President’s report October 2023
By Margaret Trudgeon AE
As the year speeds towards the finish line, the committee has been busy planning a few final events and PD, as well as addressing a couple of changes to the committee line-up.
I was very excited to introduce our recent online Zoom cuppa event – an interview between Thirangie Jayatilake, EdVic’s Inclusion and Access Adviser, and Dr Renée Otmar DE, author of Editing for sensitivity, diversity and inclusion, which took place late last month. The event drew a large crowd of 85 attendees on the day. Renée answered a range of carefully posed questions from Thirangie on how she came to write the book, and how editors can address matters such as their own unconscious bias and cultural appropriation.
The conversation flowed easily and there were some great questions posed from the floor, fielded by Ann Philpott, our Student and Outreach Officer. Ann has also written a brief report on the conversation for Gatherings this month. And congratulations to Sara Winkler who won a free copy of the book at the event!
Tuesday 31 October is our last online speaker event for the year: “What you always wanted to know about small press publishing but were afraid to ask”. Tim Coronel, CEO of the Small Press Network, will talk about small presses and their place in the Australian publishing landscape. How do they manage to survive beside all the large international publishers?
The SPN is currently organising its annual conference, which takes place in late November (23–25) in Melbourne. We will have five free passes to give away to lucky attendees of the talk. The SPN has also kindly passed on a 20% discount code for IPEd members who book a conference ticket, which is available until bookings close. Find the discount code in the member portal.
If you live in the Ballarat area, you are welcome to join Susan Pierotti and fellow regional editors for another get-together at 11am on 22 November at Eclectic Tastes, on the shores of Lake Wendouree.
Tickets will soon be available for our in-person Christmas event! Please be sure to keep 6 December free as we would love to see as you at Mr Tulk for dinner, drinks and entertainment. Kate Burridge will be speaking about “The shelf life of our slang”, and there’s bound to be a laugh or two, along with some fascinating information for us all to mull over. There will be some door prizes too.
We have another PD offering coming up on the evening of Wednesday 29 November, when Hilary Cadman will be presenting her popular workshop “Editing tools for productivity”.
In EdVic committee news, we’ve recently appointed a new Student Adviser. Welcome to Steph Huddleston, who will be joining us for the next 12 months to help us strengthen our ties with the editing student community in Victoria. We look forward to working with you and getting to know you. Thanks once again to our previous Student Adviser, Cai Bardsley, who is now working at the Small Press Network, proving just how small the world is!!
We would also like to extend our gratitude to Cecile Shanahan, who has swapped her subcommittee hat for that of Communications Officer, following the recent departure of Bonnee Crawford. We wish Bonnee all the best for her future endeavours and thank her for her time on the committee.
Editors Victoria Christmas Party – special guest: Professor Kate Burridge
By Kylie Howard, Events subcommittee
Professor Kate Burridge is a name familiar to most editors. Linguist, prolific author, and regular radio and television guest are but a few of the many strings to her bow. We are delighted that Kate will be our special guest speaker at the EdVic Christmas Party on 6 December 2023, when she will speak about “the shelf life of our slang”.
One of Kate’s main areas of interest is language change. This has led her to explore Australian slang, its life cycle and what she calls “slanguage success stories”. In her talk, she’ll look at terms such as “selfie”, which started out as Australian slang and went on to take the world — and its dictionaries — by storm. She’ll also discuss examples of not-so-successful slang (“milkshake duck” failed to take off) and ask the question: What makes a slanguage success story?
Be sure to look out for the email invitation and join Kate and your colleagues at Mr Tulk (at the State Library of Victoria) for what promises to be a fun and informative evening.
New members for Victoria
Associate members
- Rachel Lucy Bamber
- Alison Watson
- Adrian Jackson
- Heather Wilde
Student/graduate members
- Cormac Mills Ritchard
- Sophia Chan