09 Oct Let me introduce you

How many of you are familiar with SSTI? Well, let me introduce you.

SSTI stands for the Society for the Study of Translation and Interpretation. It is the non-profit charity component of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT).

NAJIT was created in 1978 to promote the highest ethical and performance standards in the profession. Part of that was the development of educational activities to further these standards among judiciary interpreters and translators whose field experience ranged from completely inexperienced novices to fully-vetted professionals. Also part of the mission was creating an instrument designed by active members of the profession and validated by competency assessment experts to measure and certify the performance of judiciary interpreters and translators.

SSTI, created in 1997, was already conducting educational activities for NAJIT when the association’s certification exam development process began in 1999. Keeping these two activities separate—educating and testing—was one of the requirements to maintain the validity of NAJIT’s credentialing process, pursuant to the Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs from the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA), now the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE). And so, while SSTI focused on this credential, NAJIT took over the educational program. Since then, and throughout the years, both of these programs have undergone many transformations in response to shifting priorities for both NAJIT and SSTI Board members.

Fast forward to 2015 and we now have a NAJIT Board of Directors with a renewed interest in the original mission for which SSTI was created: to promote scholarly research and undertake projects intended to advance the profession. But first, a little technical information. Under SSTI’s Bylaws, “The SSTI Board of Directors (hereinafter, the Board) shall be appointed by the Board of Directors of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators, Inc. (NAJIT), and shall consist of no less than five and no more than seven members, four of whom shall also serve as officers of the Corporation until the appointment of their successors.” (Art. V) Accordingly, a new SSTI Board of Directors was appointed in May 2015: Vice President, Aída Martínez-Gómez , Secretary, Susan Berk-Seligson, Treasurer, Holly Mikkelson, and the more recently appointed Member At Large, Melissa Wallace. I have the honor of being the President of that Board.

SSTI is embarking on brand new projects intended to benefit NAJIT’s members and make noteworthy contributions to the professions of judiciary interpreting and legal translation. One of them is a comprehensive review of the current scholarly literature on legal and judiciary interpreting. In the near future we expect to have a call for proposals to identify English-speaking end-users of judiciary interpreting services and the methods they use for making the most effective and efficient use of these services.

Our main goals at this time are:

• – To be a source of research funding to support best practices in legal translation and interpretation.

• – To promote authoritative research on judiciary interpreting and legal translation.

• – To collaborate in the development of research-based training guidelines for English-speaking end-users of interpreter services, guidelines that will ensure the highest efficiency and effectiveness of those services.

• – To be a nationally recognized source of information, statistics, and research on judiciary interpreting and legal translation issues.

The SSTI Board members want to hear from you. We want to know what research projects you think SSTI should be sponsoring. We also welcome volunteers with social media skills, grant proposal writing skills, and funded research experience who can help us match the right funding sources with the projects we sponsor. And, of course, we want you to continue to support SSTI with your generous donations when you renew your NAJIT membership.

Be on the lookout for our SSTI tab soon on the NAJIT page, where you will also be able to contact us directly. We want to hear from you!