SAVE THE DATES!

Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter Fall Workshops
November 6-7, 2009

Hilton Garden Inn O'Hare

Themes: Names and Biographies, Managing an Indexing Business, Cookbook Indexing

Friday, November 6:
Morning session: Martin White will present a workshop on indexing names and biographies.
Afternoon session: A panel discussion on managing your indexing business, featuring a lawyer, an accountant, an insurance representative, and a marketing specialist. Some of the many aspects of business management that will be addressed are dealing with payment issues, keeping accurate records and paying taxes, having proper insurance, and advertising. The business climate is in a state of flux, and we all need to be prepared for change.

Saturday, November 7: Fred Leise will be featured speaker for a full-day workshop on cookbook indexing with an emphasis on term selection.

Dinners are being arranged for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (11/5-6-7) at local restaurants, and transportation will be provided.

Put these dates on your calendar now. More information, including registration information, will be forthcoming on our website, www.chicagogreatlakesindexers.org/events.html, and on the discussion lists. We hope to see you both days in Chicago!

MOCK WILSON AWARD COMPETITION
Saturday, May 16, 2009

Back by popular demand, the 2009 Mock-Wilson Award Competition will be held by the Golden Gate Chapter of the American Society for Indexing on Saturday, May 16 at the Albany home of Amy Apel. Janet Russell, winner of the 2004 Wilson Award and chair of ASI's 2008 Wilson Award Committee, created this event last year to help prepare herself for the judging, and those who participated found it very illuminating and enjoyable. We welcome people with all levels of indexing experience.

In the morning, we will use Janet's evaluation worksheets to analyze the indexes to books on a range of subjects, which will be chosen from the local library. We will break for lunch, after which we will join together to debate the merits of the indexes and ultimately award the "Mockie" to the winning index.

Janet suggests you review the Wilson Award criteria on the ASI website (http://www.asindexing.org/site/WilsonAward.shtml#awcrit) before you come, so that we can get right down to work.

DETAILS
Date: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Location: 1127 Curtis Street, Albany, CA 94706 (phone 510-527-9549)

PRE-REGISTRATION
Registration: $20 for ASI members; $25 for non-members. This fee includes a Mediterranean lunch from Zand's Restaurant, which has many vegetarian options, beverages and dessert.

Pre-registration is required. Send a check, made payable to ASI, to Amy Apel, 1127 Curtis Street , Albany , CA 94706. Checks must be received by May 11. Please let us know of any special dietary needs you may have, and include an email address so that you can be sent confirmation of your registration.

DIRECTIONS
From I-80 East: Take the Gilman Street exit. Turn right on Gilman. On Gilman go 1 mile. When you see the BART tracks overhead, turn left on Curtis Street.

From I-80 West: Take the Albany exit. Turn left at the end of the ramp. Follow the road until it merges with Buchanan Street. Continue on Buchanan. After you cross San Pablo Avenue, Buchanan turns into Marin Avenue. Continue on Marin Avenue. Go straight through the traffic light at Santa Fe and Marin. Take the next right onto Curtis.

From BART: It is a 15 to 20 minute walk from the North Berkeley BART station to Amy's house. If several people are taking BART, we could arrange to shuttle them back and forth.

If you have questions, please contact Amy Apel at ggasi.events@yahoo.com or 510-527-9549.

Spring 2009 Meeting
Heartland Chapter, American Society for Indexing
Saturday, April 4, 2009
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Richmond, Indiana

Presenting Margie Towery discussing: "Creating Award-Winning Indexes."

Using material from her two Wilson Award winning indexes, Cartography in the European Renaissance and The Letters of Matthew Arnold, Margie Towery will walk us through her indexing process. She’ll describe her routine from the time the pages hit the doorstep to the mouse-clicking delivery of the final index. The in-between stuff will be the heart of the workshop: selecting mains and subs; wording, rewording, and more rewording; editing all along and at the end; maintaining elegance and quality while considering diverse audiences; setting the mood in her office; and letting intuition work in a hard-copy environment. This will be a chance to see excellent two indexes from the inside-out and from start to finish in the process. There will be several handouts, so please RSVP so that we can prepare materials for everyone.

Margie Towery has worked in the publishing field for over 20 years. For the last 15 years, she has focused on indexing scholarly texts. She won the H.W. Wilson Award for Excellence in Indexing in both 2002 and 2008. She has edited two of ASI’s Indexing Specialties books: History and Scholarly Books (with Enid Zafran). The latter includes Towery's essay, "The Quality of a Scholarly Index." Her recent article, "A Joycean Usability Experiment," was published in both Key Words and The Indexer. Margie also wrote an essay for the forthcoming Indexing Specialties: Culinary and Cookbooks.

