Interpreters seem to be a mobile bunch, many of us arriving in Oregon for an ITP and then moving on to our next adventure after graduation. For others, Oregon is just a stop on their life journey, working for a time and then moving on. Whatever the case may be, our friends come and go.
Can you guess a perk of attending the national conference? Getting to see our friends again. So, I thought I would bring you a little update on a few of the previous Oregonians who I ran into and chatted with in San Fransisco. I realize there are many more people I didn't see - hey with over 2,000 interpreters I was bound to miss some people - but perhaps another board member can add updates about individuals they caught up with.
For the WOU class of '97, you will remember Mary Sattler. Mary is doing great and currently lives in Florida. She is pondering a move back to the west coast, with San Francisco on the top of her list. She is working in the education system, but will enter the freelance interpreting arena when she moves. And just so you know - the 8 earings are now 12, with the last one pierced while here in San Fran!
PCC grads: your own Amy Rivera is going strong as a freelance interpreter in New Mexico. Yep, she married Owen three years ago! Since Amy moved to NM, she has earned her RID certification and her Bachelors degree in interpreting with a minor in history. She has the same great laugh and was a hoot...as usual.
Ruann Wood, a PCC grad, was a force to be reckoned with at the conference. It was a treat to see Ruann in her element as the Assistant Support Staff Coordinator. She is happy in her new home in Tennessee working as a freelance interpreter. Apparently is was a bit of an adjustment after moving, but the entire family has found their niche!
She graduated from WOU and has only been gone a year, but Jaqueline Hudson was working hard as a member of the Support Staff team! Jaqueline made the move to Rochester, New York a year ago and said it has been quite the change. The first intensly cold winter was a force to be reconed with! Even though New York is is different from the west coast in many aspects, she is enjoying her work and is settling in. It was so nice to see her beautiful smile this week!
Leah Passman, formerly of Eugene, is a current resident of Madison, Wisconsin. Leah is working for Birnbaum Interpreting Services as a call center supervisor. On her downtime she is goalie on her summer hockey team and is gearing up for the hockey season in the fall. Not a big surprise for those of us who know her. She is a force to contend with on the ice! Leah purchased her first house in Madison and has a new dog named Newt. Yes, she still has the same laugh!
There you go: an update on a few people. Hopefully we will be able to add to this list. For such a small community, we seem to loose track of each other easily. So, it was great to catch up with a handful of colleagues!
Take Care,
Tina Buchanan
Past President
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
LTA and Testing Update from San Fran
Hello fellow interpreters! Another day has passed here in San Francisco. I attended an LTA (Local Test Administrator) meeting this morning and the National Testing System Committee Forum tonight and WOW, is there a lot of info to pass along!
Julie Moore and I attended an LTA meeting with Bernice Davis of the RID national office today. Bernice is one of two staff who work in the testing department. Thats right - I said TWO! Typically that department consists of 3-4 staff who oversee the various tasks related to the testing system. Lori Frison, who has been serving as the Director of Certification, completed her last day with RID July 24th. What this means for you is that the testing office is short on staff, while the demands on them have increased. Bernice informed us today that they receive approximately 300 phone calls per day regarding testing questions...and that doesn't include the emails! So have a little patience!
Attention all testing candidates! If you register and pay on-line for your NIC, you WILL NOT recieve your confirmation letter in the mail. You will HAVE TO CALL RID and ask for them to send your letter to you. This letter is very important, as it lets the LTA's know which form of the NIC you are to take. There are high hopes that this glitch with be a short lived one as the website gets tweaked and the bugs resolved. Remember - the policy at the PCC Supersite is that you can not test if you don't have your letter. So please deal with this as soon as possible when planning to test.
Highlights of the National Testing System Forum:
The NTS section of the website includes an option for tracking your test. You can navigate the site and check to see the status of your test. It sounds like they will be adding even more options for checking the location of your tape in the process. If you can't find your test, be patient! They are still working on getting everyone's information into the system.
Several Supersites around the country have closed down. The NTS will be looking into more locations in areas that need to be served.
Check out the NTS section of the new RID website. You will find information regarding the Associates/Bachelors Degree requirements that go into effect in June 30, 2008 and 2012 respectively. There are options available in lieu of the degrees. To find this information go to the RID website.
Did you get a 6 month extension for taking the CI or CT? Due to the previous back log for rating, RID gave those waiting a 6 month extension. Currently the rating time has returned to a normal 3 month period, but RID has not reduced the extension time. It is still 6 months.
