London, 28 April 2012

There are many different organisations throughout Europe – FIT Europe has over 50 members itself. While these organisations take many different forms, from trade unions and associations for graduates of specific training institutions in countries where the professions are heavily regulated to self-regulating associations of professionals in countries that have no official framework, their objectives are broadly similar and nearly all share a common feature in being run primarily by volunteers. Some organisations have many years of experience, while others are much newer. This is a unique opportunity for volunteers from all of our organisations to meet together and discuss their concerns relating to how they overcome the challenges of running a professional association.

 Dear Creditsafe Customer,

We have today been made aware of a rogue email that has been sent out and may have hit a number of our customers.  The email will look like it comes from customer services @creditsafeuk.com with the title "Creditsafe Product Update".  The e-mail claims that your online access has been suspended due to incorrect log in details and will ask you to follow a link to re-register your account. Please note that this email IS NOT from Creditsafe and therefore if you do receive it please DO NOT click on the link. We believe that this is an attempt to access Creditsafe Usernames and Passwords. Please note that we will never email you to ask for your username and password therefore if you have been sent this email or any other email that you feel may be suspicious please let us know.  

Kind regards  

Jared Roach
Creditsafe CRM Manager

ITI Webinar: Choosing Your Market (11am - 12 noon, 24th January 2012)

THIS EVENT IS PROMOTED BY THE INSTITUTE OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING AND FACILITATED BY ECPD WEBINARS.

Speaker: Helen Robertson FITI FCIM

Helen Robertson has been a translator of German and Dutch to English since 1979. She has been running her own translation business, now based in York, since 1992. She specialises in the translation and editing of management and journalistic texts, working mainly for direct clients. Helen is a Fellow of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting and the Institute of Marketing and has written several articles on business subjects, including marketing, for the ITI Bulletin.

For more details and booking form, click below

http://www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/events_74546.html

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Ewald Osers on Monday Oct 10, aged 94. Ewald was a leading member of ITI and other organisations, including FIT, and was one of the great names in 20th century translation. He was born in Prague in 1917 but was a native speaker of German. He came to the UK in 1938 and used his outstanding linguistic talents in support of the war effort, and later with the Foreign Service of the BBC. His translations of literary works from several languages won him awards from all over Europe, but his greatest sadness was that his long career was never similarly recognised in his adopted country. His funeral will take place at Reading Crematorium at 2.30 pm on October 25th.

The event is totally free of charge but as the idea was inspired by the MacMillan Coffee Morning campaign, we are inviting all participants to make a donation to MacMillan Cancer Support through our  JustGiving page: http://www.justgiving.com/iti-coffee-morning/. If you cannot attend but wish to donate, please don’t hold back!

To register for this event, please click here.

To send your questions and topics, please email iticoffeemorning@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you on Friday.

Anne de Freyman, Philippa Hammond, Lucy Brooks and Sarah Dillon

Organisers for ITI and eCPD Webinars

Notice Requesting Member Motions

The next ITI General meeting will take place on Saturday 19 November 2011 at the Hughes Parry Hall on Cartwright Gardens (close to Euston Station) at 3.00pm.

A formal agenda, notice of meeting and annual accounts will be circulated to members in due course.

Members should note that Council agreed for the annual Accounts for the year ended 30 April 2011 (as approved by the Council on the 10^th of August 2011), is made available at the same time as this notice is published. The annual Accounts are therefore available for members to view in the members'area/minutesreports/financial.

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Go to: http://www.cambs-police.co.uk/help/professionalInterpreter/

ITI is delighted to have been a member, together with other agencies and professional bodies, of the Project Board set up by the Cambridgeshire Constabulary which helped to develop this film.

Cambridgeshire has seen a steady growth in the demand for interpreting services, especially in public services, in recent years. The aim of the project was to create a film to enable public sector agencies better to understand the need for more cost efficient and effective use of interpreters.

The project was funded by the Migration Impact Fund following a successful application in 2009.

The Project Board Chairman and Senior Owner is Detective Superintendent Gary Ridgway; the Project Manager is Katrina Mayfield.

The key message throughout the film is that a professional interpreter is trained, qualified, experienced, security-vetted and registered with a professional body. It is essential that officials follow the ground rules as set out in the film, so as to ensure an effective outcome. Their customers should be made aware of the role of an interpreter and how best to communicate.

