The IPEd Council met twice during the period covered by these notes, on 6 May and 10 June. Both meetings were by teleconference.
Date of next accreditation exam announced
IPEd’s Accreditation Board has announced that the fourth accreditation exam will be held on Saturday 13 October 2012. Registration details are on the IPEd website and have been sent to all society newsletter editors and web minders.
Passing the IPEd accreditation exam demonstrates an editor’s professional competence and understanding of editing standards, skills and knowledge. Getting ‘AE’ after your name is a big thing.
As with past exams, all the societies will be running preparatory workshops for exam candidates. Keep an eye out for announcements of those. Also, there are two sample exams available from the IPEd website. They are very good indicators of what you can expect in October, and trialling them will help you to decide whether you are ready for the real thing.
An interesting twist is that an Australian temporarily resident in Spain wishes to sit the exam there. The logistics are challenging, but the board is confident that it can pull it off.
Revision of the Australian standards for editing practice
The hardworking team headed by Kerry Davies AE is approaching the final stages of its work to produce a new edition of the Australian standards for editing practice, which takes into account the substantial changes to editing practice that have occurred since the first edition was published in 2001. Confidence is building that we will be able to release the new edition, online and in print, early in the second half of this year.
Professional development
Two IPEd-supported workshops will be held over the next few months.
On 28 July, Pam Peters DE (New South Wales) will present her respected ‘Grammar essentials’ workshop for members of the Tasmanian society.
It is traffic both ways: on 13 August, Elizabeth Spiegel AE (Tasmania) will travel to Sydney to present a specialist workshop on ‘Editing for the web’ for New South Wales society members.
IPEd is supporting these events by funding the associated travel and accommodation costs. It has budgeted for five such events during 2012–13 so, if there is a workshop topic that interests you, start lobbying your committee and IPEd councillor. Society members can view the wide range of professional development opportunities on the website.
‘When is a quote an underquote?’
Freelancers will be interested in a lively discussion on this topic on the IPEd website forum; further contributions are welcome.
In our unregulated world, how much we should charge for our editing services is a perennial question. A plumber might get $100 appearance money and $80 per hour after that, while it is said that there are ‘editors’ working for as little as $20–30 an hour. It is not that plumbers are overpaid; it is that editors, even the professionals, are often underpaid. The question ‘why?’ is multifaceted.
The forum was stimulated by an article by Renée Otmar DE and others on the topic ‘Competitive quoting, freelance rates and ethical practice in freelance editing’ that appeared in the April issue of Offpress, the Queensland society’s newsletter, and a free-ranging response by Helena Bond AE in the May issue. You can read both articles online on the IPEd website.
2013 national conference
Do not leave it too late to capture those cheap flights to and from Perth to attend the 6th National Editors Conference in Fremantle on 10–13 April 2013. Impressive keynote speakers have been engaged: Don Watson and Carmen Lawrence probably need no introduction; Nury ‘Mr Jam’ Vittachi is ‘Asia’s funniest, most pungent columnist and author’; and William Yeoman is books editor and senior arts writer for the West Australian, and also writes for Gramophone and International record review, as well as ABC Classic FM’s Limelight magazine. Their presentations promise to be stimulating and informative in diverse ways.
You can access all the conference information at the conference website and sign up to receive updates via email.
And, of course, the organising committee is also eager to receive a range of contributions from members of our profession; there is an abstract submission form on the site.
IPEd on Twitter and Facebook
You can now follow IPEd on Twitter (@IPEditors) or friend IPEd on Facebook. Do not just watch us; add a comment!
Ed Highley
Secretary
secretary@iped.org