Plain Language Association International (PLAIN)

PLAIN’s Board Executive for 2015-16 is President Neil James, interim Vice-President Deborah Bosley, Treasurer Ingrid Sapona, and Secretary Greg Moriarty.

We’re happy to welcome 2 new Board members: Jana Goldman from the United States and Sylviane Duval from Canada.

At the recent annual meeting in Dublin, PLAIN made a pledge to look for Board members who are not from English-speaking countries in the future. So let us know if you or someone you recommend might be interested in joining the PLAIN Board in 2016.

All PLAIN Board members are also on at least one committee:

• membership
• conference
• communications
• publications
• professional development
• governance and finance

Some committees, including Communications, are looking for help from PLAIN members who aren’t on the Board. For example, if you have social media experience and would like to volunteer, please contact socialmedia@plainlanguagenetwork.org.

PLAIN 2015 Conference was a success, thanks to the organizers from NALA and PLAIN. Over 70 speakers and 250 participants from 18 countries met at Dublin Castle from September 17-19.

Coverage was good in the local papers and the Irish Times ran an article called Plain Talking: Gobbledygook costs money and risks lives.

Keynote speakers included:

• Emily O’Reilly, E.U. Ombudsman, via video link
• Dr. Richard Murray, of MSD (known as Merck & Co. Inc. in the U.S. and Canada)
• David Berman, design expert
• David Marsh, production editor of the Guardian newspaper
• Dr. Neil James, Executive Director of the Plain Language Foundation and PLAIN’s new President
• Susan Kleimann, of Kleimann Communication Group

Besides the well-attended plenary sessions, there were workshops and a wide variety of talks. And something new for the mix were speed mentoring sessions on plain language training techniques.

At the gala evening in the Old Jameson Distillery, there was live Irish music and dancing. But first the Irish Plain English Awards 2015 were given to Inclusion Ireland for their booklet Sexual Assault Support and Information in the use of plain English in a document category, and The Cope Foundation for their website in the use of plain English in a website category.

PLAIN gave Lynda Harris of Write Ltd the Mowat Award and also thanked outgoing board member Ruth Baldwin for her dedication and service.

The day after the 10th international conference, PLAIN held its AGM and pledged to continue to expand its influence around the world.

The PLAIN Board has been reviewing where the organization is now and how we might evolve over the next few years.

Our starting point is the release of a draft strategic plan we’re calling PLAIN 2020. It proposes a direction for the next 5 years from 2016 to 2020. The plan sets out our track record, challenges, and future goals in 6 areas:

• membership
• conference
• communications
• publications
• professional development
• finance and governance

Thank you for filling in the Survey. We will be posting results shortly.

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