Association of Translators and Interpreters of Saskatchewan


The Association of Translators and Interpreters of Saskatchewan is a non-profit professional association that was incorporated in 1980. It is a member of the Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council, and was founded with the aim of fostering and promoting the translation and interpreting industry within Saskatchewan. Members of the association are professional translators and/or professional interpreters, and have either passed an admission exam attesting to their translating and/or interpreting skills or have transferred their membership from another CTTIC affiliate. ATIS members work in many languages, including: French, Spanish, Chinese, Cree, Japanese and American Sign Language, and are bound by a professional code of ethics.

Membership

There are five different categories of members within ATIS: founding members, affiliate members, retired members, associate members and certified members. Founding members are those who contributed to the creation of the society in 1979-1980 and are members of good standing in one of the other categories. Affiliate members are those who practice the profession of visual language interpreting and are members of the Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada. Retired members are those who were formally active members of the association and who would like to stay in touch with the ATIS community. Associate members are those who have passed the ATIS admission exam, which includes both a language proficiency exam and a translation exam. Certified members are those who have passed the CTTIC national certification exam or who have had a sample of their work successfully evaluated by ATIS. In 2012, ATIS had 65 members. All categories of members are expected to abide by the ATIS Code of Ethics.

Governance

ATIS is governed by a board of directors that is currently composed of seven members: Elisabet Ràflos-Sagués, President; Cristina Torres de la Hoz, Vice-President; Robert Clark, Secretary; Gisèle Piché, Treasurer; Julie Pednault, Director of Public Relations; Shannon Bachorick, Exam Coordinator; and Tatiana Zotova, Member at Large. The ATIS Board of Directors is elected by the membership at the Annual General Meeting. There are also a set of bylaws that assist in governing the organization.

Professional development

ATIS holds two half-day workshops each year, one during the spring AGM and one during the fall meeting. These workshops focus on a range of issues that are of interest to translators and interpreters who work in a number of language pairs. In spring of 2015, the half-day conference focused on computer assisted translation. The goal of these workshops is to promote the continued development of qualified translators and interpreters. Sometimes, ATIS also offers reduced registration fees to its members so that they may attend continued education courses through organizations such as the Institut Français at the University of Regina. ATIS is also looking into bringing web-based learning to its members.