When it comes to virtual meet-ups, the GLD offers a whole range of ways to bridge the distances between its members. Our GLD Listserv, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn pages, along with our division’s regular Zoom socials and educational events, create numerous opportunities for remote networking. Considering that our members are spread across nearly every continent, these ever-evolving capabilities are a real godsend. But our favorite way to meet is still in person.
For the GLD’s second in-person meet-up of 2024, we caught up with former GLD Administrator Eva Stabenow, who was on a cross-continental European/British tour connecting with her T&I and Pilates communities. Based in Nashville, TN, Eva is truly multitalented. She holds graduate degrees in translation and interpreting from the University of Mainz at Germersheim (FTSK) and public health. She is an ATA certified German->English and English->German translator, a Conference Committee Member of the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), and a Polestar Pilates Practitioner with her own studio, “Sunroom Pilates.” Hundreds of ATA members have benefited from Eva’s helpful blog posts, podcasts, and webinars on working at your desk without pain, and the real diehards have joined her for pre-dawn stretching sessions at the ATA Annual Conference.
Our meeting place, the “Ludwig im Museum” café, was just steps from the Cologne main train station, perfect for those traveling longer distances. The weather was kind to us for the Stammtisch, a welcome change from this year’s May weather in this part of Germany. We had the opportunity to catch up on recent developments in the translation world with our small but mighty group representing a diverse cross-section: Beate Maier, who has a brisk business interpreting into German; Elke Mailand, a financial translator who had travelled from Frankfurt; Eva; yours truly, a translator of (mostly) medical texts from German into English in Aachen; and the newest member of the group, Maria Ruzenko, an English->Russian in-house translator for DeepL based in Cologne.
The GLD’s next Stammtisch will take place on June 24 in Fairfax, Virginia. Before that, we will have a virtual education session with a presentation by Katrin Lange of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Düsseldorf on June 12.
We hope you will join us for these exciting events!
Karen Leube, a native of Pennsylvania, is a freelance translator and translator trainer based in Aachen, Germany. She served on the faculty of the universities of Heidelberg and Mainz (FTSK), where she offered courses on biomedical technology and general medical translation in cooperation with local hospitals and research institutions. Since establishing her freelance business in 2004, she has taught numerous continuing education courses for translators and interpreters. Twelve of her book translations have been published to date, including Thomas Häusler’s Gesund durch Viren (Viruses vs. Superbugs).
Karen founded and coordinated ATA’s GLD Members in Europe group from 2009 to 2019 and served as the GLD’s Assistant Administrator for two years prior to assuming the position as Administrator in 2022.