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PAL Update

© Nancy A. Locke

Last spring, I had the pleasure of engaging in an e-mail exchange with Ricardo Erb on the subject of a new industry organization: the Professional Association for Localization (PAL). At the time, the organization was more a concept than a reality, a vision shared by Erb and a growing circle of like-minded professional colleagues, that would require great energy and devotion to realize.

Now, more than six months later, and after much hard work and dedication, that reality is truly taking shape. PAL's mission remains the same: to represent and support individual professionals in the localization industry. The emphasis on the individual is important. While other industry organizations, notably the Localisation Industry Standards Association (LISA), do a fine job of representing the industry at the corporate level, PAL recognizes the essential role of individuals, both the salaried and freelance human resources that form the backbone of the process and the business. And, even at its earliest stages, PAL has embraced partcipation by both the vendor and the client side of the localization equation.

Initially the ad hoc collaboration of a few, PAL now has an active board of four directors and three officers. With the counsel of PAL's vice president and legal advisor, S. Rowan Wilson, the organization has come through the grueling legal process of becoming a legitimate, international non-profit corporation. As its infrastructure has become better defined, so have PAL's objectives.

Not long after my interview with Erb, PAL went on-line with a Web site. At the time, the design was simple and the content limited to the founding members' mission statement.

Now, the web site has grown to include a list of links and a membership form. PAL's commitment to the individual is immediately apparent in the membership fee structure. The general membership fee is $75; a student membership costs $50. PAL is not only seeking membership. As with any organization, and especially new organizations, PAL needs active members, volunteers willing to pitch in, grow the organization and advance its mission.

In an article published in the last issue of Multilingual Computing and Technology, PAL's communication officer, Suzanne Topping, expanded on PAL's mission and listed the organization's primary areas of focus: "education, job help, events, on-line resources, networking and information exchange tools, techniques and trends, standards, industry representation and other member services." Topping, also vice president of BizWonk, Inc., went on to elaborate each area in more detail. Opportunities for volunteer participation abound in all these areas.

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