WORKING AT PIE!
by Stephanie Kerkvliet

Full time work:
Interpreters have LOTS of choices these days on where and how to work. Working for any agency full time means giving up the freedom of an independent contractor (i.e. setting your own hours, making your own rules [guided by the Code of Ethics of course], being your own boss. It can also mean joining a team of committed professionals and working toward common and complimentary goals. If the team idea appeals to you, then full time work at PIE could be a great option for you.

Excellence is a major goal at PIE. We strive to be excellent in every aspect of our business. Our staff meetings are high-energy hotbeds of creativity. We are sometimes frustrated but never distracted from our intent on being excellent in everything we do. New ideas cause us to think and motivate us to action. There is always room for professional growth.

Part time work:
Part time opportunities through PIE are numerous. The more available you are to PIE, the more work you will find comes your way. Last minute work is a hallmark service for PIE. While we try hard to send out to part-timers as much work as possible as far in advance as possible it does hold true that good things often come to those who wait!Certification:
If you currently hold one RID certification, we try very hard to match CT’s with transliterating jobs and CI’s with interpreting jobs. This can get complicated so we appreciate your feedback regarding the appropriateness of jobs that you take as well as your comfort level with the work required.

If you are currently working toward certification, be assured that PIE DOES work with pre-certified interpreters. Our general rule is to pair certified interpreters with pre-certified interpreters when feasible to allow informal mentoring to occur. By special request or circumstance we do make exceptions to our general practice of scheduling certified interpreters for jobs requiring a single interpreter. Here again, last minute work is available!

Mentoring:
PIE has always been a strong supporter of mentoring. Whether the mentoring takes place on an informal basis when interpreters happen to be working together or is more deliberate and planned, the full time PIE interpreter staff is willing to work with you regarding professional development. We recognize the mutual benefit inherent in discussions about any angle of interpreting.

Deaf Interpreters:
Working with Deaf interpreters was a driving motivator behind the establishment of PIE. We are continually both humbled and impressed by the impact the work of a Deaf interpreter has on consumers and situations. New levels of excellence are possible with this kind of teamwork. Working as a full time staff member allows maximum exposure to the Deaf interpreters PIE works with. Working as a part time employee (certified or not) means a heightened potential for working with Deaf interpreters. Watch for future opportunities for PIE employees to learn more about working in Deaf/hearing teams.

Professional Development:
In the pursuit of excellence, Professional Development is a high priority for PIE. Full time employees are encouraged via paid time for professional development activities. PIE developed the Training and Development program in order to promote development of PIE employees as well as the community at large. To date PIE trainings have been well received and well attended! PIE strives to offer at least one training per year as a benefit to PIE employees (exclusive to employees, full & part time, and free or nominal cost).

Oh Yeah
Finally, and by far, most importantly, the best reason I can think of to work for PIE is the staff. It is my distinct and honored pleasure to work with people whose professionalism, ethics and skills I admire and am inspired by daily. These people are devoted to excellence and are the very soul of Professional Interpreting Enterprise, Inc. Given a choice, this is a dream team for which I am especially thankful:

Tracy Vetter • Elizabeth Burgert • Laura Cook

Amy Fryman • Jason Pilarski • Tim Mumm

Jeff Mosher • Linda Lonning • Sandy Peplinski

Theresa Schmechel • Amy Free • Lisa Perry Burckhardt

LEGAL WORKSHOP
submitted by Amy Fryman

The WisRID Legal Development Committee is proud to announce the offering of Part 3D of the Legal Institute: Interpreting Civil Depositions: A Mock Event taking place on February 14, 15 and 16, 2003.

This seminar is one in a series of advanced court interpretation seminars designed to meet the needs of the seasoned court interpreter who has completed court interpreter training and who seeks more advanced training to sharpen skills and to gain a more thorough understanding of an often confusing arena. This seminar is designed to be the culmination of the Wisconsin Legal Interpreting Series; however, it is open to all participants who have met the basic introductory requirements. In this simulated legal interpreting seminar, participants will use strands of knowledge gained in the previous seminars and apply them to the actual interpreting task.

Theory and classroom training can never replace actual experience that interpreters obtain from an assignment. This seminar provides the court interpreter with actual legal interpreting experience by learning about, preparing for, interpreting and debriefing an actual civil deposition.

First the seminar will define the various roles an interpreter can be expected to take in a civil deposition, including the monitor role and the proceedings interpreter role. A discussion of the legal underpinnings for each role, including a review of the concept of privileged communications will be presented. The participants will engage in actual preparation with the attorneys and the deaf consumers for a mock deposition. Finally, the presenter, assistants and the participants will engage in in-depth analysis of interpretations at the conclusion of the deposition.

The instructor for this seminar is Carla M. Mathers, Esquire, CSC, SC:L (2000)

Ms. Mathers is an attorney in private practice with offices in Baltimore and College Park, MD. Ms. Mathers works for a civil litigation firm and is licensed to practice in the state and federal courts of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Ms. Mathers graduated magna cum laude from Howard University School of Law and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland where she graduated summa cum laude. Ms. Mathers’ interpreting degree is from the College of Southern Idaho. Ms. Mathers is a former President and Vice President of the Potomac Chapter of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. Ms. Mathers is a member of the Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts’ Advisory Committee on Interpreters.

