“

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

”

—Cicero, 55 BC

Donna Cushman

Document Processor

Having spent her high school and college years working in the food service industry, Donna decided it was time to take her degree and go for a career change. She found herself lured into the publishing industry, and has worked in many capacities from front end to back end publishing, from print presses to quick copy shops. She is familiar with many functions in the industry, but finds the greatest interest in desktop publishing, which she has worked with for the last five years. Donna has worked with McElroy since 2004 but left temporarily to expand her skills with a local publisher. She returned full-time in November, 2007 at her current position as document processor.

Donna grew up in the Northeast—Burlington, Vermont to be precise, where the bulk of her family still resides. She claims to be Canadian, but by close approximation only. As Burlington is a short 20 minute drive to the Canadian border, Canada became a frequent travel destination growing up along with many destinations up and down the eastern seaboard. Donna graduated from Champlain College (Burlington, VT) in 2003, completing a B.S. in Business.

Donna has spent a cumulative total of 8 years in Austin, TX, with the first move to Austin occurring in 1999. In 2002 she moved to the Hudson Valley in New York for employment, in addition to completing her undergraduate degree. In 2004 she returned to Austin and claims this to be her final destination.

Donna resides with her fiancé, Whitney, and their two dogs, Monster and Kylee. Her hobbies include entomology, photography, writing, and jogging, as well as hiking and camping, for which Texas is perfect year round. She enjoys being active outside and spending a lot of time with her pups.

McElroy Translation Celebrates 40 Years!

On September 30, International Translation Day 2008, McElroy Translation celebrated 40 years of providing technical translation services! A lunch for employees, translators, and other special guests was held at the Austin Center for Architecture. We were delighted to have all of the McElroy family with us at the event, which featured a champagne toast, a reading of the Austin City Council's "McElroy Translation Day" proclamation by President Shelly Orr Priebe, and a retrospective presentation of highlights from the company's history and "lessons learned" over the years prepared by Kim Vitray (vice president of operations) and Susan Andrus (design and event coordinator). A special thanks goes to Vicki Wunneburger (shipping & receiving coordinator) for her help in organizing the event, and to the many employees and former employees who contributed "lessons learned" to the presentation.

The day was also marked by a special edition of our company newsletter, Ops Notes, and our usual language-related quiz with prizes won by translator Bill Bown, editors Ben Johnston and Brian Nix, Chief Editor Mark Ritter, VP of Strategy Bob Donaldson, and Susan Andrus. And it's not too late to contribute to our anniversary food drive, during which we intend to collect $4,000 in donations and food from employees, vendors, and customers to provide for 40 needy families in the Austin area through Caritas of Austin. We appreciate your business and the opportunity to have served thousands of clients over the years, and we look forward to continuing in our role as translation industry leader for many years to come!

Korean

McElroy is continuing this series of interviews that highlight some of the characteristics of languages used in doing business globally. This month, we look at Korean.

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers, with large groups residing in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, the United States, CIS (post-Soviet states), and more recently the Philippines.

This month we dive into this language and learn some of the characteristics that are unique or different from English and/or other languages, pitfalls to avoid, and five tips for assessing professionally qualified translators.

Read full Translator interview.

Green Is the New Diversity

by Carol Moya, Customer Service Manager

Recently I attended an interesting webinar called the "Greening of the Legal Profession." When I mentioned to the eFocus/E-Buzz editor that I might write an article about it, she said, "No more 'green' articles! That topic has been done to death!"

I agree that most of us have read enough articles about various businesses' recycling programs, and most companies have recycling programs in place now. At McElroy, we are doing all the recycling we can safely do—we have a few employees whose Styrofoam cups would have to be pried from their hands if we wanted to be 100 percent "green."

What I found most interesting in this webinar was the statement made by one of the presenters that "Green is the new diversity." Clients and employees expect a company to be green nowadays just as they expect and appreciate diversity in the workplace. I believe that this attitude is prevalent in many industries. However, the legal industry has been a bit of a latecomer to the green workplace movement.

In 2007, the American Bar Association estimated that there were 1,150,000 lawyers in the United States. A 2006 Arnold & Porter survey of eight, different-sized law firms found that the attorneys used from 20,000 to 100,000 pieces of paper a year. Based on these figures, lawyers use—at the very least—23 billion pieces of paper a year. Even a little double-sided printing could save huge amounts of paper—and money. Another way the legal industry can be a great force in the green movement is with its purchasing power of an estimated $90 billion a year. Purchasing products with recycled-content and requesting that vendors use green packaging and provide other green choices can really help to stimulate vendors to create and offer more green products.

Resources
I will spare you specific tips, which are omnipresent these days, and instead direct you to a few legal-industry and office-specific resources:

• The Oregon Lawyers for a Sustainable Future has some checklists targeted toward the legal profession including:
• a sustainable practices checklist for tenants to use when negotiating with building management
• a lunch-vendor guidelines checklist for catered-in meals

These checklists and others can be found here.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ABA-EPA Law Office Climate Challenge www.abanet.org/environ/climatechallenge/home.shtml
• Information on electronic waste disposal
• www.carbonrally.com—helps you to set office and team goals and measure the impact you are making

Got the "Touch"? How about the iPod Touch?

Have you been looking to buy the perfect iPod for you? McElroy Translation is giving away an 8GB iPod Touch this month. Use this touch screen iPod to watch movies, listen to music, play games, and even surf the web wherever there is a wireless network. It also has a built-in speaker, if you prefer not to use your earphones. Read more about the iPod Touch here.

If you already have an iPod, it's OK! You can still participate on our giveaway for a chance to win a $230 gift card for the iTunes or Apple store. Browse through the Apple Store or the iTunes Store now!

Enter here for your chance to win an iPod Touch or an Apple/iTunes gift card, compliments of McElroy Translation. As a courtesy to all promo entrants and winners, your privacy is respected, and winners will always be given an opportunity to choose where their prize is delivered.