National Council Committees
What exactly is it that the NZSTI National Council does behind the scenes? While the whole of council meets monthly for discussions and decision-making, much of the work council members do is undertaken within the various council committees. Read on to discover what those volunteers do for NZSTI in each committee.
Got a query for a committee? Email it to [email protected]
Professional Development Committee
The hardworking bunch of volunteers on this committee invests many hours to develop and run a relevant and interesting programme of CPD (continuing professional development) events. This involves brainstorming topics of interest, sourcing presenters, designing a balanced CPD programme for the year, and communicating details to our members in conjunction with the Marketing and Events Manager, Marketing & Communications committee and admin team.
On the day, at least two organisers are on hand to host the event and assist behind the scenes with any technical issues, questions from participants, etc. After the event, the team often needs to edit the recording and make it available to attendees, along with any other material that the presenter may wish to share (slides, resources, etc.). Providing our members with a relevant, interesting event every time is definitely a team effort.
You will have noticed that our CPD events have become more frequent in recent years. Previously we relied on presenters volunteering their time to present PD to members at no cost to NZSTI. However, we are now engaging paid presenters in Aotearoa and from around the world to provide members with high quality presenters on a wide range of topics. We have also engaged a dedicated Marketing and Events Manager whose expertise and skills help us deliver even more value to participants.
We run these events for you, and it’s important that we understand what it is that our members want and need from our CPD offering. The PD committee welcomes any suggestions for future events. If you would like to send in a suggestion, email [email protected] with ‘Professional Development suggestion’ as the subject.
Funding Committee
As a member of NZSTI, you can apply for a subsidy from NZSTI for professional development run by other organisations. When you apply, the funding committee assesses your application and makes a recommendation to the council. If you are granted a subsidy, we generally ask for an article or a presentation in exchange as sharing your new knowledge provides a benefit to our members. And if you know anyone studying translation or interpreting, we have funding available to them too!
You can find all the guidelines and application forms on our website.
Admin/IT Committee
This is a committee that never sleeps! It deals with everything relating to NZSTI’s IT (website, Zoom, email accounts, IT updates, etc.) and administration needs (new applications, upgrades, admin around PD events, etc.).
On the IT side, Admin/IT members work alongside the Operations Manager to liaise with our IT provider Stream and and our admin provider BPS to ensure our system is as efficient and user-friendly as possible. The committee frequently finds itself trouble shooting IT issues and adding new features to make the system more efficient.
On the admin side, the committee works closely with the Operations Manager to streamline processes such as membership applications and upgrades. The committee members also support the secretary with replies to email queries, if required, and liaise with the Marketing/Communications committee to proofread text to be published. As you can see, there’s quite a bit of overlap between Marketing/Comms and Admin/IT and the two committees work together closely.
Membership Committee
This committee assesses all new membership and membership upgrade applications submitted to NZSTI. They look at the qualifications and supporting documents provided as well as any other relevant information, check them against the benchmarked standards, and make their recommendations to the national council at the monthly meeting. Often, the membership committee needs to go back to applicants to ask for more information or clarification as applicants must meet our high entry standards and provide proof of their qualifications or experience.
Many New Zealand-based T&I qualifications offer a clear pathway to membership but a tricky aspect of this committee’s work is the fact that due to the international nature of our profession, many applicants hold qualifications from a multitude of different overseas institutions. This means that the committee often has to do significant research into those institutions to ensure their programmes meet our requirements.
Supported by our admin team and operations manager, the membership committee does their best to promptly process applications.
Marketing & Communications Committee
If you read our monthly newsletter, you already know one thing this committee does. Every month, they work with our Marketing and Events Manager to write articles and collate information for the newsletter, proofreading it multiple times before it arrives in your inbox.
Members of this committee also oversee the Marketing and Events Manager's running of NZSTI’s social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) to connect with current and potential members and keep an eye out for interesting news. They also do a final check of printed marketing materials designed by the Marketing and Events Manager (brochures, member benefits sheets, banners, etc.).
The Marketing and Communications committee is on the lookout for anyone who wants to volunteer some of their time and effort to help with the newsletter, website, social media or writing/proofreading in general. If you are interested, email us at [email protected], and we’ll find a task to suit you.
Conference Committee
This committee is one that changes every year and is outside the national council, with our regional branches taking turns to host NZSTI’s national conference. It can include people already on the branch committee as well as local members wanting to volunteer their time and skills for this event.
Most of the major logistics and management are now taken care of by our Marketing and Events Manager, however the local conference committe continues to play a crucial role in setting the theme of the conference, deciding on venues, choosing presenters and - of course - organising volunteers for the conference weekend.
Running a conference is a massive undertaking, and NZSTI is very grateful to those volunteers and our Marketing and Events Manager for all their hard work.
International Liaison Committee
The purpose of this committee is to build and maintain strategic relationships with international stakeholders and bodies. It is tasked with:
- Liaising with international organisations, such as AUSIT, FIT and NAATI, and reporting back on information that may be of interest to T&I in New Zealand. This includes keeping up to date with FIT and AUSIT events as well as those from other overseas associations. This informs the work of the council and feeds into the news shared in our newsletter, on our website and on social media.
- Working alongside international organisations to continue raising the standing and profile of our profession and upholding professional standards nationally and internationally.
- Engaging with international stakeholders and bodies through regular meetings and correspondence and identifying opportunities for collaboration.
Examples of the work undertaken by this committee include signing a memorandum of understanding with AUSIT, collaborating with AUSIT to align our organisations’ Code of Ethics, obtaining NAATI’s support for the test preparation workshops run by NZSTI in New Zealand, and nominating NZSTI members to FIT committees and FIT council.
Complaints and Disciplinary Committee
Members of NZSTI agree to uphold our Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct in their work as professionals delivering quality services to their clients. The Committee’s task is to receive and consider complaints about members’ work and follows an established investigation process.
When someone contacts us to complain about the conduct of one of our members or the quality of the work they provided, our complaints committee gets to work collecting all the necessary information from both the complainant and the member who is subject of the complaint in order to form a clear picture and investigate the complaint. (This sometimes involves an independent assessment of the work, a cost covered by your membership fee.) The committee then submits a recommendation to council on how to resolve the complaint in a suitable and constructive manner.
Clients are entitled to receive competent service, and members, who are highly qualified and take pride in their work, are entitled to professional review of any alleged shortcomings. Having a formal process for dealing with complaints protects both parties and assures clients that NZSTI members provide a high quality service.
Professional Recognition
The Professional Recognition committee carries out work to promote the status of the T&I profession and to uphold professional standards. It does this by:
- promoting NZSTI and our industry to increase the recognition and visibility of translators and interpreters;
- engaging in public relations with government agencies/bodies;
- advocating for greater recognition of our members’ professional skills and knowledge.
- ensuring good communication with educational institutions;
- managing relationships with other stakeholders;
- gathering information for our members on projects that may impact the industry.
SLIANZ
NZSTI has a close relationship with SLIANZ and this is maintained by a Memorandum of Understanding, the appointment of a SLIANZ representative to liaise with NZSTI, and discounted fees for SLIANZ members.