INSTITUTE MATTERS
paintings, including
masterpieces from the
Royal Collection. The tour
will end on the West
Terrace, with views over
the famous lawns. Price
£35, includes glass of
champagne in the Bow
Room. To attend, contact
julie.hobbs@iol.org.uk.
SCOT
'HINDI'
Saturday 21
September
AK Bell Library, Perth
A talk by Anju Okhandiar
on aspects of Hindi.
Sandeman Room, A K
Bell Library, Perth.
November
At your service
NETWORKING
LINC
LUNCH
Saturday 16
November
Wig & Mitre, Lincoln,
midday-4pm
For details call Candia
Hillier on 01522 526695.
For venue details, see July.
CONTACT DETAILS
BPG Judith Ridgway,
ridgway@talktalk.net
ID IoL.Interpreting.
Division@googlemail.com
TD Karen Stokes,
translatingdivision@
gmail.com
CAM Leslie Ray,
leslie.ray@btinternet.com
GER Gabriele Matthey,
translations@gmatthey.de
HK Francis Lee,
francisleekc@iolhks.hk
LINC Candia Hillier,
candia@chezhillier.
freeserve.co.uk
LON Rannheid Sharma,
RSharma105@aol.com
NW Katrin Hiietam,
katrin.hiietam@
ee-translations.com
SCOT Anne Withers,
amwithers@msn.com
SP Martin Caine,
martincaine2008@
gmail.com
32
The Linguist
MEMBERSHIP MANAGER SOHEILA DAYANI ON THE WORK GOING ON BEHIND
THE SCENES TO BOOST MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS AND SUPPORT MEMBERS
For the last month or so, I have been on something of a
road trip. Sarah Heaps, Marketing, Communication and
PR Manager, and I have ventured away from the familiar
environs of Saxon House to universities in such far-flung
destinations as Northumbria, Hull, Preston and
Birmingham. We still have Imperial College and London
Metropolitan to go.
The reason for this little tour is to present the many
benefits of CIOL membership to the professional
linguists of tomorrow. Sarah and I have been giving an
overview of the Institute and the membership options
available, talking about examinations and development
possibilities, and giving our audiences some pointers for
their future careers.
It is great fun to meet language students and discuss
the benefits of membership but, more importantly,
these visits have proved to be an effective way of raising
the profile of the Institute and building on our
membership base. I am happy to say that the number
of student members has increased by 50 percent!
In working towards this, I have spent a lot of my time
writing presentations, and making sure I am well
prepared for visits by researching each university and its
respective language department, and gaining some
familiarity with the courses they offer.
Much of my day involves dealing with emails; I get
quite a few. By far the most common inquiry regards
membership eligibility, so I spend a lot of my time
studying the details of the individuals who contact us,
and trying to establish whether or not they would
qualify for membership and, if so, what sort of
membership would be best for them. I doubt there are
JUNE/JULY
many people who have read as many linguists' CVs
as me.
Paul Whitehouse, Administrative Assistant, processes
applications and writes to referees, and I then assess
the applicant's suitability and finalise the details. Many
cases are straightforward, but sometimes establishing
the appropriate grade of membership needs specialist
scrutiny. Such cases are presented to the highly
experienced linguists on our Applications Committee,
which meets five times a year on Saturdays.
Although travelling to Saxon House on a Saturday
morning can be a bit of a strain, at least I get to pick
up some delicious treats from the bustling Borough
Market on the way home. The meetings themselves
are unpredictable, lively and often quite good fun, as
well as involving plenty of hard work.
Once an applicant is admitted, I spend a lot of my
time providing further help and support, dealing with
any queries they might have, keeping them up-to-date
with news, events and developments, and updating
the Find-a-Linguist directory. Julie Hobbs, Membership
Services Assistant, and I work together to ensure new
members receive information about the divisions and
societies, as well as publications.
My job mainly involves dealing with people, so each
day is different. This is great because linguists tend to
have unique stories from places all over the globe. I
grew up in a house where different languages were
spoken, my degree is in German and I'm currently
studying Farsi. Maybe this is why I'm so interested to
hear from linguists about why they want to join, and
what they are up to.
www.iol.org.uk
