In this edition:

Welcome from the President | New Zealand Update | Member Resources | Meet the Board | Member Spotlight
Subcommittee Updates | Other News

Welcome from the President

Dear Members, Colleagues and Industry Partners,

Almost midway through the year already and whilst not post-COVID any time soon, we can see our industry has fared well through the pandemic. More so, it has cemented itself as an essential service from the provision of interpreters (remote and face to face) to assisting Government and organisations alike to communicate with Australia and NZ’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities and provide access to crucial information in their own language.

If the industry has learned one thing, it is that technology is the single most economic driver of the future. And this is where AALC has been assisting members, by providing information on new and emerging technologies, connecting tech vendors to LSPs and – most importantly – providing a platform where language service providers can actually share how some of the tech solutions work for them. You want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

Most valuable thereby are our Members-only AALC CONNECT online events that are held every 3^rd Thursday of every second month. The next one is coming up on the 15^th of July at 12pm AEST!
An intimate meeting place with Chatham House Rules, AALC CONNECT provides a forum to discuss what is currently happening from government tenders to technology breakthroughs, industrial relations to international standards.

International ISO Standards are an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself in terms of exceptional quality management and excellence in translation and interpreting. Watch this space how AALC looks at supporting members in their journey to become ISO Certified.

As always a reminder of our AALC suite of partnerships with sister organisations through which AALC members can access further relevant content through virtual conferences and webinars:
 
The Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) 
European Language Industry Association (ELIA)
The Association of Language Companies (ALC) 
European Union of Associations of Translations Companies (EUATC)
Translated in Argentina (TinA)
The Argentine Association of Language Services Companies (AASL)

New Zealand Update

AALC has been following and reporting on the planned future adoption of NAATI standards in the NZ government procurement of language services. An area where the role of NAATI standards is less clear is in the accreditation of providers of content translation services other than interpreting.

The primary established international quality standard for providers of language translation services is the ISO 17100 standard. Rather than providing individual translator accreditation, the standard addresses best practices applied by language service providers when managing the translation and quality assurance process.

For this reason, New Zealand based AALC board member, Harry Clark has proposed a more widespread adoption of ISO 17100 amongst Australasian language service providers as a more meaningful basis of accreditation compared to NAATI.

AALC aims to promote the role of ISO 17100 as a basis for accreditation of language service providers in Australia and New Zealand while also providing improved access to the audit services necessary to become certified to ISO 17100. This involves partnerships with ISO certification providers at discounted rates for AALC members.
This is an exciting development for the industry and a great opportunity for AALC members and we will provide further updates on this soon.  Watch this space!

In Case You Missed It – Webinars

Our AALC Webinars run on the 3rd Thursday of every 2^nd month either between 12-1 pm or in the afternoon depending on the timezone of the Speaker. 

As a member, you get access to all of our past Webinar Recordings! Access these webinars and accompanying resources by visiting the Resources tab in the member’s area of our website (login required). 

Past webinars cover topics such as:

• How to Teach Yourself – SEO Basics  
• Technology Developments and their Impact on the Translation Industry 
• Machine Translation and Post Editing 
• The Rundown on Translation Management Systems 
• AALC Roundtable on Client Complaints & Conflict Resolution in Our Industry
• …. and much more!

If you are unable to attend an event, you can always submit questions to info@aalce.org.au prior to the event, and review the recording later in your Members Access. 

See our upcoming events here.

Meet The Board

Karen Hodgson, founder and CEO of Translationz, was elected as an Executive Board Member for AALC in 2016.
She has held the role of Board Secretary and currently is an active Committee Board member involved with recruiting speakers and moderating AALC Webinars, chairing the Government Relation Committee as well as participating in numerous AALC hosted events.

As CEO of Translationz, she manages a talented team of linguists utilising best-in-class technology to deliver exceptional translation and interpreting services to both public and private organisations globally.
Interpreting services is a key offering with face-to-face interpreting, telephone (OPI) and video remote interpreting (VRI), scheduled and on-demand phone and on-demand video interpreting.

Karen is passionate about finding solutions for cultural and linguistically diverse communities that require access to fundamental services, initiatives, and programs. Karen holds a Bachelor of Finance degree from DePaul University in Chicago and has been an entrepreneur of several successful businesses in education and technology field and is bilingual.

As a passionate AALC advocate, she actively contacts LPSs to promote AALC Membership benefits and welcomes non-members to reach out to her.

AALC Member Spotlight

Amigos: Interpreters & Translators is a Tasmanian-based, -owned and -operated provider of interpreters and translators since 1996.
They provide experienced and professional interpreters throughout all of Tasmania and are committed to professionalising the language services industry in Tasmania. 

Michael Morgan has been the Managing Director since June 2015, and has introduced a new business model with Interpreter employment, focusing on quality management system, ongoing training and professional development for interpreters and close working relationships with AUSIT, NAATI, Professionals Australia and AALC. Prior to 2015 Michael managed several community organisations, some of which he established.
Check out Amigos Interpreters & Translators on our member’s page here.

Shape Our Industry

At AALC we have Subcommittees where our Members can become active to be part of having a voice for the industry! Please let us know which one you want to join as they are only kicking off over the next months.

• Membership/Business Development Committee (Growing AALC Membership) Chair: Greg Zucchi. Members: Harry Clark, Patricia Jaworski, Karen Hodgson
• Program Committee (Webinars and Events) Chair: Patricia Jaworski 
• University Industry Partnership Program (Bridging the gap between Universities and Industry) Chair: Tea Dietterich, Members: Costa Vasili, Jim Hlavac, Sean Cheng
• Government Relations, Chair: Karen Hodgson 

If you are interested in further information about these groups and how to join, please email your inquiry to info@aalc.org.au
Please be advised this is a members-only opportunity.

Other News

Congress Rental Australia recently ended their survey asking interpreters about their experiences with Remote Simultaneous Interpretation and has compiled the results into a report analysing the current state of the interpretation market.
It contains insights into the current state of RSI, including an analysis of the most popular platforms based on interpreter experience. It also examines the impact that RSI has had on interpreters’ rates and their amount of work and what interpreter support providers can do to improve their offerings for the conference interpreter community.Read the Report Here

2M Language Services launches Australia’s first On Demand Translation App.
2M On Demand combines AI-driven workflows with NAATI-certified linguists to enable urgent messaging to multilingual communities.
Read more here.