Founded 1997 | ||
Founder Pam Robinson, Hank Glamann Type Professional Association Focus Advocacy and training for copy editors Origins Developed from copy editors' meetings at American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Area served United States and Canada | ||
The American Copy Editors Society, commonly known as ACES, is a professional not-for-profit association for copy editors at U.S. newspapers, magazines, Web sites and corporations.
Contents
As of 2012, the group offered:
Executive committee
ACES was founded in 1997, by Pam Robinson, who also served as its first president, and Hank Glamann. Its inception followed work of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and meetings by copy editors in North Carolina and South Carolina. It is currently led by society president Teresa Schmedding of the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill. John McIntyre of The Baltimore Sun was its second president. Chris Wienandt of the Dallas Morning News was its third president.
It has an executive committee of 15 people, of whom five are officers: the president, vice president for conferences, vice president for membership, secretary and treasurer. Any full member is eligible for elections. Annual membership is $75 for full members and $40 for students.
In 2008, the board approved changes that allowed copy editors working outside traditional journalism organizations full membership with voting rights. As of 2017, the society has roughly 1,800 members.
Chapters and Awards
The group has several chapters: Southeast, Florida, Midwest, Ohio, Texas, Southern California and Northern California, as well as college affiliates at the University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Pennsylvania State University.
The society also gives out two awards for copy editing, named after its founders: the Robinson Prize, which is awarded to the top editor of the year, and the Glamann Award, which honors contributions to the craft.
Conferences
The ACES national conference features the fundamentals of the craft and a primer for what's to come. Each year, copy desk executives, professionals, students and academics come together for three days of workshops and panel discussions. The annual event is a volunteer-run, nonprofit conference. Each year, more than 300 professionals and students attend the conference: copy editors for newspapers, magazines, websites, trade publications, book publishers, nonprofit agencies and corporations, as well as students, journalism professors, consultants and freelancers.
The idea that led to the creation of ACES was nurtured during a series of three conferences about copy editing sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1995 and 1996.
When ACES was chartered in the spring of 1997, the top priority of the society's founders was to conduct their own national gathering. Four months later, the first ACES national conference took place at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.