intro shpiel about how the interpreting will work in social justice contexts

Here is a sample shpiel I made up for use this year at the workshops held as part of the vigil to close the School of the Americas.  This is for a workshop with simultaneous into English and consecutive into Spanish.  We did pull off a few two way simultaneous workshops (which require more headsets), and used a different shpiel for those.  After the vigil I was left feeling like this shpiel was particularly important for workshops where there was a lot of Q & A.  For short workshops with less Q and A and time constraints you could get away with just emphasizing the hand signals to the speaker beforehand. 

Intro shpiel 

(be sure your compa is interpreting simultaneously into Spanish as you give this)

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Hi my name is _____, my compa _______ and I will be interpreting for this meeting. We will be doing interpreting simultaneously into Spanish, with headsets, and consecutively into English, out loud.  We are providing interpreting as much for those of you who are limited Spanish speakers as for those of you who are limited English speakers.  We are committed to making all of our spaces at the vigil more and more bilingual, because our movement stretches across the Americas.  The more bilingual our movement is, the stronger we are and the more meaningful our solidarity can be.

A successful bilingual environment depends on all of us, not just the interpreters.  You can help by keeping a few things in mind. We will do our best to interpret everything that is said without adding, deleting, or changing the message.  So we can interpret accurately it is important that everyone speaks loudly and at a moderate pace.  Please watch the interpreters; if we can’t hear you, this means speak up (both hands palm up, move hands up several times).  If you are speaking in English, and going too fast, this means slow down (both hands palms down, moving down towards the floor).  If we would like to ask you to pause for a few minutes we will make this hand movement (a time out T).  In that case please wait until we have finished and nod at you before continuing to speak.  If the interpreter is making hand signals and the speaker is not seeing them, please everyone help out by repeating the hand signal.  

When you are in discussion it essential that only one person speaks at a time and that everyone ensures that we leave a pause between speakers.  Simultaneous interpreting is always a few words behind, so please make sure that the interpreter has finished before the next person begins speaking, so that those listening to the simultaneous interpreting can fully participate.  When we interpret consecutively into English please look at speak directly to each other, as if the interpreter were not in the room.  

Any questions?
Thank you!