Associations
South African Translators' Institute (SATI)
I have been a member of SATI since 1999 (with a two-year hiatus). SATI offers accreditation in my language combination, but I regard the examination process as hopelessly non-transparent and I have therefore decided not to pursue accreditation. I am actively involved in the association's activities, e.g. I have published articles in its journal and I have held a non-executive position on the local chapter's executive committee.
SATI members must sign a code of conduct. I have summarised the code of conduct as follows:
We perform accurate translation of high quality.
We respect and interact with other translators.
We strive for constant self-improvement.
We treat all client information as strictly confidential.
We accept no unlawful work.
We respect copyright.
We inform clients of all issues of concern regarding the translation.
We accept only work for which we are suited.
We stick to deadlines.
We aim to be fair and to conduct ourselves professionally.
SATI is the largest association for professional translators in South Africa, with just under 1000 members. The institute has been in existence since 1956, and is a member of FIT. A sizeable number of SATI members are academic translators; I have previously resigned my SATI membership for two years in protest to certain decisions by the SATI executive committee not to pursue endeavours which may advance professional translators.
Professional Editors Group (PEG)
I have been a member of PEG since 2007, although my details have been listed in the PEG online directory for a number of years.
PEG was founded in 1993 and represents mainly the publishing industry, but there are quite a few translator members as well. PEG publishes a directory of members every year. Members of PEG must also sign a code of conduct, the gist of which is very similar to that of the SATI code of conduct.
Online communities
I am a member of several online communities, including the following:
Proz.com (my profile)
A well-known translators' portal, with helpful forums, directory and job listings.
Lantra-L (more info
)
One of the many mailing lists for translators. This is probably one of the oldest.
ZaLang (more info)
This mailing list is for translators in South Africa, specifically those that translate into English and Afrikaans.
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