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Next Program Meeting: Thursday, May 15 — Indexing Basics
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Making It Work: Building Your Editing Client Base
What could be more timely than the topic of Thursday’s program meeting? Following on the heels of Saturday’s highly successful Editorial Bootcamp with Laura Poole, we drew further information about how to increase our businesses from our own SD/PEN experts.
Member Andrea Susan Glass, who teaches “Marketing for Copyeditors” at UCSD Extension, kicked off the program with marketing tips for our editing and writing businesses. Andrea was followed by a panel of SD/PEN members, Shirley Clukey, Katy Laundrie, and Katie Barry, who talked about their personal experiences in finding clients and work, both in freelancing and employment situations. Finally, we rounded out the night by opening the floor for attendees to ask questions and contribute their own stories.
The May newsletter will feature a full recap of the meeting, as well as a full recap of the March 15 Editorial Bootcamp with Laura Poole.
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Tour of the New San Diego Central Library
By Kathleen V. Kish, PhD
The first SD/PEN meeting of the New Year, January 11, 2014, was a much-anticipated departure from the norm: a Saturday field trip to an architectural wonder in San Diego’s East Village. A natural draw for our membership, the new San Diego Central Library also attracted a number of friends and family members. After assembling in the garden courtyard, our guide asked us to accept a few additional visitors on our tour. Already infused with the “joy” that architect Rob Quigley strove to awaken when he designed the building nearly twenty years earlier, we cheerfully acceded to the docent’s request. Thus, about a score of us spent the next hour exploring the library’s cavernous space and breathtaking views, which cost nearly $200 million.
Except for the charter high school on floors six and seven, which is off-limits to the public, we had the run of the place. Naturally, we took care not to interfere with patrons taking advantage of the free health screening in the lobby, a children’s supervised art project, the “I Can Center” for adults, the teen center (off-limits to adults), and the computer labs (including one reserved for job seekers). Dazzled by the sheer quantity of books and media all around us, we smiled as we noticed details like the windows that were made to resemble open books, the eight dioramas by the brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torre in one of the elevator shafts, and other artistic “footnotes.” Those craving the familiarity of a classic reading room felt right at home under the latticework dome with the spectacular views from the eighth floor, 2,000-square-foot "people's penthouse."
Researchers with special objectives can revel in the areas set aside for San Diego history, with special emphasis on genealogy; the baseball research archive; and the art, music, and recreation collection. Early adopters in our group were especially taken with the IDEA (Innovation and Digital Expression Activity) Lab, a work in progress that houses a 3-D printer. Casual patrons will be charmed by the Dickinson Popular Library on the ground floor, where they’ll be pleased to find preloaded e-books. At the other extreme, who could fail to be delighted with the views of San Diego Bay from the top level, which is home to a special events suite, a rare books room, a sculpture garden, an art gallery, and a conference room. A stroll through stacks on one of the book-laden floors gladdened the hearts of all, just before our savvy docent, Julie McClane, loaded us onto a freight elevator to speed us back down to earth. There, some in our group headed for the Friends of the Library Used Book Store, while others took advantage of the sale in the petite Library Shop. A few of us were ravenous by that time and walked the few short blocks to The Mission, where we enjoyed selections from the restaurant’s offerings.
Are there reasons to return to the Central Library beyond the obvious — checking out books, conducting research, attending a concert or other public event, admiring the panorama from the bay view terrace, marveling at the architecturally original dome? Why, of course! Even we SD/PEN members lucky enough to have taken the tour will want to go back to experience the spaces and features we missed because they were locked up (the street-level, 350-seat auditorium with its curved wall of discarded books), not operating (the glass elevator with the de la Torre art), or not yet open (the outdoor café). Even when everything is complete, there will always be a reason to go to the library, a notion signaled by its Stairway to Somewhere, an exterior set of stairs on the fifth floor that seems to lead nowhere. On the contrary! Library patrons are always going up, up, up to Somewhere. Make yourself an example of this truth: read Roger Showley’s feature article in the September 22, 2013, SD Section of the U-T San Diego, and then get thee to the Central Library before it is no longer new.
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Pencil These Program Meetings in Your Calendar
All program meetings begin at 6:30 p.m.
May 15, 2014 — Indexing Basics: Learn From an Expert
July 17, 2014 — Working With and Around Graphics and Photography
September 18, 2014 — Grammar Points and Practices
November 20, 2014 — Publishing House Tour
Join the SD/PEN LinkedIn Group
Want to discuss your editorial concerns, quandaries, and successes between SD/PEN events? Join the conversation in the SD/PEN LinkedIn group to connect, network, and get advice from more than 200 group members.
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We are pleased to welcome the following people who joined SD/PEN in January or February!
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Donna Cheverton
dcheverton@cox.net
Aletha Fields
Black Iris Professional Editing Services
alethaedits@aol.com
Pritha Ghosh
pritha109@hotmail.com
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Dear Members,
 March 4 was National Grammar Day. What did you do to celebrate? I celebrated by editing — and I found joy in every incomplete sentence, word of sexist language, and lack of subject-verb agreement that I transformed into flawless English. I relished the most stubborn grammatical mishaps, and I thanked heaven for every resource that I had to help me with the various exceptions, nuances, and finer points of grammatical issues. Why? As word experts, we should celebrate poor grammar and the people who write it because that's what keeps us in business. (I must admit that this morning I did spend a considerable amount of time on one comma.)
Welcome to my first President’s Message. I am truly humbled by the faith that the members of the Board of Directors have put in me by this election. I will do everything I can to serve them and you with the best I have to offer.
That said, should you ever have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at maw_witt@hotmail.com or to contact any of the other board members. We need and appreciate your input.
We could also use your assistance from time to time. So if you’re asked to write a recap of a meeting or a workshop for the newsletter, to bring a snack (which we’ll reimburse you for) to a meeting, or to volunteer to sit on a committee, please try to find a bit of time to help your organization. It’s a lot of people contributing a little bit that makes the best organization. Let’s be the best!
I look forward to seeing you soon,
Melanie Astaire Witt
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Call for Submissions
Members, if you’ve come across a handy or entertaining website, newsletter, app, or other resource, or read a useful book that you’d be willing to write a short review of for us, please let us know and we’ll include it in the newsletter.
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