President’s report
by Margaret Trudgeon AE
I can’t believe that we’re almost at the end of the 2023–24 committee term! It’s flown by so fast. Members of the committee are busy writing reports and organising other aspects of our upcoming Annual Branch Meeting, which is set for Wednesday 3 July. We’ll kick off at 7 pm with 45 minutes or so of ABM duties, where we will reflect on the past year, thank those committee members who are stepping down and announce the new line-up for 2024–25. Then we’d love people to stay on for some entertainment from 8 pm.
I’m pleased to announce that Monique diMattina, a local singer, entertainer and composer, is going to entertain us this year, as she talks about a musical she is currently writing and composing on Stella Miles Franklin, the famous Australian author from the turn of the 20th century. Many of you will have read My brilliant career, or maybe even seen the film from back in the 1980s starring Judy Davis and Sam Neil (one of my favourite films of the day. I even attempted to sew a white blouse in the style of the one worn by the main character, Sybylla. Sadly, it didn’t turn out quite the same!). Monique features in a segment on 3RRR’s Vital Bits on a Saturday morning where she updates listeners on the progress of the musical and some of the interesting discoveries she’s made about the life and writings of Stella Miles Franklin along the way. Victorian members can attend the speaker event for free after attending the ABM, while all other members are welcome to join us for the usual fee. It promises to be a fun event.
On 21 May, our events team presented Eileen Callinan, CEO of the Australian Copyright Council, who spoke about what the ACC has to offer editors. She took us on a tour of the website and enlightened us about its many features. Kylie Howard has written a short report on the evening, which you can read in this issue. Thanks to Lee, Kylie and Jenn for their work on this event.
On Friday 14 June, Editors Victoria will be hosting another editors networking lunch at Arcadia Cafe. Please come along and join the crew for lunch and a chat about all things editing. If you’re interested in joining the committee – either as a full committee member or a subcommittee member – or are curious about what goes on behind the scenes, please do come along and we can fill you in on any details you might like to know. We’ll be posting some details of the various roles on offer on the volunteers page of the IPEd member portal too. We particularly need some professional members to take on some key roles on the committee.
I’d like to congratulate our communications officer, Cecile Shanahan, who has recently been promoted to the busy role of lead curator for the Bendigo Writers Festival 2024, which takes place in August.
Congratulations to our professional development officer, Caroline Arnoul, for her shortlisting for The Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger (sponsored by ProWritingAid).
And congratulations go to Logan Anderson, who won a copy of The Australian editing handbook 3rd edition by Elizabeth Flann, Beryl Hill and Lan Wang by filling out the student engagement survey and attending our “Ask an editor” session at the start of May. I hope it will be a useful reference throughout their editing career.
Finally, I’d like to thank all our committee members of the past year for all the hard work they’ve put in. Everyone has pulled together to create some great events and PD, along with offerings for Gatherings, and all the important work that goes on behind the scenes. Please make time to attend the ABM if you can. We need as many professional voting members to attend as possible to help support us to form our new committee for the 2024–25 year and hear all about what we’ve been up to. And we would love to see as many associate and student/graduate members as possible too. I hope to see you there!
New members
Welcome to last month’s new members.
Professional members:
- Susan Daskalakis
Associate members:
- Beth McLoughlin
- Laura Ibic
Student and graduate members:
- James Ferris