Registration Now Open

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

Hilton Garden Inn O'Hare

Registration is now open for the Chicago/Great Lakes Chapter Fall Workshops on November 6 and 7.

Program Features:

Friday, November 6

• Names and Biographies (Martin White)
• Managing Your Indexing Business (expert business panel)

Saturday, November 7: Cookbook Indexing (Fred Leise)

Everything you might want to know about attending this event, including the registration form, is in the workshop brochure (PDF) that can be downloaded from our chapter Web site at www.chicagogreatlakesindexers.org/events.html.

We hope to see you in Chicago in early November!

Golden Gate Chapter of the American Society for Indexing
2010 Conference Scholarship Competition

The Golden Gate Chapter of the American Society for Indexing is pleased to announce a scholarship competition open to any chapter member who has never attended an ASI national conference. The winner of the competition, based on index submissions, will receive free registration to the ASI conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 13-15, 2010. Details are as follows.

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be ASI members with Golden Gate Chapter affiliation at the time of submitting their scholarship entry. Applicants must be first-time conference goers in 2010 (i.e., they cannot have attended any previous ASI national conferences) . Applicants must agree in advance to perform a small service payment to the chapter if they win the scholarship award, such as giving a post-conference report at a chapter meeting, co-hosting a peer review session, or making some other contribution to chapter programming.

SCOPE OF AWARD: The winner will receive full conference registration (value of $399) paid by the chapter. This registration covers all official conference events, including meals. It DOES NOT cover transportation to and from Minneapolis, lodging costs, and pre- or post-conference workshops. See the conference website for more information on conference events and planning.

All applicants will benefit from receiving detailed evaluations of their work from a panel of experienced indexers, unless they request that the judges comments be withheld.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Applicants must submit the following items by email:

• An original index of a book or other printed work. The index must be submitted electronically as a word processing file (RTF or DOC format) such as you might submit to a client. As long as this index was created by you, there are no other limitations as to its length, subject matter, style, or date.
• A cover letter that briefly explains the index. If the index is for a published book, please include full publication details. If it is for an unpublished work, please describe the work or project. You may also want to note the circumstances behind the index's creation—whether it was a paid or practice index, whether the book was originally published with no index, any special considerations or requirements, etc.
• Submissions must be received by March 1, 2010. The winner will be announced March 14, 2010. Email the application materials to Janet Russell at russell@alumni.reed.edu

AWARD CRITERIA: Submitted indexes will be evaluated by a panel of three judges, all members of GGASI, based on the criteria used for ASI's annual H.W. Wilson Award for Excellence in Indexing.

QUESTIONS: Please direct any questions about the scholarship to Theresa Duran, theresad@pacbell.net or (415) 721-7130.

Fall 2009 Meeting
Heartland Chapter, American Society for Indexing
Saturday, October 17, 2009
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EDT in Richmond, Indiana

Presenting: Charlee Trantino
“Rekeying and Time Management”

Charlee Trantino has been a professional indexer for about twenty years. In 2006, she received the prestigious Wilson Award for her index to A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake: Unlocking James Joyce’s Masterpiece by Joseph Campbell and Henry Morton Robinson. Besides indexing, Charlee has written nine novels and three works of nonfiction. She also owns an antique shop. With so many full-time endeavors, she’s learned how to manage her time and will share how she does it all—and still has a life. Her mantra is:

Fear is the enemy.
Procrastination is fear.
Procrastination is the enemy.

Charlee will also share with us the tricks of the trade during a hands-on workshop on rekeying an index for a new edition when the pages reflow and the content is modified. Master the secret method she learned at Warner Books, plus her own modifications for working with electronic files.

Also,

“Sky 7.0” by John Bealle

Heartlander John Bealle served as a software tester for the recent major update of Sky Index indexing software. This hour-long presentation will survey the major features introduced in Sky 7.0 and reflect on the design philosophy and testing process. Although it will be most pertinent to Sky users, the overarching theme will be how software helps indexers do their work.

