Interested in volunteering with ASI?

ASI relies on members to devote their skills and time to the organization. A culture of volunteerism helps to maintain ASI’s mission to provide educational resources and advocacy for the indexing community.

Below is a list of the wide range of volunteer opportunities available to ASI members. You will find a brief description of each committee’s responsibilities, including the time commitment required. If you are interested in volunteering with a particular committee or in a specific role, please email the respective committee chair or contact person. Note that the chairs of each committee are reinstated or replaced by the President at the start of the new administrative year, corresponding with the Annual General Meeting in the spring. Additional members of the committees can join throughout the year as needed.

Chapters

ASI has several regional chapters, and each require at least one person to lead, preferably more. Administrative tasks can be delegated to other positions, such as a membership coordinator or webmaster. If you would like to inquire about volunteering with your local chapter, contact the current chapter leader. A list of regional chapters and their current leaders can be found here. If you would like to establish a new regional chapter, you can ask the Chapter Relations Committee chair for more information. Note that you must be a member of the Chapter to be considered for a volunteer position. You can purchase Chapter memberships (the first one is free) at ASI’s online store here.

Leader: Chapter Leaders oversee general administrative tasks, which can include welcoming new members, managing finances, organizing occasional meetings (either in-person or online), and submitting annual reports to the Board. A more detailed list of chapter leader duties can be found here.
Time Commitment: ~2-4 hours/month

Membership Coordinator: Compare the most recent monthly member list with the previous month’s member list. Identify the new members, those whose membership is about to expire, and members who did not renew. Email those members to either welcome them to the group, notify them that their membership is about to expire, or remind them to renew. (Some chapters might already have templates you can use for the emails.) Manage membership in the Chapter online discussion group (if applicable).
Time Commitment: ~1 hour/month

Webmaster: Maintain the SIG website, add new members to the directory, occasionally check for broken links, etc.
Time Commitment: ~1 hour/month

SIGs

ASI has several special interest groups (SIGs), and each require at least one person to lead. Administrative tasks can be delegated to other positions, such as a membership coordinator or webmaster. If you would like to inquire about volunteering with a SIG, contact the current chapter leader. A list of regional chapters and their current leaders can be found here. If you would like to establish a new SIG, you can ask the SIG Relations Committee chair for more information. Note that you must be a member of the SIG to be considered for a volunteer position. You can purchase SIG memberships at ASI’s online store here.

Leader: SIG Leaders oversee general administrative tasks, which can include welcoming new members, managing finances, organizing occasional meetings (either in-person or online), and submitting annual reports to the Board. A more detailed list of SIG leader duties can be found here.
Time Commitment: ~2-4 hours/month

Membership Coordinator: Compare the most recent monthly member list with the previous month’s member list. Identify the new members, those whose membership is about to expire, and members who did not renew. Email those members to either welcome them to the group, notify them that their membership is about to expire, or remind them to renew. (Some SIGs might already have templates you can use for the emails.) Manage membership in the SIG online discussion group (if applicable).
Time Commitment: ~1 hour/month

Webmaster: Maintain the SIG website, add new members to the directory, occasionally check for broken links, etc.
Time Commitment: ~1 hour/month

AI Committee

Chair: Elizabeth Bartmess, Contact

Duties: The AI Committee investigates, documents, and responds to potential impacts of AI on indexing, through independent research, reviews, and outreach. Our previous publications are available here. We also do presentations for both indexers and other publishing professionals.

Time Commitment: Flexible and variable, depending on committee members’ available time.

ASIndexing Discussion List Moderator

Chair: Michele Combs, Contact

Duties: add new ASI members to the list when they join, and remove individuals whose ASI membership has lapsed; validate list membership once a year by requesting a full ASI membership list from Gwen and checking it against the list of subscribers to ASIndexing; monitor list conversations and step in if needed; encourage and stimulate activity on the list—for example by posting questions or items of interest, and requesting Board members to be active on the list at least once a month; act as liaison between ASIndexing and IDG, by cross-posting appropriate items between the two lists.

Time Commitment: ~1-2 hours/month

Jobs Hotline Committee

Chair: Linda Mamassian, Contact

Duties: The ASI Indexer Jobs Hotline is a job board for freelance and in-house indexing vacancies and is a free service for all ASI members. Publishers and authors may post indexing opportunities to the ASI Indexer Jobs Hotline by filling out an online form. Members of the ASI Jobs Hotline Committee send the job postings to Hotline subscribers. They also approve new subscribers after verifying ASI membership.

