Heike Leinhäuser, EUATC representative for the German national association QSD, was re-elected to serve as President, while Miklós Ban, President of the Hungarian association, Proford, was re-elected to serve as Vice-President. Radka Vegrichtova, President of the Czech Republic national association ACTA, was re-elected to serve as treasurer and finally, Marta Aragão, EUATC representative for the Portuguese national association APET, was also re-elected to lead on the association’s annual showpiece event T-Update.
Michal Kmet, President of the Slovakian national association ATC SK, decided to step down from the board after serving one term to focus on his business, national association and young family.
Speaking after the result of the ballot was announced Heike Leinhäuser said: “I am truly honoured to have been entrusted by the EUATC’s membership to lead the association and develop it further in line with the new board’s statement of intentions.
“I would particularly like to thank Michal Kmet for his support over the last three years and fully appreciate his reasons for deciding to step down. His work behind the scenes has truly helped us achieve our objectives.”
New board’s programme
The new board set out its intentions for the next term in a letter to members, which is reproduced below:
“Three years ago, you elected us to lead EUATC. We feel it was and it still is an honour and a privilege to serve the association on the board. When we submitted our candidacy, we shared with you a mission and a vision we had for the association. With your active participation, we feel we helped steer the association in the direction we set together.
MISSION: to provide a single platform for national LSP associations in Europe to
come together, share best practice, tackle common threats and provide the sector with a strong unified voice.
VISION: to provide a safe space where national LSP associations can work together for the benefit of the entire European language industry ecosystem.
We have taken important steps as a community, but the board think there’s still a long way to go. The Covid19 pandemic slowed down our progress in certain areas, but it also presented an opportunity to rethink and adjust old practices. For the next term, we propose to continue along the lines the GM set out for the board:
- Strategy – like three years ago, we will start by creating a new 3-year strategy for the EUATC and bring it to the GM to discuss and finalize. We plan to do this by surveying the members and asking for your priorities and your insight on what focus points to choose for our action plan.
- Supporting local member initiatives – we will continue supporting local initiatives financially and helping member associations to mobilize the translation-localization community in their home countries.
- Communications – we will continue using all EUATC channels as well as the platforms of our wide network of partners to spread EUATC’s message. We’ll keep working on establishing the association as the representative body and support network of the European translation companies.
- Events – we pledged to create novel and creative new events for the association. The pandemic made this promise an imperative. The new format of T-Update required an immense amount of work in a very volatile environment, but it proved successful and exemplary for our entire industry. We will not stop here, we are planning to deliver a new, adaptable online/offline/hybrid conference format that will help us achieve our strategic goals and to finance our general activities.
- ELIS – during this board’s tenure, EUATC’s yearly survey, similarly to the annual conference has undergone significant change. The survey’s evolution is still ongoing. Together with our partners, such as DGT, FIT and numerous others, we are developing the survey into a potent, multi-faceted tool, which helps establish EUATC as the go-to destination for relevant, up-to-date information on the GILT-sector in Europe. We have established a taskforce to develop ELIS further, but we will need your help to make it as powerful as it can be.
- Campus – we are planning to help member national associations not only with funding but also with sharing knowledge and best practices, facilitating bi- or multilateral cooperation between members and all kinds of cooperation that has the potential to create value both locally and Europe-wide
- Representation – when you elected us, we promised to extend the association. Since then we managed to onboard new members and helped create new national associations where none existed. This said, we still believe in making EUATC even more representative of the European language industry: we’ll continue to strive to onboard new members by admitting more national associations and facilitating the creation of such associations in countries which do not yet have them.
- Industry-wide partnership – The new board will continue to forge alliances across the global professional community to strengthen EUATC’s international network.
- EUATC 2022 – In the next board term it seems necessary to review EUATC’s constitution and adjust it so that the association may remain stable and agile in a rapidly changing business environment. The new board will propose potential changes to the GM.
- Professional & sustainable operations – learning from mistakes in the past, the new board will strive to professionalize the operations of the association involving external assistance where necessary and making sure that administrative and other tasks should not exhaust and overburden the elected officials. It is of crucial importance that the association should not cannibalise its human resources, therefore, we’ll propose measures to the GM to ensure long term, sustainable operations for EUATC.
- Prudent budgetary control – like before, the board will make sure every year to propose a balanced, realistic budget in a timely manner. We’ll stick to maintaining a safe financial reserve (the amount will be roughly EUATC’s annual costs) and promote the importance to monetise EUATC activities and generate additional income to support national associations.“
Photo-caption:
Top row left to right: Heike Leinhäuser, Miklos Ban
Bottom row left to right: Marta Aragão, Radka Vegrichtova
