There was a report on the SI meeting in London last March. Prior to the meeting there had been a lot lively discussion of the pros and cons of CPD on Sidelines. A Personal Review form will be made available to encourage individuals to think constructively about their professional development. This would also show clients that the society as a whole, and indexers as individuals, are serious about improving and maintaining professional standards. The Role of the SI is to facilitate the sharing of information and to counter the isolation of freelance work.
Local groups are important for bringing people into contact and for motivation.
However 'bad habits' can be perpetuated by individuals who work in isolation. SIdeline is seen as the one most important way of keeping in touch with other SI members as it provides an informal discussion forum on all kinds of indexing-related issues. Anyone who has email access and who has not already joined Sideline is strongly urged to do so. There was a report on submitting an index for supervision. This provides the first opportunity for the newly qualified indexer to compile an index to 'real' book without any constraints of time or length of index.