Plus, "The Importance of Being Ergonomic"

As you start any long and intense text-entry session at the computer, the first word you type should always be the same: Ergonomics. Cathy Seckman will talk about desk-bound ergonomics, and avoiding repetitive stress injuries. She will also lead an exercise session taken from Juli Kagan's book, Pilates for the Seated Professional.

$25 - ASI members
$30 - non-members who have been to a Heartland meeting previously
$20 - first-time attendees (members and non-members)

Registration: The Heartland meeting is open to all ASI members and non-members who are interested in indexing. To register, mail your name, address, phone, and check payable to "Heartland Chapter-ASI" by March 29 to: Barbara Bushnell, ASI Heartland Treasurer, 4741 CR 60, Saint Joe, IN 46785 or email her at scott-barbarabushnell@att.net. You may also pay at the door, however, please RSVP by April 2 to Barbara or Devon Thomas at (734) 972-5502 or d.thomas1@comcast.net so that we can prepare materials for you.

Location of Meeting: MCL Cafeteria in Richmond, Indiana. The MCL Cafeteria is at 3801 National Road East, in the Richmond Square Mall, between Earlham College and the Ohio border. Take I-70 exit 156A onto U.S. 40 (this is the second exit west of the state line). Go west on U.S. 40 for 2 miles to the Richmond Square Mall, on the left.

Richmond, Indiana is at the Ohio border on Interstate 70, 1 hour east of Indianapolis, half an hour west of Dayton, and less than two hours west of Columbus. For Richmond hotel information, contact Cathy Seckman, 13306 Dray Lane, Calcutta, OH 43920 or contact her at cathy@cathyseckman.com or at 330-853-5343.

Mid- and South-Atlantic Chapter
American Society for Indexing

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS : INDEXERS WISH LIST

MSA members are invited to attend the following program at the U.S. Library of Congress, Washington DC on Thursday, April 16, 2009. Details about travel and security will follow.

This program is limited to twenty (20) attendees. More information follows below.*

SCHEDULE:

10:30:  U.S. Copyright Office
11:30:  Geography & Maps Division
12:30:  Business Meeting & Lunch
 1:30:  Roundtable: Indexers and Reference Librarians
 2:30 - 4:30:  Indexer's Choice

MSA will first tour the LOC's Copyright Office and hear from LOC's copyright experts who can talk with us about indexers' ownership of and ability to copyright their work.

Next is a visit to the Geography and Maps Division where we'll learn more about how Librarians and researchers access cartographic information and see if we can apply these rules to indexing.

Lunch is BYO or available for purchase in the LOC's cafeteria ($$). Dependent upon our next event, we'll gather during or just after lunch for a brief business meeting.

Our final group event is a roundtable discussion between MSA's indexers and Library of Congress reference librarians. Gather and bring all those thoughts and questions you've had over the years that concern how librarians, researchers and other users access information using indexes. We'll hear from LOC's front-line, reference librarians regarding their thoughts and experiences, concerns and delights with book and other print materials indexes.

Following our formal program, members are invited to tour the Library of Congress buildings and exhibits on their own. As special arrangements can be made for processing groups, please let Suzi Kaplan know if you would like to use some of this time to obtain a LOC 'Reader Identification'card. The card is the minimum requirement for public users in the LOC's reading rooms.

* Per the Library of Congress' request, this program is limited to twenty (20) attendees. To reserve your place, please respond to this invitation as soon as possible. Suzi will contact the first twenty (20) respondants to confirm reservations. A waiting list will be kept, so please enable others to attend by emailing chair@msasindexing.org if your plans change.

New England Chapter of the American Society for Indexing
Fall Conference
Saturday, September 19, 2009

The fall 2009 NEASI conference will feature Cheryl Landes and Seth Maislin as speakers. Location and conference details and registration information will be posted on the Upcoming Events page of the NEASI Web site and on NEASItalk.

New York City Chapter, American Society for Indexing
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

It's time for another informal luncheon for the members and friends of the New York City chapter of the American Society for Indexing. This is not a meeting. It's a chance to get together with your colleagues and talk about anything on your mind. Please made note of this event, for Tuesday, May 12th.

