INTRODUCTION

As this booklet is intended for both practising conference interpreters and beginners, experienced colleagues will find many statements of the obvious, while newcomers to the profession may not always understand the reasons behind some of the suggestions.

Many interpreters, indeed some delegates, have contributed to the bouquets and brickbats from which this sort vademecum has been distilled.

Although our prime concern is with quality, that elusive something which is recognised by everyone but which nobody knows how to define, experience has amply demonstrate that breaches of simple rules can adversely affect not only the image that delegates have of interpreters but also the image that interpreters have of one another.

At a time when consecutive is becoming rarer, when the number of working languages is increasing rapidly, when an impersonal machine assigns an interpreter to a meeting on tin in the morning and one on dairy products in the afternoon, leaving no time for adequate preparation, when newly fledge (and sometimes decidedly underfledge) colleagues are being hastily drafted in to fill ever more booths, there is a pressing need to maintain quality and standards, to motivate newcomers to do so and generally to recognise that the profession’s reputation for quality rests on the sum of our individual efforts to secure it.

Although an attempt has been made in what follows to proceed in logical order, real life is rarely logical and things may turn out very differently.

I. CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS
Offers of work may come from intergovernmental organisations, private bodies or firms, from professional conference organisers, ad hoc organisers or from colleagues.

When the offer comes from an intergovernmental organisation, the conditions of work and remuneration will almost certainly be in conformity with existing agreement or accepted practice. If in doubt, check with colleagues who work for such bodies. Agreements laying down conditions of employment and remuneration have been signed inter alia between AIIC and the UN family, the European Communities and the European Coordinated Organisations. They are reviewed every five years.

If the recruiter is a private organisation or firm, it may not be familiar with existing practice or professional requirements and tactful guidance may be necessary. If you have not been in the profession long enough to know how to respon

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