Time Commitment: ~1 hour/week, with moderators rotating on a monthly basis

Key Words Indexers

Chair: Sanjiv Kumar Sinha, Contact

Duties: The Key Words Index Committee is responsible for compiling and maintaining the ASI Key Words Index, a resource that helps connect indexers with subject areas and areas of expertise within the profession. Committee members assist with reviewing, organizing, and updating entries to ensure the index remains accurate, clear, and useful to ASI members and clients.

Time Commitment: Flexible and variable, depending on update cycles and committee projects, but generally averaging a few hours per month.

Key Words Proofreaders

Editor: Meghan Wagner, Contact

Duties: Proofreading Key Words involves closely reading the full issue against the style guide, paying particular attention to the house style, punctuation, and spelling. Proofreading involves making sure that not just the text is accurate, but all figures and page numbers properly align throughout the issue, especially in relation to the table of contents.

Time Commitment: ~1-2 hours/issue

Membership Committee

Chair: Mamta Jha, Contact

Duties: Members of the committee are assigned 1 or 2 months during which they receive a list of new members of ASI. Using a provided script, committee members contact (via phone call first, then email follow-up) new members to warmly welcome them to the organization and answer any questions. Committee members submit a spreadsheet with notes of their conversations to Chapter leaders to notify them of new ASI members in their region.

Time Commitment: ~2-4 hours/month

Outreach Committee

Chair: Kimberly Israel, Contact

Duties: The Outreach Committee works to promote the field of indexing to a broad audience (publishers, non-indexers, indexers who are not ASI members), and promote services offered by ASI and incentivize membership. Some of the tasks to accomplish this mission: promote National Indexing Day; identify areas to recruit new indexers/ASI members; put together promotional materials for distribution at industry conferences (bookmarks, brochures, etc.); explore opportunities for giving presentations on indexing at industry conferences; explore opportunities for publishing articles on indexing in industry journals and newsletters

Time Commitment: ~2-5 hours/task

Publications Coordinator/Acquisitions Editor

Chair: Heather Dubnick, Contact

Duties: The publications coordinator works to reissue/revise past ASI publications as well as prepare new publications. Volunteers are recruited to assist with specific publishing-related tasks on an as-needed basis.

Time Commitment: Flexible and variable, depending on the task at hand and volunteers’ available time.

Webinar/Online Learning Committee

Chair: Tony Fazio, Contact

Roles:

Planning: Plan webinar and Online Learning Course topics and presenters; reach out to prospective presenters; coordinate scheduling and paperwork with presenters and moderators

Time commitment: ~2-3 hours/event

Moderating: Formally introduce presenters and monitor the audience chatbox for the Q&A portion of the events; attend rehearsal (1 week before event) to test audio/visual connection

Time commitment: 1 hour/event (plus 1/2 hour for rehearsal)

Reviewing: Review library of webinar/Online Learning Course offerings to determine current relevance and viability. [Note that volunteers in this role should have at least moderate indexing experience to be able to adequately judge the value of webinar/OLC offerings.]

Time commitment: ~2-3 hours/item

Webmaster Team

Chair: Mary Stevens, Contact

Duties: The Webmaster Team makes basic updates to the ASI website and responds to website user requests received through the webmaster email account. The team also provides basic user support for website navigation and access.

Time Commitment: 1-2 hours per week every 4-5 weeks, when on webmaster duty. Time commitments beyond this vary depending on current website maintenance projects but are not onerous

Short-Term Volunteer Opportunities

It is understandable that some members cannot commitment to a full year or multi-month volunteer task. ASI still offers plenty of volunteer opportunities that involve only a short-term commitment:

Key Words articles

Share your knowledge of a specific area of indexing or report on news related to the profession in an article for Key Words. Contact the editor, Meghan Wagner, about a topic proposal.

Time Commitment: variable, depending on the depth and scope of the proposed article

Indexing Playground host

ASI holds informal “Indexing Playgrounds” on a quarterly basis, which consists of a one-hour Zoom meeting with fellow indexers to connect and share knowing and laughs. Contact the ASI President, president@asindexing.org, about interest in hosting a playground room. To host one of the breakout rooms, come prepared with questions to get the conversation started, and moderate the discussion.

Time Commitment: ~1-2 hours

Conference presentations

Share your knowledge of a specific area of indexing. Contact the conference planning chair, about a topic proposal.

Time Commitment: variable for planning and preparation. 1 hour/event (plus 1/2 hour for rehearsal)

Compensation: Conference presenters receive a $100 honorarium

Webinars

Share your knowledge of a specific area of indexing. Contact the Webinar/OLC chair, Tony Fazio, about a topic proposal.