Thank You, Volunteers!
Twenty-five years ago, a small group of freelance editors gathered in a Seattle living room hoping to build a network of colleagues and community for editors in the Pacific Northwest. They—and hundreds of other editors over the years—gave their time and energy to support this group and build it into what we now know as the Northwest Editors Guild. To this day, the Guild relies on volunteers for most of its operations, and you can be a part of that tradition.
April is National Volunteer Month, and we give huge thanks to Guild volunteers past and present who donated a little or a lot of their time, expertise, and effort. The Guild literally would not exist without you!
What is a StetPet? Your Animal Editorial Assistant Questions Answered
Every Wednesday on the Northwest Editors Guild’s social media pages, you’ll find a dog with a goofy grin or a cat conveniently sitting on a keyboard. They aren’t editors, per se, but they are the trusty animal “assistants” to editors from all over the world. Some remind their editors to take a break while others physically impede any actual work getting done by sitting in strategic locations.
They are our StetPets, and we’ve been featuring them consistently since the summer of 2017 on the Guild’s Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages. Virtual fame and ear scratches from the greater editorial community are included.
The #StetPet hashtag has many editor and writer fans, but we often get questions from people who just discovered StetPets. Here are some of the most common StetPet queries answered for you and your animal assistants.
Volunteering Keeps the Guild Growing
As a small nonprofit professional organization, the Northwest Editors Guild relies heavily on volunteers to keep our operations going. April is Global Volunteer Month and the third week of April is National Volunteer Week, so there’s no better time to learn about the ways you can help make a difference in the editing community by volunteering with the Guild.
StetPet Editorial Assistants
The Northwest Editors Guild introduced a weekly feature called StetPet on our social media during the summer of 2017 to give our followers a midweek smile. We’ve posted photos and descriptions of animal editorial and writing assistants from all over the world every Wednesday since, featuring plenty of cats, dogs, rodents, aquatic pets, and even wild animal visitors that “help” editors and authors with their work. StetPet posts are frequently the most popular posts on the Guild’s social media feeds.
Unique Holiday Gifts for Editors
What kind of holiday gifts would a discerning editor enjoy? How about the editor who seems rigid but has a secret sense of humor? The basic go-to coffee shop gift cards and sets of red pens are appreciated, but you can do better than that for your closest edibuddies and word nerds.
Below is a list of unique and memorable gifts—arranged alphabetically by store name—suitable for just about every age, size, flavor, and type of editor, plus the tiniest editors-to-be. You might even find something you’ll want to treat yourself to after making that big deadline!
What We Learned at ACES 2018
Approximately a dozen Editors Guild members convened in Chicago with more than 700 other editors during the ACES 2018 conference April 26–28. ACES: The Society for Editing (formerly known as the American Copy Editors Society), a national organization for professional editors, hosts its annual three-day conference in a different U.S. city each spring.
The ACES conference is often the venue where the major style guides and dictionaries announce upcoming changes in spelling, style, and usage. It is especially well known as the conference where each year the Associated Press announces updates to its Stylebook in a room full of gasping and cheering editors. (The 2016 lowercasing of the word “internet” brought a mix of applause and disgusted harrumphs, while this year’s comparatively tame removal of the hyphen in “3D” didn’t cause nearly as many emotional reactions.)
How to Table: A Guide for Introverts
You’ve signed up for a shift at the NWIEG table at an event or conference. Maybe you’re excited for free or discounted entrance into the event. Maybe you’re making an effort to get out and network more often. Maybe you want to share the wide variety of talents held by Guild members. These are all good reasons to volunteer to represent the Guild.
But wait! Aren’t you an introvert? How the heck are you supposed to make small talk with a bunch of strangers for several hours? What are you supposed to do during the downtimes? Can you just sit there with a pile of flyers and hope they magically drift into the hands of attendees?
Don’t panic. We’ve got a strategy for you and a list of ways to ensure that you, your tablemates, and the people you meet all leave happy and with a positive impression of the Guild.