Well those are just a few of the many items discussed at the NTS Forum. Please check the website for more information.
All of the attendees are gearing up for an important and lively Business Meeting tomorrow. Check in here to see how it went!!
Good Night,
Tina Buchanan
Julie Moore and I attended an LTA meeting with Bernice Davis of the RID national office today. Bernice is one of two staff who work in the testing department. Thats right - I said TWO! Typically that department consists of 3-4 staff who oversee the various tasks related to the testing system. Lori Frison, who has been serving as the Director of Certification, completed her last day with RID July 24th. What this means for you is that the testing office is short on staff, while the demands on them have increased. Bernice informed us today that they receive approximately 300 phone calls per day regarding testing questions...and that doesn't include the emails! So have a little patience!
Attention all testing candidates! If you register and pay on-line for your NIC, you WILL NOT recieve your confirmation letter in the mail. You will HAVE TO CALL RID and ask for them to send your letter to you. This letter is very important, as it lets the LTA's know which form of the NIC you are to take. There are high hopes that this glitch with be a short lived one as the website gets tweaked and the bugs resolved. Remember - the policy at the PCC Supersite is that you can not test if you don't have your letter. So please deal with this as soon as possible when planning to test.
Highlights of the National Testing System Forum:
The NTS section of the website includes an option for tracking your test. You can navigate the site and check to see the status of your test. It sounds like they will be adding even more options for checking the location of your tape in the process. If you can't find your test, be patient! They are still working on getting everyone's information into the system.
Several Supersites around the country have closed down. The NTS will be looking into more locations in areas that need to be served.
Check out the NTS section of the new RID website. You will find information regarding the Associates/Bachelors Degree requirements that go into effect in June 30, 2008 and 2012 respectively. There are options available in lieu of the degrees. To find this information go to the RID website.
Did you get a 6 month extension for taking the CI or CT? Due to the previous back log for rating, RID gave those waiting a 6 month extension. Currently the rating time has returned to a normal 3 month period, but RID has not reduced the extension time. It is still 6 months.
Well those are just a few of the many items discussed at the NTS Forum. Please check the website for more information.
All of the attendees are gearing up for an important and lively Business Meeting tomorrow. Check in here to see how it went!!
Good Night,
Tina Buchanan
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Getting Started....
April 4, 2007
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from the RID conference in San Francisco! The conference has been amazing so far, and it’s only the second day. Last night’s opening ceremony was everything one might expect, and then some…there were dancing girls and go-go boots, musical numbers, the Village People made an appearance (naturally) – did you know they could sign? Norma Lewis won the Distinguished Service Award.
Tina Buchanan, Susie Friberg (your new Member at Large), and I will be sharing bits of our experience with those of you who are interested. Our webmistress, Dot Hearn, has set up a blog, and we will be contributing to it for the rest of the conference.
This morning I went to a workshop on interpreting for various religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). The presenter was the well-respected David Bar-Tzur. Some of you may know him from his encyclopedic website, www.theinterpretersfriend.com. It is a compendium of an amazing variety of information useful to interpreters. I learned a great deal from the workshop, and the nice thing is that the content from his Power Point has been uploaded to his website, so everyone can look up information and vocabulary. I also went to a “graphic language” workshop given by a fabulous Deaf presenter, Franky Ramont. Can I just say that Steve Marceno was hysterically fun to sit next to?
Then it was on to learn how to be a better president for all of you at an invitational workshop for presidents and vice-presidents. Angela Jones and Jimmy Beldon had lots of good advice I will share with the rest of the Board when we have our “retreat” at the end of this month.
Oregon is well-represented at this conference. Many interpreters are here, Jena Paslay from Western Oregon University is one of the student representatives (Ruann Wood, former ORID board member, is one of the coordinators for support staff), Julie Simon and Catherine Thomas will each be presenting a workshop tomorrow, Jaci Dion will be involved with the Video Interpreting Committee’s forum. But we are a drop in the bucket of this huge gathering of more than 2,000 attendees. Awe-inspiring!
Having a great time, wish you were here! (If you are here, don’t miss our group photo Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., meet at the door to the Region V Caucus!)
Vicki Darden
President
Here are some thoughts from Tina Buchanan:
I LOVE the opening ceremonies at the RID National Conference. Many of us spend our days going from job to job not seeing another interpreter. OR we get a chance to team with someone and as soon as the job is finished, we are both speeding off our seperate ways to another appointment.
