ACES: The Society for Editing

ACES was founded in 1997, by Pam Robinson, who also served as its first president, and Hank Glamann. Its inception followed the work of the American Society of News Editors (at the time, the American Society of Newspaper Editors) and meetings by copy editors in North Carolina and South Carolina.[1] It is currently led by society president Sara Ziegler[2][3] of FiveThirtyEight. John McIntyre of The Baltimore Sun was its second president. Chris Wienandt of the Dallas Morning News was its third president. Teresa Schmedding of the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill., was its fourth president.

It has an executive committee of 13 people, of whom four are officers: the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer.[2] 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 early 2023, the society had over 5,000 members.

ACES: The Society for Editing offers numerous scholarships, fellowships and awards to various editors annually.

ACES honors two editors each year for their outstanding editing abilities. The awards are named after its founders: the Robinson Prize, which honors an outstanding editor, and the Glamann Award, which honors contributions to the craft.

ACES offers annual scholarships to up-and-coming student editors awarded to 6 students annually.

The Richard S. Holden Diversity Fellowship is awarded to editors who show extraordinary promise in their fields. In addition to scholarship funds, the winners are given leadership and opportunities to advance their skills and careers.

ACES also has hosted the annual National Grammar Day Tweeted Poetry Contest, a poem-writing contest celebrating National Grammar Day, March 4.

The ACES national conference features the fundamentals of the craft and a primer for what's to come. Each year, editors from all fields come together for three days of workshops, panel discussions and networking. Attendees include 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.