Film structure

The film is split into six modules, each lasting 7-10 minutes.  Each module presents a bad practice scenario, followed by good practice.

The long-awaited rates and salaries survey, jointly organised by ITI and CIOL, has now gone live and will be accessible until 8 October 2011.

Members who have opted to receive information from ITI electronically should have received a link to access the survey in an email that was sent to them individually. Members who have not yet opted to receive information electronically can access the survey at

Professional translators and interpreters who are not members of ITI or CIOL are also invited to take part.

A joint team from ITI and CIOL has prepared the online survey questionnaire and estimates it will take you approximately 10 – 20 minutes to complete it.

The above link will register your request with Survey Gizmo, the company operating the survey on our behalf. You may complete the survey only once, but it does have a save & return function, should you be interrupted during the data entry process.

You will not be asked for your name or any other identifying data as the information you provide will only be used for the purpose of this survey.

http://fitprizes.blogspot.com/2011/08/fit-best-periodical-prize-2011.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK6AzuTXe_c

Members who want to link to their online profile in the ITI Directory must simply create a link pointing at http://www.iti.org.uk/member.asp?mid=xxxxxx, where xxxxxx represents their membership number. Remember to drop off any leading zeros from the membership number (e.g. if your membership number is 1, then your link should end ?mid=1, if your membership number is 2273, then your link should end ?mid=2273). The link will automatically redirect the user to the relevant page in the ITI Directory. 

A sample link is provided below as a template that can be copied into your own web pages: 

<a href=''http://www.iti.org.uk/member.asp?mid=xxxxxx">Link to my ITI Directory profile</a> 

or

ITI is delighted that Aston University has agreed to co-host this year’s Translation Workshop with the ITI West Midlands Group on Saturday 15 October, 9.30-5.15.

The Annual Translation Workshop is always well attended and is an enjoyable and valuable learning opportunity for translators of all experience levels. 

Texts will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish and other languages depending on demand. Subjects will range from legal, corporate and technical and popular press material to light-hearted material and cartoons. 

The fee will be £48 for members and £62 for non members and £30 for students inclusive of VAT and will include handouts, lunch and refreshments.  Full details and an online booking form are available on www.iti.org.uk - events/ITI and on ICE.

Please note, as some people have reported a broken link to the Written Ministerial Statement, a PDf of this is also available as above. 

ITI is delighted that Aston University has agreed to co-host this year’s Translation Workshop with the ITI West Midlands Group on Saturday 15 October, 9.30-5.15.

The Annual Translation Workshop is always well attended and is an enjoyable and valuable learning opportunity for translators of all experience levels. 

Texts will be available in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish and other languages depending on demand. Subjects will range from legal, corporate and technical and popular press material to light-hearted material and cartoons. 

The fee will be £48 for members and £62 for non members and £30 for students inclusive of VAT and will include handouts, lunch and refreshments.  Full details and an online booking form are available on www.iti.org.uk - events/ITI and on ICE.

Thank you to all ITI members who provided comment and advice.  We regret it was not possible to cover every point raised in our final submission.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has recently finished drafting the proposed, new arrangements. 

Details are set out in four documents: 

1. A summary of what the planned framework agreement would deliver.

2. Proposed quality standards which would apply to interpreters and translators

3. A proposed Code of Conduct which all interpreters and translators would be required to abide

4. Management information / KPIs proposed as part of framework agreement.

To view the above documents, please visit the Members' Area, Company Documents, Ministry of Justice. 

Not every ITI member does work in the justice sector, but ITI Council thought it important to make details of these proposals available and offer members the opportunity to make any comments on the plans.   You will appreciate that ITI has both individual and corporate members and so needs to balance the wishes and interests of both.  Also, it is considered that, at this stage, there is little likelihood of the MoJ changing any fundamental aspects of their planned arrangements, but there is opportunity for ITI to influence finer points in the proposals or to stress certain principles.      Once all feedback has been collated, ITI will be arranging to contact the MoJ to set out the Institute’s views and advice before arrangements are finalised and introduced.   Unfortunately, the MoJ has given a very tight deadline for receiving responses – 27^th April – so ITI needs to ask to receive your views by noon on Wednesday 20^th April.

