Musings from an overworked translator

Musings about the Ethics Committee November 17, 2025

I recently resigned from the ATA’s Ethics Committee. I have been a member of the Ethics Committee for many years, initially when Marian Greenfield was ATA President and then when Ted Wozniak was elected back during the Orlando conference. I was the Chair of the EC from November 2017 to November 2021. I was summarily replaced when the President appointed Robin Bonthrone as Chair and removed me without any notice or thanks. Robin had not served on the Ethics Committee beforehand and had a steep learning curve, and I stayed on the EC to train and support him. This procedure happened again recently, replacing Robin with Gio Lester, who also has not served on the EC and will now have a steep learning curve as well. While I stayed on the EC to train the newly appointed Chair, as far as I am aware this will not be the case this time.

This is not a good practice. As I explained in my final report to the Board back in October 2021, “I would like to inform future ATA Presidents that this position is not one that should be appointed outside the existing committee. The Chair makes decisions on what cases to accept and dismiss based on years of precedent, case histories, and detailed knowledge of the Code. That institutional knowledge is not there if the newly appointed Chair has not been a member of the committee in the past. I would like to suggest that the Chair be appointed from among the existing committee members next time. A personal phone call thanking me for my service instead of a terse email accepting my pro forma resignation would have also been nice.” Obviously this suggestion was not noted.

The Ethics Committee is a standing committee established by Article VII, Section 2 of the ATA Bylaws and is charged pursuant thereto with dealing “with problems affecting the relationship of translators and interpreters with their peers and others as provided in policies and procedures adopted by the Board”. Under the procedures adopted by the Board, the Ethics Committee is also charged specifically with responding to complaints of violations of the ATA Code of Ethics and Professional Practice (CEPP) or of Article III, Section 6, of the ATA Bylaws. The Code of Ethics has undergone minor changes, the last round being in 2017, but the Ethics Committee decided to do a major rewrite during the pandemic. We collected various Codes and compared them to get ideas. We then met on Zoom every other Friday for over a year and painstakingly debated the overall structure as well as individual words of the CEPP – and then we worked on the Procedures. We removed some old tenets and added several new ones (including a “conduct unbecoming” tenet) for three main reasons: 1) to bring the CEPP more in line with current codes of ethics and practice in the industry, 2) to update the CEPP to address issues related to modern practice and technology and 3) to close loopholes that have become evident when handling ethics complaints. Oh, the discussions we had over the words!

When I was replaced as Chair I suggested the Ethics Committee members be nominated for one of ATA’s awards for all of their hard work, but that never happened. The members of the EC were never formally thanked or acknowledged for our work, and our work on the Procedures was tabled in 2022 and has still not been resubmitted for approval. I believe this is where my disappointment with the ATA began. I have never been one to expect glory, but a little thanks is always appreciated. When Robert Sette and I ran our write-in campaign my objective was never to serve on the Board. I simply wanted people to discuss decoupling, and our campaign achieved that. I have been pulling away from the ATA for several years now and have not attended the conferences for the last three years after attending for twenty years straight. While there are several underlying reasons for this, lack of any show of appreciation for volunteer service certainly makes it hard to muster up the enthusiasm to attend. I have not decided if I will attend the 2026 conference, but I am still working as a translator so if I don’t have a Zoom class I may go just to say hi.

In any event, I would like to formally acknowledge and thank the following people for all of their hard work on our Zoom meetings:

Mike Collins
Jutta Diel-Dominique
Roxana Dinu
Michael Elliff
Kathryn German
Jennifer Guernsey
Natalie Higgins
Ana-Cecilia Rosado
Jill R. Sommer
Milena Calderari-Waldron

I am proud of our work and have a great respect for them. To quote Mike Collins, “it was a great honor and pleasure serving with you all – despite the headaches it is the thing I feel best about when it comes to service to ATA and the wider translation/interpretation community.” I miss our regular meetings, because we all got to know and respect each other very much.

My reason for this post is two-fold: 1) to thank my fellow EC members for their hard work rewriting the code and 2) to hope maybe the next officers see this post and at least think twice about how they replace volunteers. Thanks for your attention.

Buddies and Newbies October 11, 2023

The ATA conference (ATA64) is in a couple weeks, from October 25-28, 2023, in Miami, Florida. I keep getting emails advertising various events, even though I’m not attending this year. Today’s email was all about Networking, and one of the events is Buddies and Newbies. I used to offer a session on tips for first-time attendees every year, which got replaced by Buddies and Newbies. It really is a great opportunity for first-time attendees to pair up with a seasoned conference attendee and get some tips and meet some people so they aren’t overwhelmed walking into the Welcome Event. Newbies and Buddies go to one session and one meal together so that Newbies can ask questions and Buddies can offer personalized advice. Newbies receive extra support as they navigate the sessions and events, while Buddies are rewarded knowing they made someone feel welcome at their first conference. Who knows, you might even make a life-long friend like I did. I attended my newbie’s wedding in Minneapolis two weekends ago. I met Joe 10 years ago at ATA54 in San Antonio, and we became fast friends. He was one of my lifelines during the pandemic, playing online games and attending my virtual cocktail hours. So if you are attending the conference for the first time—or even the 11th time—be sure to attend the Buddies and Newbies event right before the Welcome Event. You never know who you might meet.