Bianca Bold (PLD Assistant Administrator)*
Every other year, ATA divisions choose new officers. In 2013, Tereza Braga and I were elected Administrator and Assistant Administrator, respectively. For two years we have worked with a dynamic group of members who have volunteered to be part of our Leadership Council. As a group, we did a lot in these past two years, and now our Portuguese Language Division is ready to elect its new officers. I confess my original plan was to run for Administrator this year, but my priorities have shifted immensely since the arrival of my first little bundle of joy earlier this year. ☺
At the end of this post you will find the candidate statements of Mirna Soares Andrade, running for Administrator, and Érika Lessa, running for Assistant Administrator. Both of them are part of the current Leadership Council and have been volunteering their time and skills to our division for a while.
ATA Headquarters sent PLD members an e-mail this week granting access to the voting ballot, which contains both of their names, along with a write-in field for each of the positions, should you decide to vote on anyone else. Check out our colleague Noami’s blog post about how the PLD and our elections work.
The entire process is electronic, and ALL PLD members can vote―it doesn’t matter if you are a corresponding member or a voting member. You don’t need to attend the ATA Conference in order to vote, which means you can do it from anywhere in the world. The results are to be announced in November.
So don’t forget to vote! An association is only as strong as its members, and legitimate representation in our division gives everybody a voice. Stay tuned and follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you won’t miss a thing.
CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
CANDIDATE FOR ADMINISTRATOR
I have been a member of the Portuguese Language Division (PLD) Leadership Council since 2012, when I accidentally showed up for a meeting in San Diego, during the ATA Annual Conference. Long story short: I never left the group. Leadership Council members are essentially multitaskers, so for almost 3 years I have volunteered in several capacities, working with fellow members to continue the good work that has been the norm in our division. The past few years have been very important to define our identity and online presence. I was happy to work as the Blog Editor when we transitioned from the newsletter to a full-fledged division blog and to assist the administrators with a new social media presence and brand.
If elected, I will continue to build on the foundation we have laid, working closely with the Leadership Council. My goals are the following:
– Develop our social media strategy and blog content. This is what keeps us connected and in the know.
– Improve our brand and promote visibility. This is how beginners and the general public find out that the PLD is an established community of Portuguese translators and interpreters.
– Encourage participation, exchange and networking. This is how we unite members and become stronger as a group and as individuals.
– Encourage continuing education and webinars. This is essential to market ourselves as a source of top professionals and high standards.
I have been a translator and an interpreter for almost 20 years and I have had experience in areas as varied as subtitling and simultaneous interpreting. I am an ATA-Certified Translator from English into Portuguese and from Portuguese into English. I currently live in Washington, D.C., where I am an in-house translator and reviewer for an international organization, translating English, French, and Spanish into Portuguese.
CANDIDATE FOR ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR
I am pleased to submit my name to serve as assistant administrator of the Portuguese Language Division. I’m hoping to work alongside Mirna Soares, who is a candidate for PLD administrator.
I am a conference interpreter and translator (English/Portuguese) and I have worked as a freelancer in different areas such as game and software localization, corporate communications, marketing projects, and international events.
I joined the Leadership Council right after the 55th Conference in Chicago, when I realized I could help the Division grow by doing something both enjoyable and professionally enriching: social media posts. Nowadays, social media are key to the communication of the association, engaging more members every day. I manage PLD’s Facebook Page and Twitter account, with the help of other LC members.
If elected, I will work toward the following goals:
• Continue to support the administrator to make the Portuguese Language Division an even more valuable source of news about the translation and interpretation market.
• Strengthen communication between the Division and its members.
• Foster member participation in each layer of PLD so that we can be in tune with members, raising interest and building up a sense of belonging among members, which will give the Division a stronger and more relevant role.
• Expand the Division’s relevance through members’ input and participation.
Ultimately, I want the Division to connect to all its members, tapping into knowledge brought in by our veteran members and integrating newcomers in our projects.
BIANCA BOLD holds an M.A. in Translation Studies from York University (Canada). She has been working with Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian since 2000, offering mainly translation, editing, subtitling, and courses in subtitling. She is originally from Recife and has been in Toronto since 2007. Bianca is a partner at Scriba Traduções e Assessoria Linguística, based in Brazil, and the owner of Bold Language Services, based in Canada. She has been attending the ATA conferences since 2010 and volunteering for the PLD since 2012 – it’s her way of showing gratitude for all the benefits obtained throughout years of membership. She is the current Assistant Division Administrator and has also helped the PLD with its social media outreach efforts, website, blog posts, newsletter design, and a variety of tasks within the Leadership Council.
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