by Dr Linda Nix AE
The Accreditation Board has now completed accreditation renewals for the 2011 and 2016 cohorts of AEs, and congratulates all 63 successful applicants. Some AEs did not apply to renew because they have retired, left the profession or chosen not to become IPEd members, but a few of the non-renewing AEs have indicated they will apply to have their accreditation reinstated in next year’s renewals. That leaves 354 current AEs as of September 2021.
The use of Google Forms for applications enabled us to easily obtain useful data on applicants’ renewal rates, membership profiles, work profiles and professional development activities. A full report was submitted to the September meeting of the IPEd Board, but we thought we’d share some highlights here:
- The highest numbers of both renewals (26, or 41 per cent) and member non-renewals (five) were from the NSW branch.
- Of the 63 renewing AEs, 12 also belong to another editing society, mostly CSE, CIEP or BELS.
- More AEs have their own business (46) or are contractors (five) than are employees (20), while some edit without pay (three volunteers; one intern). (Note: the numbers do not add to 63 because some AEs have more than one employment status, e.g. employed in one job with casual editing work on the side). Very few are in senior or management roles.
- Whether employees, self-employed or contractors, full-time editors (26) are in the minority — 34 of the 63 AEs edit on a contract, casual or part-time basis, many with editing as a secondary source of income.
- For 48 (76 per cent of) AEs, their work situation had not changed in the past five years.
- IPEd training, other industry training and the IPEd conference were the most common forms of professional development activity for the 63 AEs, highlighting the importance of these programs to the profession.
- Although 21 AEs claimed to be in a mentoring relationship — the majority as mentors to junior editors — only eight were involved in IPEd’s Mentoring Program.
A majority of the AEs (38) also contributed in some way — many in several ways — to an IPEd program or branch committee or volunteered for another industry association.