At the opening ceremonies we have a chance to see the biggest gathering of people in our profession! There were well over 1,000 interpreters in that room tonight and it felt GREAT! Interpreting students, new interpreters, seasoned interpreters, k-12, freelance, and CDI's all sharing the same space and all gathered for the same reason - to learn together. If that doesn't get you inspired, than nothing will.
I'm a big people watcher. It's why I like the airport and walking downtown. The National Conference is a people watchers mecca! One of my favorite things to see are all of the friends and collegues greeting each other the first day or two. Sit in the lobby for awhile and you will see hugs, smiles, laughter and how are you's galore. People are greeting friends the see everyday, some they haven't seen for awhile - people they went to school with, previous co-workers, - and people they only see when you both show up at the national conference. Hands are moving, faces are smiling and it feels like one big happy interpreting family.
Dear Colleagues,
Greetings from the RID conference in San Francisco! The conference has been amazing so far, and it’s only the second day. Last night’s opening ceremony was everything one might expect, and then some…there were dancing girls and go-go boots, musical numbers, the Village People made an appearance (naturally) – did you know they could sign? Norma Lewis won the Distinguished Service Award.
Tina Buchanan, Susie Friberg (your new Member at Large), and I will be sharing bits of our experience with those of you who are interested. Our webmistress, Dot Hearn, has set up a blog, and we will be contributing to it for the rest of the conference.
This morning I went to a workshop on interpreting for various religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). The presenter was the well-respected David Bar-Tzur. Some of you may know him from his encyclopedic website, www.theinterpretersfriend.com. It is a compendium of an amazing variety of information useful to interpreters. I learned a great deal from the workshop, and the nice thing is that the content from his Power Point has been uploaded to his website, so everyone can look up information and vocabulary. I also went to a “graphic language” workshop given by a fabulous Deaf presenter, Franky Ramont. Can I just say that Steve Marceno was hysterically fun to sit next to?
Then it was on to learn how to be a better president for all of you at an invitational workshop for presidents and vice-presidents. Angela Jones and Jimmy Beldon had lots of good advice I will share with the rest of the Board when we have our “retreat” at the end of this month.
Oregon is well-represented at this conference. Many interpreters are here, Jena Paslay from Western Oregon University is one of the student representatives (Ruann Wood, former ORID board member, is one of the coordinators for support staff), Julie Simon and Catherine Thomas will each be presenting a workshop tomorrow, Jaci Dion will be involved with the Video Interpreting Committee’s forum. But we are a drop in the bucket of this huge gathering of more than 2,000 attendees. Awe-inspiring!
Having a great time, wish you were here! (If you are here, don’t miss our group photo Sunday night at 7:30 p.m., meet at the door to the Region V Caucus!)
Vicki Darden
President
Here are some thoughts from Tina Buchanan:
I LOVE the opening ceremonies at the RID National Conference. Many of us spend our days going from job to job not seeing another interpreter. OR we get a chance to team with someone and as soon as the job is finished, we are both speeding off our seperate ways to another appointment.
At the opening ceremonies we have a chance to see the biggest gathering of people in our profession! There were well over 1,000 interpreters in that room tonight and it felt GREAT! Interpreting students, new interpreters, seasoned interpreters, k-12, freelance, and CDI's all sharing the same space and all gathered for the same reason - to learn together. If that doesn't get you inspired, than nothing will.
I'm a big people watcher. It's why I like the airport and walking downtown. The National Conference is a people watchers mecca! One of my favorite things to see are all of the friends and collegues greeting each other the first day or two. Sit in the lobby for awhile and you will see hugs, smiles, laughter and how are you's galore. People are greeting friends the see everyday, some they haven't seen for awhile - people they went to school with, previous co-workers, - and people they only see when you both show up at the national conference. Hands are moving, faces are smiling and it feels like one big happy interpreting family.
Welcome!
The launching of the ORID blog just happens *wink* to coincide with the RID conference taking place in San Francisco. Our President and several other board members and committee chairs will be posting information as they can between the many meetings and workshops they are attending.
Stay tuned!
Who knows - this may even become a regular feature.
Dot
ORID Webmaster
Stay tuned!
Who knows - this may even become a regular feature.
Dot
ORID Webmaster
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)