The informal lunch is going to be held at Bombay Bistro. This is a fairly new restaurant that has gotten great reviews. It used to be Diwan Grill, but they have lowered the prices for the lunch buffet to $10.99 and have kept the same chefs.

Place: Bombay Bistro
155 E. 52nd between Lexington and Third
212-752-9582
Lunch buffet: $10.99

Date: Tuesday, May 12
Time: 12:30

Please RSVP to Janet Mazefsky (jmazefsky@aol.com or 212-427-7375) by Friday, May 8th

Pacific Northwest Chapter
Fall Meeting
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Richland, Washington

Preview: The PNW/ASI fall meeting in Richland, Washington will include a full day of sessions. While the schedule of topics is still being finalized, we expect to include a presentation on "AACR2 for Indexers" by Debra Spidal, and a session on using PDFs by Cheryl Landes.

There will also be an optional Ice Age driving tour on Friday, September 25, to give people a chance to explore the unique geographic features of the area, with an optional hike or winery tour. The tour will be led by the President of the Lake Lewis Chapter of the Ice Age Institute.

The Pittsburgh Group is trying to form again.  We had a small but successful initial meeting on Sat., January 20, 2007, at the home of Susan Cohen.  Diana Witt, ASI's Chapter Liaison, came and gave an extremely useful talk on Time Management. She then spoke on ideas to build up our chapter, and gave us several useful suggestions about other organizations to contact for potential future collaborations.

Anyone interested in finding out more about this group should contact Susan Solomon.

ASI Rocky Mountain Chapter
Summer Social Gathering in Woodland Park, Colorado
Saturday, August 8, 2009
11 am–3 pm

We will have good company, good food and games to play. Hostesses Lucie Haskins and Liz Walker will provide the burgers/condiments and drinks. We ask everyone to bring a side dish, salad, or desert to share. We may be short on lawn chairs so bring one if you can.

Directions will be provided as we get closer to the date.

RSVP is appreciated but not required.

ASI Rocky Mountain Chapter
Fall Conference
Saturday, October 10, 2009

Polishing Your Index

Enid Zafran will be presenting a day-long workshop on the steps involved in editing and polishing your index. Tips will include "editing-as-you-go" and various self-checks that will make indexing easier and more accurate. The workshop will have something for newer indexers as well as for those with more experience. A hands-on exercise will be included, and there will be time for questions. Remember when you have finished indexing, you have not completed the job — the edit is an essential step and requires its own skills and checklist. This is an opportunity to learn from a "master" indexer who has headed two indexing departments, trained innumerable indexers, and runs one of the largest freelance indexing businesses in the U.S.

The workshop will be held at the Embassy Suites in the Denver Tech Center. More details can be found on the chapter website, http://www.asicolorado.org as they become available.

Below Lone Tree (BLT) Peer Review Group meetings

The Below Lone Tree (BLT) peer review group meets from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm on the second Tuesday of every month at the Colorado Springs East Library, conference room 2.

The East Branch Library is located at 5550 North Union Blvd. Their phone number is 719-531-6333. The library is easy to find, it is just east of the intersection of Academy Blvd. and Union Blvd. If you cross Vickers Drive, you've gone too far.

Everyone is welcome, and encouraged, to attend these reviews; they are always informal, friendly, and educational. During the course of the review sessions, in addition to learning more about indexing conundrums from the reviews, we also share and discuss other indexing issues, such as: tid-bits about how to be more efficient using our indexing software, how to shorten an index when there are space limitations, marketing tips, or interesting stories about a specific project. Sometimes we continue a discussion or just socialize at a nearby restaurant after the meeting.

Please let Donna Drialo know if you are planning to attend. The library does not charge non-profit groups such as ours for the use of this space, but they do charge for profit groups and their rooms are quite popular. It's only fair for us to notify the library as soon as possible if we will not need the space.

The SOUTH CENTRAL CHAPTER of ASI
November 8, 2008 Virtual Meeting

Due to a hurricane, the previously announced program was held as a virtual meeting via Yugma.com. Attendees from Tennessee and all around Texas were able to talk and listen by telephone while viewing the presenters' visuals on their own computer screens.

Discussions included:

Subcontracting Forum. Kay Schlembach and Joanne Sprott shared the subcontracting forum guidelines written by ASI member Enid Zafran and responded to a number of question based on their own experience.

Big Question Brainstorming Session: Previously submitted questions were discussed by participants.

The session concluded with a Chapter business meeting.

