer, who designed the Web site for our sister organization the Colorado Translators Association as well as many individual translators, is Websites for Translators.
After months of dialogue back and forth about the design and functionality, we are currently in the process of implementing the site. Completion of the site was slated for April, but has been delayed due to the numerous coding details and the difficulties of coordinating with the designer and programmers in Europe. Yet, once the new site gets off the ground, we expect that it will significantly improve the user experience and the ability of the Board to communicate with members; it will also look and work better for visitors.
Personnel changes
Program Director Diana Méndez has put on several very successful events, including a panel on working in the translation industry, a résumé workshop, and a talk on medical interpreting, which is in the works as of this writing. Unfortunately for us, Diana will be participating in a doctoral program outside of the city, so we will be losing her as of June 1 of this year. I am happy to say, however, that member Kate Deimling has agreed to join the Board as program director. Diana, Louise, and I are in the process of bringing Kate up to speed, and we have high hopes and expectations of her coming role.
On a tragic note, President-Elect Chunwen Wang passed away in February (see obituary in this Gotham). I have since appointed Valeriya Yermishova to fill her place. Valeriya was the logical choice since she was the run-up candidate for president-elect in last year’s elections. Valeriya seems eager to contribute to our fine organization, and the rest of the Board is also very excited to work with her.
Our new vice-presidential system will enter into force as of January 1, 2015. We will hold an election in November of this year for president and vice-president and the victors will begin their two-year terms of office as of that date. The new system will reduce the yearly hustle to find an incoming president-elect to a biannual election of president and vice-president. The treasurer, secretary, and program director will be elected to begin their two-year terms the alternate years, i.e. effective January 1, 2016. I will step down as president at the end of 2014, but we hope that Valeriya will run as a candidate for presidency. Since Secretary Gigi Branch-Shaw and Treasurer Paolo Modigliani will end their current terms as of December 31 of this year under the old system, a one-time, one-year term will have to apply to their successors for 2015. Then, the November 2015 elections will decide who will serve as treasurer, secretary, and program director for 2016-2017.
Paolo and Gigi have notified me that they will step down as treasurer and secretary, respectively, as of December 31, 2014, due to other commitments. This is disheartening news, since they have both shown themselves to be unusually competent and reliable officers. Yet we expect that the newly formed nomination committee, consisting of Martin Hoffman and Greg Gencarello, will yield worthy candidates to fill their shoes.
I would be remiss not to mention the contributions of several members who have stepped up to volunteer. Kate Deimling and Bernard Askienazy have been involved in editing the Gotham. And as I mentioned, Sarah Edelman has been involved in our ongoing outreach effort. The contributions of our intern, Miguelina Núñez, have been significant, including her crucial role in our new member drive.
What this means to members
I think it is obvious that all of these projects are serving members. Although it should be clear to the reader from the foregoing that a lot of energy and resources go into keeping the organization afloat, we are not living hand to mouth. A better Web site and better accounting will improve the member experience and maximize our financial efficiency. They will also serve as a platform for us to realize our larger goals. The same can be said of the new president/vice-president system, which will smooth the transitions of officers. I should note that, although Paolo and Gigi have announced that they will not run for additional terms, they have pledged to continue to support the projects they have initiated after their current terms.
Our great monthly meetings help their attendees position themselves better in the market with the latest, most astute, and most direct information and analysis. Instituting the paid administrator insures our sustainability and continuity as an organization, in addition to improving the member experience. Since Margarite Heintz Montez’s capable stewardship of the Gotham Translator, it is published with much greater consistency, enabling members to exchange ideas and stay up to date more and better. The new members acquired by Miguelina’s project will not only strengthen us by their sheer numbers but by the human resources they bring to bear.
But will these efforts mean better paid work for members? Will they boost quality in a significant and pervasive way? Will they mean that translators and interpreters know where to look for good clients who will treat them fairly and pay them well? Will customers be better able to navigate the market for translation and interpreting services?
Conclusion
I would argue that we are doing just about everything we can short of sitting down with the ATA and discussing the issue of rates and quality and serious regulation of the industry. By regulation I mean an industry where high-quality work will yield fair remuneration and where novice linguists have clarity about what path to take to achieve success commensurate to their abilities. Such regulation would entail that customers could look to the New York Circle of Translators or the ATA with confidence as guides to finding reliable, high-quality services.
The ideal I outline above may still be a ways off. In fact, such ambitious regulations are beyond our current capacity if not beyond our authority. But I would like to think that the projects we are working on now are moving in the direction of a market in which linguists, their clients, and society all get a fair deal. I think it is incumbent on us, as members and as the Board, to continue this discussion and look for ways to make such a market possible.
Originally published in The Gotham Translator.
[*] This article is the second in a series of two on the New York Circle’s identity and larger goals. The first article appeared in the last issue of the Gotham and discussed the work of my administration to date.
Leonard Morin 