The XXII FIT Congress held in Varadero in early June elected the new FIT Council for the 2022-2025 mandate. Although many of us could not be there in person, the congress was a certain coup for ACTI, the Cuban Association of Translators and Interpreters (Asociación Cubana de Traductores e Intérpretes), who managed to run a world-class Congress despite unprecedented uncertainty, and for NZSTI, who can now claim two FIT Presidents from their ranks in the last three mandates. It’s definitely a proud moment.

But where to from here, given that we are still living in uncertain and unprecedented times? At last year’s Auckland Branch AGM we had an engaging discussion about perceptions, prospects and the sustainability of the profession and yet, there was no clear way to see through the brain fog of COVID and the huge changes it has wrought on us all. If COVID has taught us one thing, it is that we are all in this together, whatever ‘this’ is.

Yet the pandemic alone does not define our profession. Serving on FIT Council is a privileged vantage point. I have been on FIT Council since 2014, with the benefit of seeing how very similar we all are in the ‘who’ and the ‘what’, but how very different our work can be depending on the ‘where’. Trends in the profession play out very differently in the various areas of the world. As the new FIT Council begins its work, we are looking forward to facilitating communication across the different regions and sharing best practice.

This FIT Council will continue to work on the pertinent issues of today, on technology, standards, linguists in crisis settings, promoting indigenous language survival, education and professional development, copyright, human rights issues and assisting new associations with development. I am so very pleased to continue to represent NZSTI at the global level through until the XXIII FIT Congress in Costa Rica in 2025.  Let’s hope this time we can all be there in person!

Alison Rodriguez
July 2022

Alison Rodriguez is a member of NZSTI who is serving for a third term on the council of the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT). FIT is a UN-recongised international grouping of associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists. More than 100 professional associations are affiliated, representing over 80,000 translators in 55 countries. Alison was recently elected president of FIT. After Henry Liu’s stint as president (2014 – 2017), Alison is the second NZSTI-nominated council member to hold this office.