$30 - ASI members
$35 - non-members who have been to a Heartland meeting previously
$25 - 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 October 12th to: Mary Peterson, ASI Heartland Treasurer, 1085 East Glengarry Circle, Bloomfield MI 48301 or email her at mlp4776@yahoo.com. You may also pay at the door; however, please RSVP by October 12th to Mary or Tanya Bomsta at (740) 353-7809 / bomsta@inkpressindexing.com 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.

Mid- and South-Atlantic Chapter
American Society for Indexing
National Agricultural Library Tour
Wednesday, January 27, 2010,
10:00am to 2:00pm

The staff at the National Agricultural Library (NAL) will provide a general overview of NAL, a tour, and information about the NAL Thesaurus and indexing at NAL.

They are also inviting their indexers to have lunch with us, answer any questions we may have, and discuss indexing matters more informally. Be sure to bring a bag lunch.

The NAL Thesaurus is available online: http://agclass.nal.usda.gov/agt/agt.shtml. (Word of warning - you may spend all day playing with this!)

Cost: Free! Bring your own lunch

RSVP and Questions: programs@msasindexing.org

New England Chapter of the American Society for Indexing

Spring Meeting, April 17, 2010

The 2010 spring meeting of the New England Chapter of the American Society for Indexing (NEASI) will be held on Saturday, April 17th, 2010 at the Chelmsford Public Library in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Cheryl Landes, an award-winning technical writer and member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter as well as NEASI, will present "Experience an Index Usability Test" and Ilise Benun, a national speaker and co-founder of Marketing Mentor, will present "Nitty-Gritty Marketing and Pricing for Freelancers." There will also be a panel of NEASI members speaking about their own marketing experiences. Details will be available at the beginning of March. Please save the date!

New York City Chapter, American Society for Indexing
Informal Luncheon
Monday, March 1, 2010

It's time for another informal luncheon with the New York City chapter of the American Society for Indexing.

When: Monday, March 1, 2010
Time: 12:30 PM

Location:
Grand Sichuan Restaurant
277 Lexington Avenue (between 334rd and 34th Streets)
212-679-9770

This is not a meeting, it is a luncheon. No agenda. We can talk about anything on our minds. It is open to ASI members and nonmembers. All indexers, people interested in indexing and friends of indexers are welcome to attend. Please let us know if you are planning to come.

Please RSVP by Friday, February 26th to Janet Mazefsky, at jmazefsky@aol.com.

Pacific Northwest Chapter
The PNW/ASI Spring 2010 Meeting(s)

FLASH!   PNW/ASI will vet a new "venue" for its biannual meeting: a format referred to as In-Sync Indexing.

This format for the spring meeting is a new idea. Indexers will be meeting on the same date, and at the same time, but in their own geographical locations; so Seattlites meet somewhere in Seattle, Portlanders in Portland, Eastern Washingtonians somewhere central to them, Eugeniuses in or near Eugene, etc.

On the preplanned day and time, with all of us meeting in our prospective places, we will follow a preplanned script. There will be no need for conferencing. Every group will have a facilitator to manage activities and time and we will all be doing the same things at the same time, just in different places — synchronizing...or In Sync.

Each group will be provided a packet of materials to guide members through the planned discussions and activities. Whether a group of 16 or 2, the content of your meeting will be the same as other members of the chapter.

At the end of all the meetings, a recorder will post the group evaluation in order to create a collection for the entire chapter to review.

More details are forthcoming via Indexing-PNW, the PNW/ASI listserv.

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: tidbits 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
ANNOUNCES ITS FALL 2009 MEETING

Saturday, November 7, 2009
8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.

Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
Fort Worth, Texas

Kate Mertes presents her very popular NASCAR INDEXING: CREATING AND MAINTAINING SPEED

Time is money, and indexers are business people. We all want to work quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality. NASCAR drivers don’t win races because they drive carelessly and cut corners, or because they only drive in easy races. They win because they’re good, they’re fast, and they’re good at being fast. Indexers can do that too. The workshop is divided into three parts:

• philosophical aspects of speed in indexing
• the baseline requirements an indexer needs for speed
• actual speed-producing skills and practices.

