Steel City Interpreters
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A lot of you know us as the agency on the Northside who requires national certification of its American Sign Language Interpreters. Some of you know us as the agency who presents Friday Night ASL Fight Club. But for some of you, that may be all you know.

When I looked at a days work last week- I was reminded of how much more we do. In a day, we were captioning video tapes in-house for colleges. We had a CART provider at a public event and we had interpreters representing ASL, Bosnian, Mandarin, Nepalese and Russian on that same day.

Our spoken language interpreters who do an outstanding job for us are not recognized for their work nearly enough. They are who in part separates us from our “competition.”

If you are in need of the above languages (or French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German, etc) give us a call. And as for ASL interpreters…. They don’t get any better.

Rarely am I speechless but as the line to enter Fight Club grew, I was just that- speechless.

We had 35 attendees who signed in to test their nerve in the hot seat as a VI (Video Interpreter). Everyone did great! I know from my own experience how hard and stressful it is to process calls and let me be the first to tell you, you gals and guys got guts!

The season is winding down and there are just two Fight Clubs remaining. First, thank you to all the attendees for making the 2011 a huge success. You show drive and a love for ASL that will get you far in this profession.

Secondly, I would like to thank the teachers of our local ITP’s for encouraging your students to attend. By now we have all gotten to know each other and I truly consider you to be good friends of both me and Jessica.

Last but not least, thank you to the Deaf attendees. I know you all have busy schedules and you still find time at the end of your week to volunteer to help instruct. The fact that you take time to work with students out of the kindness of your hearts yet again shows why you are pillars in our community.
Well… We look forward to seeing you all on October 30th. Stay turned to the blog for the agenda and get to know us a little better:

www.twittering.com/steelcityterp
www.foursquare.com/steelcityterp
www.facebook.com/steelcityinterpreters
Skype: steelcityinterpreters or steelcityvrs
Look for us on getglue and formspring.me
And ccac students- if you’re on campus on the Northside and want to visit- call us at 412.596.4640 and come visit us at 850 Western Ave 15233

And a final shout out to Ray Mongelli for getting us up to speed with projectors and web cams and software that has allowed Fight Club to become that much slicker

Thanks and see you soon!

Bill

“Hello, thank you for calling Steel City VRS. I am interpreter #101. May I please have the phone number you would like to call?”

RULES OF FIGHT CLUB:
1. Voice OFF!!!
2. You must have current ID to drink after the workshops.
3. Who comes here, what’s said here- STAYS HERE.
4. This is a learning environment and intended to support each other- NOT tear each other down. This isn’t the place for gossip or ego trips; check it at the door.

Fight Club belongs to no one. Fight Club is FREE. Fight Club will remain a workshop geared towards improving the skills of those learning and working in the field of interpreting. Fight Club shall always remain grass roots and never charge fees, membership dues nor exchange CEU’s for attendance.

Date: 9.30.11
Time: 6pm-???
Location: The offices of Steel City Interpreters – 850 Western Ave 15233

Okay gals and guys,

This Fight Club may be the first in a series that we’re calling Steel City VRS. YOU are the VI (Video Interpreter)- and you are going to be processing calls. The office is being transformed into a video call center for the night! In the class room we will review the basics of video interpreting, maybe call on a few friends if you’re not ubber familiar with the concept and we’ll definitely be teaching the basics and lingo of VRS procedures. DEAF, PLEASE COME! We need you peeps to call on (in the back room *smile*) for some real life simulation.

This is going to be a lot of fun. Although we’ve spent most of our careers in the community, we have no doubt logged many hours in the seat as VI’s. I think it’s important that we all at least try it out. Many of you will no doubt be doing VRS for a career so come show us your stuff!

ASL Friday Night Fight Club is a Steel City Interpreters/Scissor Fight Media Inc presentation.
850 Western Ave
Pittsburgh PA 15233