Every so often we receive a comment either asking about or objecting to our name “INANE”! And it happened again in the past few days! So I decided to search for explanations that we have given for this over time, and I found a wonderful such explanation by our dear late friend, Suzanne Smith (for whom our “Mentoring Editors” award is named). Suzanne wrote this in 2011, 2 years before her untimely death in 2013!
A little history about the name INANE. Before we had a formal (well..not so formal!) organization for editors of nursing journals, editors usually met each other when they covered major nursing meetings, where they were usually relegated to a special section in the back of the meeting room. This turned out to be a bonding experience that often led to informal editor gatherings in a bar to unwind; there was often spoofing of, the then, very strict conduct of the nursing meetings/conferences with their rigid adherence to Roberts Rules.
At one of those social meetings, the editors decided they should form their own organization; however, their organization would be the antithesis of how things were managed and organized in the late 70s. From this was born the wonderful acronym for the scholarly name of our organization (International Academy of Nursing Editors – INANE) as well as the organization structure: NO OFFICERS, NO BYLAWS, NO DUES, NO PAID STAFF, NO PHYSICAL LOCATION, NO RULES.
INANE was a pioneer virtual organization kept alive for 30+ years by people who have a passion for their work, volunteer for all activities, come to meetings because they want to. The founding mothers’ original vision is kept alive as new “members” feel and embrace the uniqueness of our nursing organization. In recent years, attempts to formalize INANE so it becomes like every other nursing organization have been rejected by the majority. So I say LONG LIVE INANE!
Suzanne Smith, 2011
And one addendum – the medical editors organization is WAME – World Association of Medical Editors! It is an inescapable fact that Editors – regardless of disciplines – are drawn the irony and word play!!
–