Kate Mertes is sole proprietor of Mertes Editorial Services, providing indexing, information retrieval, and editorial expertise for complex, challenging projects in law and the humanities. Kate took her B.A. in medieval studies, a Ph.D. in medieval history, and a post-doctoral degree in theology, and after teaching at university level for several years moved into publishing with a stint at Oxford English Dictionaries. After nine years as a managing editor of indexing with Research Institute of America, a legal publishing company, Kate started her own business in 1998. She has lived in Alexandria, VA, since 1992. Kate served on the Board of the American Society for Indexing (ASI) from 1998 to 2004, and was president of ASI in 2002–2003; she is currently serving her second presidential term. She was also president of the Mid and South Atlantic chapter of ASI, 2005–2006, and periodically teaches a course on indexing for the Library School of the Catholic University of America. Kate is the author of Good Governance and Politic Rule: The English Noble Household, 1250–1550, and chapters in many of ASI’s publications on the indexing of legal, historical, and theological materials. She is also a co-author, with Fred Leise and Nan Badgett, of Indexing for Editors and Authors.

About Fort Worth: Looking for an inexpensive weekend getaway? Combine this meeting with the many attractions Cowtown has to offer. Our meeting site, the Botanic Gardens, is worth the trip itself, and the Gardens are mere minutes from the museum district, the Fort Worth Zoo and the very walkable Sundance Square in downtown. The Historic Stockyards District is only a short drive north of downtown, and Texas Christian University (TCU) is just south of the Gardens. Here are the links to some popular attractions:

• Downtown/Sundance Square, www.sundancesquare.com
• Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, www.fwbg.com
• Kimbell Art Museum, www.kimbellart.org
• Fort Worth Zoo, www.fortworthzoo.com
• Modern Art Museum, www.themodern.org
• Historic Stockyards, www.fortworthstockyards.com
• Texas Christian University, www.tcu.edu

Where: Fort Worth Botanic Gardens
3220 Botanic Garden Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 871-7686
http://www.fwbg.com
The Botanic Gardens are located just north of I-30, west of downtown Fort Worth and just south of the Museum District. Take the University Drive exit north and follow the signs.

Cost: For registrations received by October 16, 2008
       ASI members $50.00
       Students (with proof) $35.00
       Non-ASI members $70.00

       Late registration fees—received after October 16, 2008
       ASI members $60.00
       Students (with proof) $45.00
       Non-ASI members $80.00

NOTE: Registration form below

Coffee, bottled water, juice, and bagels/pastries (depending on what looks good) are included in the registration fee. A box lunch is also included in your registration fee. Please notify us if you need a vegetarian meal or have any other special dietary needs.

Meeting Schedule:

8:30 am–9:00 am Business meeting and introductions
9:00 am–10:00 am Part I: The Philosophy of Speed and Calculating your Speed Goals
10:00 am–12:00 noon Part II - Baseline Requirements for Speed in Indexing
12:00 noon–1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 pm–4:00 pm Part III Speed Skills, Tips, and Practices—23 Ideas for Speed, with Workshop Exercises

Nearby Hotels/Motels:

• Fairfield Inn, 1505 S University Drive, (817) 870-1011
• Travelodge, 1401 S. University Drive, (817) 336-9311
• Spring Hill Suites, 3250 Lovell Ave, (817) 878-2554
• Days Inn, 1551 S. University Drive, (817) 336-9823
• Residence Inn, 1701 S. University Drive, (817) 870-1011
• Courtyard by Marriott, 3150 Riverfront Drive, (817) 335-1300

There is a cluster of nearby motels just south of the Botanic Gardens and north of TCU on University Drive, all easily found and booked online. These are not quite walking distance but carpools to/from the meeting can be arranged.