She sits on the Subcommittee on Ethics and the Subcommittee on Testing and Training. As a certified interpreter and a practicing lawyer, Ms. Mathers is in a unique position to provide current theoretical and practical knowledge to participants through a variety of formats. Ms. Mathers has traveled and taught court interpretation nationally since 1986.

ACCESSING 7-1-1
submitted by Todd Behanna
Wisconsin Relay
tbehanna@hamilton.net

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that 7-1-1 be used as the national three digit number for relay access. People who are deaf, hard of hearing, speech disabled and hearing, call the relay (at no charge), to have their telephone calls relayed voice to text and vice versa. Relay can be accessed via 7-1-1 in all 50 states, similar to 4-1-1 for Directory Assistance and 9-1-1 for emergencies.

Any organization or business that has their own telephone system (PBX) must program 7-1-1 to "point" to the relay. If you are aware of a system that is not yet routed for 7-1-1, please have the person that maintains the phone system call 1-800-618-4781 to obtain the 800 routing number for 7-1-1.

If you want cards that explain this information, contact Todd Behanna at Wisconsin Relay. He'll happily send some your way.

PALM ORIENTATION
by Tim Mumm

If you use a Palm computing device, take a look at the tips on www.interpug.com/palm/tips. Be sure to hit the archives button. I went there and found several of the tips useful. You’ll find everything from how to make those letters right the first time, to how to create a perpetual shopping list using your to-do function, to how to customize your hard button launchers. And while we’re talking Palm, if you don’t have a copy of Trip yet, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. Go to www.handshigh.com/html/trip. This software is for mileage tracking, and I use it every day. In fact, if you’re interested and you happen to see me, I can beam you a demo version of Trip, as can anyone who has it on their Palm device.

ADA CORNER
(Amy’s Disability Awareness Corner)
by Amy Free

A recent case was won by a deaf man who had been terminated from his position as an airline mechanic (Sprague vs. United Airlines, August 2002.) It was claimed that Sprague's job was taken from him as a result of his employers' assumptions about his "disability".

The definition of "disabled" or "disability" varies by culture, changes with time, and is essentially a social construct. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which promises "equality of opportunity", Deaf persons can legally request accommodations for both employment needs and recreational activities. Many Deaf persons in the U.S. do not consider themselves disabled, and therefore find themselves in the middle of a paradox. To benefit from the legislation, they feel they must, to some degree, accept the "disabled" label.

As the Sprague case shows us, the label of "disabled" carries assumptions with it. John Sprague maintained that his hearing loss did not affect his ability to do his job. It could be said that Mr. Sprague was not disabled at work. His employers, however, regarded him as a person with a disability.

Advocates say that regarding an individual as though he has a disability, creates invisible walls that impede opportunity. It may be helpful for individuals to be aware that the ADA provides protection to not only those persons with diagnosed, documented disabilities, but also those persons who may or may not have a disability but are "regarded as having a disability."

Quotes for thought...
"‘We must not and will not rest until every man and woman with a dream has the means to achieve it.' Today we renew that commitment, and we continue to work for an America where individuals are celebrated for their abilities, not judged by their disabilities."
- President George W. Bush on the 12th anniversary of the
ADA, quoting his father at the signing of the ADA in 1990

"...it is sadder that in this life there are many who hear but do not listen... is lack of hearing then a handicap if one who cannot hear can listen, feel, understand, and love?"
- Pamela Wright-Meinhardt (Deaf Way II Anthology)

(Some information for this article was found on
The Great Lakes ADA listserv, http://www.adagreatlakes.org.)

Christmas Cookie Baking Fantasy
by Elizabeth A. Burgert

Cookies!
Yumm, just yumm yumm yumm
Christmas cookies.
Small hard ones melt like dust
butter dust on your fingertips
lick them carefully one at a time.
Finger tips knead dough
tracing the list of ingredients down
1 Tablespoon
a Tablespoon of love
sounds so nice.
Big chewy cookies
with macadamia nuts in them.
They must have been dropped
from a teaspoon ~
pushed off its sticky edge
with a sticky finger tip.
Achy shoulders stirring with
achy arms.
Imagine making millions of cookies.
Roll the dough, I’ll stand here
with a cookie cutter.
Shapes like hearts and circles and
Santas.
Greasy spots on recipe cards
looking loved, a little gooey on the edges. Sweetness.
Be my sweetness, my paramour ~
be my apple blossom and
orange drop ~
gather me in your arms like
a bouquet of orchids, lady slipper
softness against your rough skin.
Cookies! Oh, yes, cookies.
Dropped, pinwheeled, molded, cut stuffed,
sprinkled, glazed, iced, folded, baked.
Simple sweetness, glazed beauty
sticky attraction.
Goofy gumdrops
Alleluja!
Need order to this:
clarity like egg whites
smoothness like flour
sharpness like baking soda
cut preciousness like sugar
oozing love bath like melted butter
sensual passion like vanilla extract
stir well
heat the oven, get warmth going to
harden and secure the shape of
cookies.