Tags
French translator's union, Professional associations for French translators, Professional membership, Société française des traducteurs, Syndicat national des Traducteurs professionnels
Or, to give it its full name, the Syndicat national des Traducteurs professionnels. I came across it today. It’s the French translator’s union. How good is that! I remember Helen talking about it when I met her in Barcelona I and think I’m going to join. She thought you had to have practised for two years, but in fact the entry criteria is just one year (although you have to be able to prove you’ve been working legally). I just about have that now and definitely will have it by January (they run one of these annoying January-January membership schemes).
I haven’t fully explored their website yet, but I’ve already found a great publication. It’s a state-of-the-art review of their membership for 2009 carried out in 2010. It’s packed full of useful facts, the most immediately useful to me is to know that I am in fact charging slightly below the market rate. Excellent. That seems fair enough in view of my relatively limited experience and means I don’t need to justify my rates any more.
To prove that I’ve worked legally I need to ask URSSAF (the social security people) for a declaration that I’m up-to-date with my payments. That’s a bit of a chore, but then I should be good to go.