REGISTRATION FORM

South Chapter Fall Meeting/Workshop
Saturday, November 7, 2009

Name:_____________________________________________________
Address:____________________________________________________
City, State, Zip:______________________________________________
Phone:______________________ E-mail_________________________

Membership:

ASI yes _______ no ________ Special Meal requests* _____________________

Cost: For registrations received by October 16, 2008
       ASI members $50.00
       Students (with proof) $35.00
       Non-ASI members $70.00

       Late registrations—received after October 16, 2008
       Add $10.00

Amount Enclosed: $_________

Please makes checks payable to South Central Chapter, ASI
Mail registration form and check to workshop registrar:

Paul Hightower
PO Box 101028
Fort Worth, TX 76185

*Please notify us if you need a vegetarian meal or have any other special dietary needs.

Twin Cities Chapter
American Society for Indexing

Social Networking 101
February 20, 2010

The Twin Cities Chapter/American Society for Indexing invites you to join us for Social Networking 101—Webinar/BYOL*

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—find out what they are, how they work, and how to make them work for you.

Neal Axton and Lindsay Matts, staff librarians at William Mitchell College of Law, will present a 2-hour interactive workshop touching on the following topics:

          Facebook—Networks, Notifications, Applications, Privacy
          LinkedIn—Connections, Resumes, Recommendations, Groups, Applications
          Twitter—Tweets, Hashtags, Re-Tweets
          Using Social Networking for Competitive Intelligence
          Using Social Networking for Advertising
          Establishing Boundaries

          Hands-On Session

*Bring Your Own Laptop. If you attend the meeting in person, a wi-fi connection is available or you can also watch the presenters on the Internet sites. If unable to attend in person, you can watch and participate via the Web.

Neal Axton is a reference librarian at William Mitchell College of Law and a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Law and the Information Studies program at UCLA. Neal provides consulting and education on social media, Internet privacy, and Internet security concerns in addition to his expertise in online legal research. You can find his profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealaxton or his twitter feed at http://twitter.com/safetyneal.

Lindsay Matts is the Educational Technologist at William Mitchell College of Law and holds advanced degrees in Learning Technology from the University of St. Thomas and Library and Information Science from Dominican University. Lindsay instructs and consults on next-generation technology as well as safety and privacy concerns regarding social networking. You can find her profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayhmatts.

Date: February 20, 2010
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 noon**
Place: William Mitchell College of Law
875 Summit Avenue, Rm. 229
St. Paul, Minnesota 55105
651-227-9171

**ASI members and other interested people are invited to come early (9:30 a.m.) to socialize and participate in a short business meeting before the workshop begins. And if anyone is interested, we can head over to one of the many restaurants on Grand Avenue for lunch after the workshop ends.

Directions to campus: http://www.wmitchell.edu/about/directions.html

Cost: No charge for access via the Web, but we’d appreciate receiving a $5 donation from anyone who attends in person.

RSVP: We need a definite count of people who plan to attend in person to ensure we have adequate space. Please let Terri Hudoba (tahudoba@comcast.net) know your plans by February 12, 2010. Instructions for accessing the meeting via the Web will be sent in a separate mailing to those wanting them.

Have questions or need further information? Contact either

Terri Hudoba
tahudoba@comcast.net
terri.hudoba@gmail.com
952.936.0317

or

Terry Casey
tcasey@inkandline.com
651.699.6857

Western New York Chapter of ASI —Spring Meeting
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Roycroft Inn
East Aurora, NY

Jan C. Wright will lead an open ended discussion about the care and feeding of the award-winning index for Design CS3 the first part of the discussion, Jan will talk about the index, its creation, its humor, and her own process. In the afternoon, the discussion will be a peer review, with Jan looking forward to questions about phrasing, content, and challenges. Copies of the book, as well as indexes to works by the same author, will be available for comparison.

Agenda:

9:00ish: Coffee, tea, etc.

10:00ish: Welcome and introductions

10:10: Jan Wright talks about what it takes to create an award-winning index

12:00: Lunch and networking

1:00: Peer review and Jan answers indexing-related questions

2:00 or 3:00: Catch up on ASI news and Chapter matters

Bring a friend! Make a weekend of it! Check out the Roycroft Inn for directions, for overnight accommodations, menus, etc.

More details coming soon.