If you wish to comment on the MoJ’s planned arrangements, please email Mike Owen at chiefexec@iti.org.uk

Please visit the Members' Area, Members' Information - ITI Member Survey to complete the questionnaire.

Please take this opportunity to nominate outstanding colleagues for the FIT prizes in recognition of their individual achievements and to demonstrate the work and accomplishments of your association's members. Associations are entitled to nominate one candidate per prize and nominees must be a member of the association that puts their name forward.  

All FIT member associations are encouraged to submit nominations.

Richard Delaney has been co-opted onto ITI Council as Corporate representative, confirmed on 6th October 2010.

Mike Owen commenced his role as ITI Chief Executive on 4th October 2010.

For full details and to take advantage of this offer, please visit Members' Area, Member Information, Special Offers for Members.

Click the attached file to view the webinar 

Members names will now be fully displayed on a posting and the posting length has been extended to 1000 characters. 

We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

ITI Council and ITI Office 

Passwords for Creditsafe and the Legal Helpline have changed as of 1st July.

New passwords can be found in the Members Area/Member Information/Member Benefits. 

The ITI Council are pleased to confirm that a General Meeting will be taking place in Milton Keynes on the afternoon of Saturday 13^th November 2010.

Further details to follow.

The Survey is now officially closed.

Please see Adverts & Jobs for full details and how to apply.

In 2010 the chosen language is Spanish and entrants will be asked to translate ‘El hachazo’, a short story by the Argentine writer Matías Néspolo.

The short story and details on how to enter can be found at www.harvillseckeryoungtranslatorsprize.com. The prize is open to anyone between the ages of 16 and 34, with no restriction on country of residence. Deadline for entries 31st July 2010.

The winner’s name will be announced in September 2010 and the winning translator will receive £1000, a selection of Harvill Secker titles and Waterstone’s books vouchers.

University of Westminster, London

Starting Work as a Translator or Interpreter
Saturday, 5 June 2010, 09.30 – 16.30

Are you interested in working as a translator or interpreter, but unsure how to start? This well-established one-day seminar has proved immensely popular with postgraduates, newcomers to the profession, career changers.

Find out how to get started and what is involved by attending this one-day seminar, organised jointly by the Institute of Translation & Interpreting and the University of Westminster.

You will hear about:
• the qualities and skills you need to work as a translator or interpreter;
• how to get organised – and where to find help;
• breaking through the ‘no experience = no work’ barrier;
• areas where your language skills are in demand, and new niches to explore.

There will be question-and-answer sessions and time for networking.

Cost: £26 for ITI members (and members of FIT organisations); £36 for non-members. Please note all FOC places have now been taken.

Full address

University of Westminster
309 Regent Street
London United Kingdom

Additional information. Please cut and copy the following address into your websit browser to be directed to an online booking form:

www.iti.org.uk/uploadedFiles/events/StartingWorkasaTranslatororInterpreter.htm 

European Parliament panel backs Commission's call for robust translation and interpretation rights in criminal proceedings.

 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/122&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

 http://courtofjustice.blogspot.com/2010/04/improvement-of-language-rights-for-eu.html

The postcode for ITI office has changed - in any correspondence with ITI office please would you use the new postcode of MK9 2PQ.

EU to grant free interpretation rights to suspected criminals 

From European Commission - Director General, Translation 

The Directorate-General for Translation is now organising a conference to present the results of the study, which it will later publish in full on its website. The conference will take place on 27 November 2009 in Brussels : the morning session will be devoted to the presentation of the study and the afternoon to a round table on languages and the economy, both followed by a discussion.

In the EU 60% of students in upper secondary studied at least two  languages and in the adult population 28% speak at least two languages 

Read the full (3 page) EUROSTAT report by following this link

Today, the European Commission has published the list of university programmes that have been selected to join the “European Master’s in Translation ” (EMT) network, following a call in March this year.

