Institute of Professional Editors Limited

IPEd Notes
News from the Institute of Professional Editors Limited
www.iped-editors.org
May 2009

A diagram showing the Institute's governance structure can be found on the IPEd website, under ‘Council'. The starting point in the diagram is the societies of editors, which are the creators and members of IPEd. IPEd is the child of the societies.

It is educative and enlightening to browse the websites of the societies. What strikes one from the viewpoint of the Institute is the richness of the activities and resources of its parents, and the opportunities that this presents for further strengthening our profession.

Every society publishes a regular newsletter, maintains a register of editorial services available through its members and has a meeting program that engages topics and speakers relevant to the requests and needs of members.

Several of the websites give lists of documents deemed essential for good editorial practice and provide URLs of sites providing information useful to editors. A section giving reviews of books relevant to editing is a nice feature of the Tasmanian society's site. The Queensland site has a list of editing and publishing courses available at Australian tertiary institutions, very useful for new editors seeking training or for established practitioners seeking to enhance their knowledge and qualifications.

The training programs mounted by the societies themselves are impressive. The Canberra society, for example, has seven training events planned for 2009. They cover diverse topics, from grammar essentials to the business of running an editing business, and move also into areas such as graphic design and advanced on-screen editing techniques that [essentially] expand the horizons of people working in the communication sector. The 2009 training program in Victoria is equally expansive. It was launched in April with a workshop on marketing for freelance editors and, during the year, will move through grammar (also the topic for the first 2009 training event of the NSW society), graphic design, editing foreign languages, proofreading and building a website, as topics. ‘Become a good editor', a WA workshop this month, will take participants back to the basics of editing practice. In similar vein, last month's meeting topic in WA was ‘Starting and surviving as a freelance editor'.

A pioneering achievement of the Queensland society is the implementation of a mentoring scheme, the CAL Editors and Writers Development Project, with the financial support of the Copyright Agency Limited Cultural Fund and in association with the Queensland Writers Centre. This seeks to provide emerging writers with a basic, affordable editing service, and emerging editors with professional development. You can find a progress report on the Queensland site.

In South Australia, the society is hard at work organising our 2009 national conference, the fourth such, which is, in itself, a significant achievement of our profession. Registration for this 8-10 October event is now open, with early-bird rates applying.

The strengths of its members-the societies of editors-are IPEd's prime asset in its work to advance the profession of editing. To be an effective national body promoting and strengthening the profession, it draws on the deep and broad experience of its members. A stronger profession is, in turn, sure to generate more populated and vibrant societies of editors. It's an essential synergy.

Now news of the next accreditation exam: subject to sufficient registrations, it will be held on Saturday 12 September 2009. You can register online at .

Ed Highley
Secretary