From the President
by Stephanie Holt AE
It feels something akin to normal out there in the big wide world. Perhaps you’ve even squeezed in a holiday or weekend getaway. I suspect it will take a long time to come to terms with COVID-19’s impacts, but I hope there’s much to look forward to for us all.
Last month we arranged a range of social events for members, spread across the state. Whether large or small, over a meal, a coffee or a glass of wine, these have been lively and upbeat gatherings.
For our special end-of-year event, we’re focusing on members as writers (you can read about some of their books elsewhere in this newsletter).
Fiction writers Eugen Bacon, Christine Balint and Lyn Yeowart will join us by Zoom on 9 December to help bring 2021 to a close. Thank you to all those who welcomed our focus on celebrating members’ books and members as writers — we received lots of positive feedback, even from those who didn’t have books to spruik or ideas to suggest.
One of the pleasures of this time of year is the chance to check out the range of publications coming out of Victorian universities, put together by their writing, editing and publishing programs. Such projects are a great calling-card for student writers and a rich training ground for student editors. Between those covers may be lurking a future Miles, Stella or Rosie winner. A big congratulations to all our student members for these achievements during such a disrupted year.
Meanwhile, the committee is working on several proposals and initiatives to expand and improve our work for EdVic members. At our last meeting, we discussed diversity within the profession, the needs of students and recent graduates, and how to help new members engage with all we have to offer. We’ll share more as these discussions progress. Suggestions from members are always welcome.
Finally, I’d like to especially acknowledge our outgoing Professional Development Officer Claire Kelly, who resigned from the committee last month. Claire was part of the PD subcommittee before stepping up as PD Officer in mid-2020. She led the branch’s PD with care and commitment to members, the PD team and her colleagues across IPEd, and rose splendidly to the challenges of maintaining a full PD program on Zoom. Claire also initiated and helped drive some significant branch work, especially around inclusion, student outreach and streamlining and standardising our procedures. We will miss her on the committee, but look forward to welcoming her and catching up at future branch events.
Vice-President Jane Fitzpatrick AE will step in as PD officer for the remainder of this committee’s term. If you’d like to support this work, drop Jane a line and have a chat about our PD subcommittee (edvic.profdev@iped-editors.org).
Stephanie Holt AE
New members
EdVic is pleased to welcome members who have joined or upgraded over the past month.
Associate members: Elleanor Hill, Melissa Storey, Judith Rebekah Walters, Carol Woeltjes
Student members: Senaai Chapple and Jasmine Mahon
We look forward to seeing you at our workshops and events, and encourage you to make the most of IPEd’s networks for news and support.
New member profile: Jasmine Mahon
Jasmine Mahon
Q: How long have you been an editor and how did your career begin?
A: Five years. Where it all began was as part of RMIT’s Professional Writing & Editing (PWE) degree. In a narrative development class, attendees exchanged writing pieces for editing and class workshopping.
Q: What type of editing makes up most of your work?
A: Communications and web copy in a corporate role. I’m also in a writers’ group where the pieces exchanged for editing include memoir, short story and manuscripts.
Q: What aspect of the profession do you find most challenging?
A: Trusting my instincts on my proposed changes for a piece of writing, specifically on structural edits, as this can be a large task.
Q: How would you like to build your skills as an editor?
A: By gaining more structural editing experience. I recently did a structural edit of a manuscript, under a mentor, and this definitely built skills and confidence.
Q: What are you looking forward to, about being a member?
A: Connecting with others in the industry and attending events to build knowledge and skills.
We meet again! November networking
by Jane Fitzpatrick AE, edvic.vicepres@iped-editors.org
In November, members of EdVic were delighted to get out and meet in person. Lively regional lunches were hosted by Cecile Shanahan in Castlemaine, Jenn Zabinskas and Rebecca Fletcher in Ballarat, and Liz Atkinson in Geelong.
In the Big Smoke, Stephanie Holt hosted a convivial drink in Northcote on 7 November and eight members met at the Fitz Cafe in Brunswick on 18 November, where conversation ranged freely across creative projects, life after lockdown, work and, inevitably, what we’ve been reading.
We hope you will join us at another real-life event in 2022.