By Stephanie Holt AE
What a momentous month July was for IPEd, with our first face-to-face conference in 6 years, and some significant changes on the IPEd Board.
For those who attended the conference in person, hearts and minds are I’m sure still ringing with its impact. The first day began with a deeply thoughtful Welcome to Country from Auntie Rosalind Coleman exhorting us to think about the many ways of making change for our country and communities, and an exhilarating keynote from Dr Eugen Bacon proposing an inclusive and empathetic model of reading, writing and editing. We knew then that we were in for a special gathering – that we would be challenged, provoked and stimulated with diverse opinions but much goodwill and common cause. (Those who weren’t there will be able to watch recordings of the keynotes and other selected sessions, soon to be available, while some others will be revisited as online IPEd workshops and speaker presentations.)
On behalf of the Board, I would like to offer our thanks to Auntie Ros and our keynote speakers, Eugen Bacon and Roly Sussex, to the trainers who shared their expertise in the workshops, and to all the speakers and panellists who shared their knowledge and wisdom. We must also thank the attendees who reliably enlivened the sessions with their questions and insights and even – when a tech issue threatened to derail our closing session – some improvised stand-up, trivia quizzing and teaching routines. Of course, flexible, resourceful problem-solving is an editor’s superpower!
Behind the scenes, the conference required an immense amount of often-taxing work from IPEd volunteers, to plan and to ensure everything ran smoothly. The Board thanks them all, especially Editors SA and the Conference Committee who worked tirelessly. We are also indebted to our tiny staff team who did so much so cheerfully and expertly.
Conference was also a chance for almost all of the IPEd Board to meet in person, joined by staff and members of the Emerging Leaders Program. We have strengthened and refreshed the Board over the past 2 months, so this proved great timing. With the recent appointments of Meredith Thatcher (Aotearoa New Zealand), Niki Horin (Tasmania) and Mandy Chandler (Queensland), we now have a full board of 10 directors. In addition to the 7 branch directors we have Board-appointed directors with specialist expertise in finance, membership and – in an important new position – commercial strategy and growth. We thank our former finance director, Hana Krskova, and acknowledge her dedication and her judicious work and support during her term. We will miss her lively personality but move forward grateful for how much we have learned from her.
We are pleased to welcome Lisa Braun as our new finance director, and Sameh AlAnani as our first commercial director. The new directors will be profiled in Gatherings over coming issues.
The reinvigorated Board faces the challenge of continuing to offer the vital support, networking, training and advocacy that members expect, while putting IPEd on a more secure financial footing, including through increasing membership numbers. The conference meeting, and both formal and informal input of members throughout the conference, provided significant momentum for this work.
One recurrent theme during the conference was advocacy – how to best advocate for the importance and wellbeing of editors, the value of IPEd, and the health of the broader culture and publishing industry we are part of.
News broke while we were in the throes of the conference that the ANU was planning to close its standalone Australian National Dictionary Centre, and then that Whitireia New Zealand was planning to close its publishing course. The National Dictionary Centre, publisher of the Australian national dictionary, has been a vigorous and inclusive champion of our language and a vital resource for editors and writers. IPEd deplores this move, and we add our voice to those calling for its reinstatement. We are also shocked and extremely concerned that Whitireia plans to close what is New Zealand’s only tertiary-level publishing qualification, one with an excellent track record and with which IPEd and Editors ANZ have been deepening ties.