For more information and a list of translation programmes click here

10-09-2009  Afghans Angry Over Death of Interpreter in Raid That Freed N.Y. Times Reporter

Kabul, Afghanistan (Washington Post): The dramatic rescue of New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, a British-born journalist who was plucked unharmed from a Taliban hideout in a pre-dawn raid Wednesday by British special forces, was greeted with relief by his colleagues and co-workers in Afghanistan. … But the relief was overshadowed by grief and anger among many Afghan journalists and others over the death of Farrell's Afghan interpreter, Sultan Munadi, who was shot dead in a firefight during the raid and whose body was left behind while the commandos whisked Farrell to safety.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090800479.html?wprss=rss_world%20
atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/john-burns-discusses-sultan-munadi/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Buying Solutions as the Contracting Authority is putting in place a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement for use by or on behalf of UK Public Sector Bodies. These UK Public Sector bodies (as identified in the relevant Contract Notice) have a need for a range of face-to-face interpreting services. (Written translation and telephone translation are out of scope of this framework agreement as there are existing framework agreements already in place which provide for these services). 

The Contract Notice was published on the ‘Tenders Electronic Daily’ website (www.ted.europa.eu) on Tuesday 11^th August 2009 (reference 2009/S 152-222289). Buying Solutions has worked collaboratively with representatives from a number of public sector organisations (including ACPO Language Services & Interpreter Portfolio, Bristol City Council, CAFCASS, DWP, GCHQ, Home Office (including UKBA and IPS), London Procurement Project (NHS), MoD, MoJ, NHS, OCJR, Police Authorities and the Metropolitan Police Authority and SOCA) to determine the requirements for this framework agreement. The purpose of this procurement is to set up a framework agreement which individual customer organisations can subsequently access to set up their own contracts. Each customer organisation will specify their specific individual   requirements as and when they have a need to set up their own contracts under this framework agreement. The key business drivers for setting up this framework agreement are:  

·        to deliver service improvements (e.g. increasing the number and geographical availability of  appropriately qualified, skilled, experienced, competent, registered (where appropriate) and security cleared  interpreters who are readily available to provide high quality face-to-face interpreting services to public sector organisations) through more streamlined processes and  agreed standards. All customer organisations have emphasised that compliance with specified minimum quality standards is of the utmost importance.  Customer organisations will specify the minimum quality standards that will apply to their organisation’s interpreting requirements when providing a specification for further competition.  Levels of supplier compliance and performance will be regularly monitored by the commissioning customer organisation throughout the life of any subsequent contract.    

  achieving these improvements at a reduced administrative cost. The purpose of setting up this framework agreement is not to reduce the pay rates paid to interpreters, but to focus on reducing the administrative time and process costs within public sector organisations that are associated with sourcing, engaging, scheduling, checking, managing, invoicing and paying large numbers of interpreters.   The introduction of this framework agreement provides customer organisations with the potential opportunity to benefit from improved service delivery, by utilising a mixture of managing agent expertise and modern technology. 

It is envisaged that managing agent(s) will be able to add value to this element of the service by being able to provide appropriately established electronic systems and supporting infrastructure, management expertise, and economies of scale.  

We are becoming aware of a new scam involving a "client" looking for translators and requiring them to use SYSTRAN. You are invited to purchase SYSTRAN at a discounted rate and pay through Western Union.

We believe that this is a SCAM

Do not respond to such emails and keep in mind that the perpetrators can change the product but probably not the payment method.

Do you want to know more about being an interpreter?

Do you want to know more about business and taxation issues?

Watch the official videos.

Choose Training & CPD button from the Home Page and then select Useful Links.

The very successful ITI International Conference held over the weekend of 16 & 17 May 2009 was attended by over 200 translators and interpreters.

The conference offered many high quality presentations and the feedback from delegates has been excellent. Speakers and delegates came from all around the globe including Australia, Brazil, China, USA, and many European countries,   

During the conference a number of awards were made.

The John Sykes award for excellence of professional work and for outstanding contributions to national and international organisations was presented by Ms. Lanna Castellano to Mr. Michael Rowley.

The John Hayes award for outstanding performance in the Institute's Qualified Member entrance examination was presented to Dr. David Thomas and accepted by Ms. Janet Fraser in his absence..

The Best Translation Company award, voted by members of the Institute earlier this year, was presented by Ms. Karen Floyd to Wessex Translations Limited.

Keep watch on this website, use the RSS feed, for news of future ITI events. 

Questions & Answers on Interpretation

English, a rare language?

Wanted: English–language translators