Chapter Events


Mark your calendars for the
Upper Midwest Chapter Spring Meeting!

Saturday, March 3, 2012

9:30 am - 3:30 pm

William Mitchell College of Law, 875 Summit Ave, St. Paul

Directions to campus: http://www.wmitchell.edu/about/directions.html

Jim Callendar, an Office Ergonomics Specialist with Impact Ergonomics Corporation, will start us off with a presentation on ergonomics for your home office. After lunch, a few of our very own indexers will give us an overview of some of their areas of expertise. It promises to be a great day of learning and networking. Please join us!

Schedule:
9:30 – 10:15  Registration, coffee and networking
10:15 – 10:30  Chapter Business Meeting / financial report
10:30 – 11:30  Ergonomics in your home office by Jim Callendar, Office Ergonomics Specialist with Impact Ergonomics Corporation

11:30 – 12:30  Lunch

Upper Midwest Expert Mini-Sessions
12:30 – 1:15  Ina Gravitz on Indexing History Books for Children and Teens
1:15 – 2:00  Rose Coad on Indexing Law Books
2:00 – 2:30  Steven Baker on technology / ebook update
2:30 – 2:45  Eve Morey Christiansen on stretching

$20 registration fee includes lunch and beverages (water or coffee)
 
Please register by Friday, February 24, 2012.  You may send your contact information (including e-mail) along with a check, payable to ASI Upper Midwest Chapter, to:  Steven Baker, ASI-UMW Treasurer, 6210 Franklin Ave., Des Moines, IA 50322

There is no registration form; your check is your registration.  Receipts will be available upon request.

For more information, please contact Steven Baker (bakerdsm@gmail.com), Eve Morey Christiansen (eve_dbq@hotmail.com), Lee Humphrey (lee@humphreyindexing.com), or Julie Foley (foleyindexing@gmail.com)


Report on Recent Past Event
Upper Midwest Chapter Fall 2011 Meeting

This meeting was  held on Saturday, October 1, 2011

Topic: Editing and Polishing Your Index

For the Upper Midwest Chapter's Fall meeting, we had the pleasure of hosting Enid L. Zafran for her workshop titled "Editing and Polishing Your Index." Sixteen people attended the meeting located in St. Paul, MN. The meeting was started with introductions from all of the attendees, and it was great to see familiar faces as well as meet several new indexers who attended.

The workshop had something in it for everyone no matter what level of experience they had in indexing. Handouts were provided for the first half of the workshop to illustrate the types of editing an indexer has to do before considering the project completed. Enid gave a very thorough explanation of the techniques she uses during the editing process. The techniques ranged from software tips to subject analysis to spotting common proofreading errors. After a break for lunch, we all had the opportunity to do a paper and pencil exercise reviewing an index with numerous errors specifically to show areas where these editing techniques could be used. After an hour of individual work, we went though it as a group discussing the errors and how they could best be fixed.

After the meeting concluded, the lovely weather allowed several of us to take Enid to supper at Tavern on Grand to sample some of Minnesota's local culture and cuisine.

Recent Past Event: Report on the Fall 2010 Indexing Skills Workshop

Metatopic Menace & Subheadings: Basic, Useful, Elegant

The report on this workshop was written by Steven Baker.

For its Fall Indexing Skills Workshop, the ASI Twin Cities Chapter brought together twenty-one participants from Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota. Hosting the assembly at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Terri Hudoba, Terry Casey, and Meg Daniel arranged the setting and agenda for Saturday, October 16, 2010.

Seasoned and very new indexers gathered to learn from two indexing masters: Kay Schlembach, a managing partner for Potomac Indexing, LLC, and Margie Towery, twice-winner of the H. W. Wilson Award.

Kay presented the morning discussion of “Metatopic Menace.” After a lunch delivered by Pizza Lucé, Margie delivered her advice with “Subheadings: Basic, Useful, Elegant.”

Kay and Margie did not previously discuss how they would present their topics, but as the day unfolded, it was as if they planned seamless seminars. They intrigued both veteran and new indexers with their agreements and dissimilarities regarding methods. Without any divisive attitudes and with admirable respect for each other, both experts demonstrated the art and science of indexing. They also proved that the disclaimer “It depends” is not a cop-out answer.

A theme developed over the span of six hours: The science of indexing, which demands accuracy, must blend with the art of indexing to create an elegant tool for the user.

Kay presented an index extracted from a biography of Henry VIII. Using the “forest-for-the-trees” metaphor, she explained, “I do the forest before the trees. Here we see how the indexer is now hugging trees and has forgotten the name of the forest.”

Kay showed how the “table of contents approach” permits indexers to follow a writer’s logic and allows vocabulary control to come from the author. This method can justify the breakage of alphabetic order as it leads users to information quickly. A benefit for the indexer is that a metatopic is not so mysterious and menacing.

When Margie presented “Subheadings…”, she generated thoughtful discussions about her AIRs: adjustable indexing rules. With fresh insights from her editing project, Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont in America: Their Friendship and Their Travels (ed. Zunz, 2010), she demonstrated the blend of artistic and technical methods. With proper “chunking” and accurate wording for entry arrays, the indexer can create elegant subheadings.

Margie graciously supplied the workshop’s door prize: The Chicago Manual of Style—16th Edition, a tome with a stylish index that she authored.

With the adjournment of the Fall Workshop, the Twin Cities Chapter enjoyed a very busy year, finishing well both with number of members and financial fluidity. For 2011, there is a promise of more networking among indexing colleagues.