EdNSW committee discusses online PD
by Paul Anderson and Robert Rowe
The Editors NSW branch committee met online on 8 September 2020 for its monthly meeting.
President Robert Rowe submitted branch input to the IPEd Annual Report, summarising NSW branch activity during the previous year and looking ahead, in particular to developing more online professional development (PD) events for members.
The NSW branch financial report for July 2020 was received. Expenditure in that month was within budget.
Committee member reports were received for PD, meetings, social media and membership.
Two committee members are on the IPEd Standing Committee on Professional Development (SCPD). Zoom guidelines for presenters, attendees and coordinators are being revised. A shared calendar is another initiative to coordinate PD events efficiently with other branches.
Feedback on our monthly member meeting on 1 September has been positive. Andina Faragher from Biotext presented a talk on their Australian Manual of Style (AMOS). A recording of the meeting is available for online purchase, or free for members who paid to attend, until the end of November. AMOS is an online style manual — a commercial product scheduled to be released to market before the end of the year. It will extend and replace their Australian Manual of Scientific Style.
The 2021 meetings calendar continues to be fleshed out. Ideas and leads are always welcome from members and suggestions can be sent to the Meetings Coordinator Caroline Hunter at ednsw.meetings@iped-editors.org.
Work continues behind the scenes on workshops and webinars. A two-hour Word workshop in February 2021 is in development and we may look at sharing this with other branches. Repeating workshops already held by other branches may also be a good idea where there is sufficient interest.
Feedback from members on workshops you would like to see is welcome. Please send it to the Professional Development Coordinator, Sara Kitaoji, at ednsw.profdev@iped-editors.org.
Small changes to the branch’s Facebook page have been made as part of a refresh of our social media. The questions on whether the branch needs a LinkedIn group and other matters will be referred to the IPEd Communications Standing Committee (CSC).
Four new members joined the branch last month, making a cumulative total of 35 new members this year to date. A warm welcome to you all.
Monthly reports were received from our Accreditation Board representative and IPEd Director (NSW). Russell Noakes highlighted the ongoing IPEd members’ forum.
The new branch committee details are up to date and listed on the IPEd website.
Editors NSW holds first online Annual Branch Meeting (ABM)
by Paul Anderson
The Editors NSW ABM was held on 4 August 2020.
President’s report
Julie Ganner welcomed everyone to the first-ever online ABM of Editors NSW. This year has been a challenging one and Julie thanked our fabulous committee of volunteers, all of whom have pitched in. Many have balanced work for the NSW branch with other volunteer roles within IPEd. She thanked all of our members and in turn the following groups, citing key contributions made by each person.
Our outgoing committee: Julie Ganner, Sally Asnicar, Russell Noakes, Elisabeth Thomas, Robert Rowe, Caroline Hunter, Sara Kitaoji, Chris Cowan and Katrina Gibson.
Our branch delegates to the IPED-wide boards and committees: Linda Nix, Russell Noakes and Shannon Kelly.
Our other non-committee roles: Susie Pilkington, Robin Appleton, Catherine Heath and Pam Faulks.
Julie acknowledged the fantastic job Caroline, Sara and Robert have done with setting up the online streaming of our events. Now more members, regional or city-based, can join in. The committee has also decided to continue to use video-conferencing via Zoom for our monthly meetings, even on the other side of the pandemic. There will be face-to-face events as well, such as our regular lunches, when we are advised it is safe.
Member meetings report
We had a great variety of member meetings including talks presented on:
- Digital marketing for self-published authors and editors by Christopher Cowan
- Legal publishing by Geraldine Maclurcan from LexisNexis
- Editing for accessibility by Julie Ganner
- Writing and editing memoir by Jacqueline Kent
- Accreditation exam by Linda Nix and James Bean
- Medical editing by Mark Ragg (our first completely online meeting)
- Corpora by Claudia McQuillan
- The editor as historian by Cathy Perkins from the State Library of NSW.
