See Also—November 2021

ASI News
—ASI Announces New Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resource Page
—ASI Special Event: What’s in a Name? Invert Your Thorns into Roses
—ASI Calls for 2022-23 Board Member Nominations
—Participate in ASI's Indexing Income Survey for 2021
—Key Words Editor Position Available
—Application Deadline for Training Course Administrator Position Extended
—2022 health coverage enrollment is underway for our members
Associated Industry News
—Ewart-Daveluy Award Recipient Announced
—Purple Pen Award
Chapters and SIGS
—New Special Interest Group (SIG) Coordinator Named
Business and Marketing
—Death of the Hard Drive
Spotlight on AElfwine Mischler

ASI News

ASI Announces New Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resource Page

Devon Thomas, past ASI president, recently wrote in Key Words (ASI's flagship publication), "The act of being seen and being named is empowering; it confirms the basic right to exist." The American Society for Indexing supports that claim and is committed to being a welcoming organization internally with its membership and externally with its roles in the publishing industry and with readers at large. To that end, there is a new EDI Resources page on the ASI website that addresses appropriate language for writing and speaking about disability, gendered language and sexual identity, LatinX, and Native American/American Indian/First Nation topics and issues.

Visit the EDI Resources page on the ASI website for more information. If you have suggestions for additional resources, please let the organization know via an email message.

ASI Special Event: What’s in a Name? Invert Your Thorns into Roses

December 4, 2021

What's in a name? Seemingly simple, in reality, a name can be a thorn in the side of indexers. To invert or not to invert?—that is just one question. Other times, you cannot tell what the dickens the name is. The American Society for Indexing is excited to bring together four experts who will share their knowledge about indexing names. No longer will you be false to any person's name. Presentations include “Challenges in Indexing Names,” with Noeline Bridge; “Issues in Indexing Russian Names,” with Sergey Lobachev; “The Mystery of Spanish Personal Names,” with Francine Cronshaw, and “Genealogical Indexing: The Name’s the Thing!” with Carolyn Weaver. The early rate for this special online event is just $75 for members through Nov. 19. Get more detailed information and register here.

ASI Calls for 2022-23 Board Member Nominations

Know someone with great ideas, enthusiasm, and a willingness to give to the indexing community? The ASI nominations committee is seeking suggestions for members to fill the slate of candidates for the upcoming ASI Board of Directors election for the year 2022-2023. This year we have four positions available: two Directors, Treasurer, and President-Elect. Qualifications vary, and a description for each position is available in the bylaws. Please contact Meghan Brawley with suggestions.

Participate in ASI's Indexing Income Survey for 2021

Every five years, the American Society for Indexing (ASI) conducts an in-depth survey of indexers to take a snapshot of the industry including demographics, financial trends (pricing, earnings, salary data, etc.), company style, areas of growth and overall strength. This data allows members to see how their individual skills, interests, and goals can fit into the existing industry structure and how they might be able to leverage emerging trends to their advantage. Your participation is important. If you haven't taken the survey, log in to the ASI website here to get the survey link. All responses are due by November 30.

Key Words Editor Position Available

The American Society for Indexing is seeking an editor for their quarterly journal, Key Words, the premiere resource for indexing professionals in the United States. The Editor will be responsible for planning the content for each issue, soliciting contributions, editing and proofreading copy, and transmitting files (which have been copy edited) in electronic format to the layout editor for production. Additional responsibilities and more information are listed on the ASI website.

The new deadline for applications for ASI Training Course Administrator is November 12. The American Society for Indexing is seeking a Course Administrator for the ASI Training Course. The Course Administrator will work in partnership with ASI to advance the association's educational mission. The Course Administrator is an independent contractor for ASI and is paid an annual honorarium. For more information, please consult the job announcement.

2022 health coverage enrollment is underway for our members

The Open Enrollment Period for 2022 health coverage options is here! As a member of the American Society for Indexing, you have exclusive access to health coverage solutions for you, your family, and your business/employees from our partner, LIG Solutions.

Important Dates to Remember:

• Individuals Over 65: Medicare Enrollment, AEP, begins October 15th and ends on December 7th, 2021.
• Individuals/Families Under 65: General Open Enrollment, OEP, begins November 1st and ends on January 15th, 2022
• NOTE: There is an extended period for OEP this year to get coverage for a January 1, 2022, active date you must enroll by December 15, policies purchased after this date will have a February 1, 2022, effective date

If you need additional information regarding this exclusive member benefit, please view our health insurance page for info on reaching the team at LIG.

Associated Industry News

Ewart-Daveluy Award Recipient Announced

The Indexing Society of Canada / Société canadienne d'indexation (ISC/SCI) is pleased to announce the 2021 Ewart-Daveluy Award recipient. The ISC/SCI Ewart-Daveluy Award, inaugurated in 2015, is presented each year to an individual who has created an index that demonstrates outstanding expertise through a combination of skills. The 2021 Ewart-Daveluy Indexing award has been presented to Stephen Ullstrom for his indexing of The Shield of Psalmic Prayer: Reflections on Translating, Interpreting, and Praying the Psalter by Donald Sheehan, published in 2020 by Ancient Faith Publishing.

