Working arrangements with colleagues should be based on a clear understanding of who does what when. Arrangements must take account of the needs of all the booths, overall language cover, working conditions, difficulty of the subject, etc. Slavish adherence to the clock or to dividing the work rigidly on the basis of the number of papers to be presented may serve neither your interests nor those of the delegates. For example, it is rarely advisable to change interpreters in the middle of a speech, unless it is very long.

In a team where all the working language are covered in each booth, there can be no excuse for systematic relay or the sudden absence of a given language combination. This can happen if there has been insufficient consultation between booth. In the absence of the chief interpreter, the team leader is responsible for coordinating `inter-booth` arrangements and must therefore be kept informed of what is proposed.

If relay cannot be avoided, there are ways in which the “pivot” (i.e. the interpreter from whom relay is being taken) and those taking relay can help one another. The “pivots” should make an extra effort to be clear and construct simple complete sentences. They should also make a point of stating the name of each new speaker.

Before the meeting starts, interpreters who need to take relay for a given language should inform the “pivot”, saying for which language they will be using relay. If the “pivot” does a good job, say so; if it is not very good do not rush into the booth to complain but try to be constructive instead, making it clear that you understand the difficulties and that you realise that you are adding to them by having to take relay. Tell the sound engineer that your booth will be relaying off booth x. Ask for a test run before the meeting starts, to be sure that you can hear the “pivot” clearly and that you can easily switch to the right booth. Relay systems can vary from one installation to another.

When not actually interpreting, do not leave the meeting room for longer than absolutely necessary. When not working continue to listen to what is going on and be firm, but courteous, with people who drop by for a chat. Keep track of the points of contention, jokes, metaphors which may crop up again and generally follow the course the meeting is taken. If your colleagues has unavoidably to leave the boot

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