Twin Cities ASI Chapter Program
Saturday, March 14, 2009

Publishing Industry Update and Printing Plant Tour
MGB Printing Services
10276 E. Point Douglas Road
Cottage Grove, MN 55016

Schedule for regular meetings:
9:00 – 9:30: registration, networking, refreshments
9:30 – 12:00: brief business meeting, announcements, scheduled program
12:00 – Drawing for door prizes!!! And, for those interested, lunch at nearby restaurant.

Visitors and guests are always welcome. There is a $5.00 registration fee to help pay for room rental and refreshments.

The Program:
The ever-changing, discombobulating world of publishing ...and why don’t more books have indexes? (and a tour of a Print-On-Demand book operation)

The Speaker:
Pat Morris, our speaker, has just been reelected for another term as president of the Midwest Independent Publishers Association, an organization attempting to make sense of this crazy publishing industry. She has agreed to speak to the Twin Cities ASI Chapter and any others out there who are trying to make a living in the publishing industry.

She’s been a professional editor for over 25 years, but obnoxiously corrected people’s grammar long before that. Her clients include the Federal government, corporations, children’s authors, and everything in between. She’s also been a university library assistant, a zoology laboratory assistant (where she lovingly took care of frogs before turning them over to students to dissect), a researcher for commentator Paul Harvey, a corporate librarian, a few other things but most importantly, a Mom and now a Grandma.

Her first project for the Federal government was to do the final copyediting, all the proofreading, and write the index for an 800-page text, Occupational Respiratory Diseases. And she did it on an Apple IIC (disk in, disk out, disk in, disk out...).

She’s written two books – a business book and a book about green tea and has several ideas for more books if only she could find the time...

As a “natural” writer it was inevitable that she would end up at the University of Iowa (also because she was born in Iowa City), home of the world-renowned Writers’ Workshop, where, of course, she majored in...sociology. It was the 60s!

Driving directions: Follow these directions (do not follow MapQuest): I-494 to highway 61, south to Innovation Road, left on Innovation to the first right (E. Point Douglas Road). Then watch for signs.

Any questions, please call me (office: 701-298-6304; cell: 701-541-0055) or drop me an email at galenschroeder@msn.com.

Western New York ASI Chapter—Spring Meeting
Saturday, April 4, 2009
New York Wine and Culinary Center
800 South Main Street
Canandaigua, NY 14424
tel. 585.394.7070
www.nywcc.com

Alexandra Nickerson comes to speak to us about the joys and challenges of Cookbook Indexing. Alexandra has been indexing since 1965. She specializes in the indexing of cookbooks, medical and health related materials, and software applications books. She has served ASI as president 1997–1998 and as a member of the Board. She served as chair of the H.W. Wilson Award for three years, as chair of the Heartlands Chapter for one year, and as chair of the Education Committee of ASI for three years. She has been a presenter at numerous local and national ASI meetings as well as many national meetings of writers and editors.

Appropriately enough, we’ll be meeting at the New York Wine and Culinary Center in Canandaigua, NY for Alexandra’s talk. “The New York Wine & Culinary Center is designed to engage, excite and inspire the people of New York State and the world in a celebration of New York wine and food. The Center is an educational and experiential gateway to New York State's incredible wine, food and culinary industries” (http://www.nywcc.com/about/mission.php).

Take advantage of this special opportunity to come to the beautiful Finger Lakes area of New York. This is the place to try New York State wines!

Agenda:
10:00 Coffee and tea
         Welcome and introductions
         Alexandra Nickerson speaks about Cookbook Indexing

12:30 Lunch* and networking—we’ll be ordering from a short seasonal menu. Although the Executive Chef changes the menu often, see http://www.nywcc.com to get an idea of the Starters, Salads, and Light Fare that are offered.

1:30 Catch up on ASI news and Chapter matters

2:30 Free to explore the Center, its exhibits, gift shop, and wine tasting room. Enjoy!

Bring a friend or significant other! The more the merrier! This event is open to non-members. Make a weekend of it! See www.fingerlakes.org and www.visitfingerlakes.com for information on more things to do, people to see, places to stay!

Members: $35 before March 16; $40 after March 16.
Non-members: $40 before March 16; $45 after March 16.

Send checks payable to: WNY Chapter of ASI to Judy Kip, 3 Courtly Circle, Owego, NY 13827.

*Lunch is ordered from the menu and paid individually.

For questions or more information, contact: Peg Mauer, pmauer2004@yahoo.com; 518-359-8616.