Workshops report
We ran one workshop on intermediate-to-advanced Word at UTS. Two other in-person workshops, IPEd Accreditation Exam preparation and life-writing were planned; however, these had to be postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions. The exam preparation workshop was rescheduled and delivered online. We hope to run the life-writing workshop next year, in person if viable.
Newsletter report
It was both a successful and fateful year for our dear old Blue Pencil. The long-held hopes and plans for an IPEd-wide newsletter came to fruition and the newsletter, since named Gatherings, came into being in April. The March 2020 issue of Blue Pencil was to be the last, after 40 years. We still want and gather branch news — members are encouraged to submit content for consideration for inclusion in Gatherings.
Accreditation report
Linda Nix, our branch delegate, attended and chaired Accreditation Board meetings. There were 24 accreditation renewals last year within NSW (none this year to date). A standardised syllabus was developed for the exam preparation workshop for consistency between branches. The exam will be delivered online later this year.
Member liaison report
We have had a welcome influx of new members in the past year: 13 professional, 30 associate and three students. A system was introduced to send an individual welcome email to each new member.
Social media report
The social media focus was on promoting our member meetings on LinkedIn and Facebook, via Editors NSW and Secret Editors’ Business.
Zoom guidelines for meetings were devised by Robert Rowe and Sara Kitaoji and shared with IPEd. Flexibility has really been the key this year. We will look to expand our social media next year and welcome any ideas and feedback to help us offer the best possible experience for our members.
Mentoring report
Most mentorships sought were in preparation for the accreditation exam, with three from new editors seeking guidance on entry to the profession. The NSWs branch was also selected to assist the ANZ branch pending its nomination of a mentorship coordinator. There were eight applications in total, resulting in three successful mentorships and three active mentors.
Budget report
The 2019/20 results constitute a net budget surplus of just under $1800 and a similar-order net saving to IPEd. There were fewer in-person activities than budgeted for due to COVID-19 restrictions and as events moved online there was less expenditure on venue and catering costs. IPEd has allocated the branch $8000 for expenditure in 2020/21 and we may take $2000 from branch reserve as a provision for members to attend next year’s IPEd conference.
Election results
The results of the committee elections for 2020/21 were revealed. Details of the new committee were announced in the September 2020 edition of Gatherings.
Events
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, member meetings will continue to be held via Zoom.
Members are urged to check their emails for the latest information on events.
Topic: Fiction editing
Date: Tuesday 3 November 2020, 7pm AEDT
Location: online via Zoom
Details: Issues to be discussed will include:
- editing fiction pre-submission, and working directly with authors
- editing in-house, and training
- structural editing and skills
- copyediting, including the differences between line editing fiction and non-fiction
- what authors are looking for from editors
- what publishing houses are looking for from editors
- surprises and lessons from 2020.
Presenters: Catherine Hill and Nicola O’Shea.
Catherine Hill has been an editor of both fiction and non-fiction for more than 20 years. She started her editorial career in London, at Orion and then Little, Brown and Company. She has worked in Australia since 2004 and is now managing editor of Penguin Random House.
Nicola O’Shea started editing fiction in-house at HarperCollins Publishers Australia. In her freelance career, she edits for a range of mainstream publishers, as well as working directly with authors to help them prepare their manuscripts for submission to agents or publishers, or to self-publish. She has taught editing at the University of Technology, Sydney and University of Sydney, and since 2017 has run an online structural editing course for fiction. www.nicolaoshea.com.
Cost: $10 members, $20 non-members, no concessions for this event.
Bookings close: Friday 30 October and a link to join the Zoom meeting will be emailed to all registrants on Saturday 31 October.
Book here.
Topic: End of year social event
Date: One evening in December 2020
Location: to be determined
Details: Will the COVID-19 social and physical restrictions be lifted enough by December to enable us to safely have an end-of-year gathering?
Keep an eye on your email for any decision or news as the time approaches.