Professional Development Activity 2

Georgia State University

Applied Linguistics
Fall 2014
For this activity I attended the Georgia Registry of Interpreter for the Deafs
annual conference. This years conference happened on Nov 15, 2014 At Georgia
Perimeter College. I attended and participated in the Members General Business
meeting. The conference portion was all-day workshops for attendees. Then during the
lunch break, after everyone finished eating, we begin the General Business Meeting.
The meeting opened with officer reports ranging from the president to the
treasurers financial report to the membership. Next we went on to Committee reports,
ranging from Professional Development to the Mentorship Committee. I am and have
been the Chairperson for the Mentorship Committee since 2008. Starting in 2007, I
became THE committee, drew up goals for, and implemented the structure for the
Mentorship Program. This program pairs a nationally certified interpreter mentor with a
newer interpreter who is seeking certification. The program lasts 5 months where they
must meet for a minimum of 20 hours during that time. During this time, the mentor, who
have training in mentoring, the interpreting process and analysis will meet with and set
goals for the mentee. During their time together they will follow a plan that they both
create, tailored individually for the mentee. I, as the chairperson, am also available to aid
in any aspect they require. Also as the chairperson, I administer the program, advertising
the program on our web presence, social medial and emails. Furthermore, I accept
applications, process pair matching and coordinate the running of the program.

During the Business Meeting, I was required to give the report, an up-date on the
status of the Program and how things were going and any future events. I work with a
board liaison in communication with the board and any decisions needing approval. I
gave my report, stating that we have only two pairs running this session of August 15January 15. The pairs are working hard and are coming along. Additional announcement
were for the next session, which will start in January. I gave the deadlines for
applications, fees, and other information the members need to know.
It has been a while since I have gotten the program up and running. I have seen
some areas where it needs to change and possible become more formulaic. As it is now,
the mentors follow what they individually come up with, together with the mentee. I have
thought about developing some type of curriculum they can go through or a rough
structure they can follow. But things have been smooth so far. I have tried three times to
have workshops for the mentors and mentees, to let them know what they were in for and
a way to ready themselves from former mentors and mentees. One time the workshops
went off well, and the other times there were no shows to the workshops. I have tried to
get others to join me in running the program, but the interest peaks and then fizzles. So I
have been running it for the past 7 years. From evaluations I receive back, mentees are
receiving what they expect and are benefitting from the experience. They are going on to
become certified, professional relationships are being developed and ultimately the Deaf
community is gaining a better source of skilled interpreters.