Congratulations, Stephen!

Purple Pen Award

The Institute of Certified Indexers (ICI) is pleased to announce that Ruth Martin, a member of the UK Society of Indexers, has been awarded first place in the seventh annual competition for new indexers for her index to All Manner of Ingenuity and Industry: A Bio-Bibliography of Dr Thomas Willis (1621-1675) by Alastair Compston (published by Oxford University Press).

Entrants to the competition are all indexers who have recently completed an indexing training course. All entrants receive detailed written feedback on their indexes. For more information please visit the competition's web page.

Congratulations, Ruth!

Chapters and SIGS

New Special Interest Group (SIG) Coordinator Named

AElfwine Mischler has become the new SIG coordinator. AElfwine is a member of the Digital Publications SIG. She has already initiated an annual meeting of the SIG leads to discuss the association's upcoming review of Chapter and SIG Charters. Special Interest Groups at ASI run the gamut from culinary to legal and periodical to taxonomic indexing. To become a member of a SIG, one must be a member of ASI or an affiliated indexing society/group and pay association membership annual dues. For more information about SIGs, contact AElfwine Mischler.

Business and Marketing

Death of the Hard Drive

There are few things more memorable than a hard drive dying unexpectedly without having been backed up sufficiently. Hard disk data retrieval can easily run into the thousands of dollars, so creating regular backups of data to external storage devices is an essential best practice of business management for freelancers.

One option for external storage is via "the cloud."

"What the heck is the cloud?" you may rightfully ask.

The cloud is a term used to indicate software or other services that are run via the internet instead of on your computer hard disk. Some well-known examples of this type of service are Google Docs, Amazon Cloud Drive, and Dropbox. One of the biggest advantages of managing your data in the cloud is that it is available 24-7 for you to access via any device you may own.

So, if your laptop ends up in the drink on a Sargasso Sea cruise—and as long as you have the appropriate apps—your data will still be available via your phone or tablet or when you fire up that refurbished laptop you bought on the beach in Bermuda. There are many cloud storage services that allow you to store your 10 terabytes of family photos or collaborate with multiple colleagues on a project from a single dedicated virtual space.

Check out this VOX article for more information on cloud services including pros and cons.

Spotlight on AElfwine Mischler

If you would like to be in the Spotlight, or would like to nominate someone for it, please contact Daniel Heila.

Where do you live now? Where are you originally from?

I'm originally from New York State. I lived for ten years in California, where I met and married my husband and had our children. We moved to Cairo, Egypt, when the kids were young. They have since moved back to the US, so my husband and I are empty nesters in Cairo.

Most people wonder about the pronunciation of my name. It's Anglo-Saxon and means "elf friend." It's pronounced in three syllables, stress on the first, all the vowels short as in sat-sit-set: ALF-wi-ne (please, not alf-WEEN-a).

What is your educational background?

I have an associate's degree in physics, a bachelor's in English, and a master's in linguistics and teaching English as a foreign language. I studied some Arabic in Cairo but did not complete all the levels offered.

Do you have any hobbies, travels, volunteer work, or other interesting things to share?

I did some volunteer editing at the Egyptian Museum for a year. There really aren't volunteer opportunities here, but I do some online volunteering for ASI. I used to sew and crochet, but I don't enjoy them anymore—and have no use for more clothes or doilies. I video chat with my children and grandson on the weekends.

The photo of me was taken in front of the Egyptian Museum, next to an obelisk of one of the pharaohs named Ramesses (I forget which one), dating from about 1200 BC.

What kind of work did you do before you studied indexing? Are you still doing that or other work in addition to indexing?

I've taught off and on, first in the States and then here in Egypt. But I found that I liked editing better. I was the head copyeditor for a large website based here and then worked as an editor for a textbook publisher that was producing the English language textbooks for Egyptian schools. I started copyediting other types of books — mostly Egyptology, Middle East studies, and Islamic studies — before taking up indexing. I still do a lot of copyediting in addition to indexing.

When did you start indexing? When did you join ASI?

I finished the UC Berkeley course in the spring of 2014 and joined ASI after that.

For you, what is the best advantage of ASI membership?

The webinars and online workshops are the best thing for me. I attended three ASI conferences, but I can't always afford in-person conferences. The online activities are a big help.

Finally, what is your best coping strategy for the pandemic?

We never went into full lockdown here, and I rarely go out of my neighborhood, so the pandemic hasn't affected me so much. It was difficult having to attend my daughter's wedding via Zoom, but on the other hand, the pandemic motivated my family members to have monthly Zoom calls, and that has been a big blessing.