Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

Press release: 8 November 2004

New chair and vice-president for the SfEP

The Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) is pleased to announce that Penny Williams has taken over from Naomi Laredo as chair. Penny took office on 12 September 2004, following the SfEP's AGM. She has been a freelance copy-editor and proofreader for 19 years and a member of the SfEP for over nine years. She has served on the SfEP Council for several years, some of them as PR director.

The SfEP works to promote high editorial standards and achieve recognition of the professional status of its members, something that Penny feels strongly about. She says: 'During my term of office, I hope to build on the work done over the past five years to raise the profile of the Society among traditional and non-traditional publishers. I also want to expand our membership by making the SfEP the professional society in the UK to which all experienced and aspiring editors and proofreaders belong.'

Another exciting development is Professor David Crystal's agreement to become the SfEP's first honorary vice-president. Professor Crystal said in his message to the SfEP annual conference in September: 'I intend to lose no opportunity to inform people about the work of the Society, and also about the workers within the Society, for there is no doubt in my mind that what you do – what we do – is hard, essential, professional work, largely unrecognized until it is not done well. Then they moan.'

For further information, please contact PR director Sara Hulse (tel: 01623 823002; email: ).

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