Message from the President
Consider the Future of the BCATW!
BCATW AGM November 23rd
The future and growth of any association depends on renewing their Directors. Our BCATW Boards have historically been composed of creative, hardworking and practical volunteers. So there’s been an ongoing development of the association since founding in 1998. In 2013 I accepted the interim presidency to allow time to find someone else willing and able to fill this position. Baila took on the role of interim treasurer in the same spirit. In this same year many continued or began their work on a Board to present another fine Symposium and conduct ongoing Association business.
At the upcoming November AGM, our Association must choose the president (1 year); vice president (two years); treasurer (1 year) and secretary (2years); Industry Relations (2 years) to continue along a steady course. These five positions can be rewarding opportunities for ready and willing members. Some may be readily filled… Yet the interim positions of president and treasurer create an unusually challenging year regarding Board vacancies.
To reinvigorate our Association, new BCATW members are needed to step forward and lead us into the future! Long serving Board members like Katherine, Chris, Ruth and I have benefited greatly from this team experience and heartily recommend this to others. Demand on personal time may be minimal. No particular experience is required; we have all learned our roles ‘on the job.’ Our updated Constitution ably guides this Association, a volunteer sustained, non-profit society. As such, liability risks remain near nil, while Board membership is often rewarding. Consider forwarding your name! Be a part of a practical, forward looking slate! Even if marginally interested in a Board position, contact me via email as I’d love to encourage future-minded endeavors and would gladly discuss Board positions’ possibilities!
August Buzz News from Members
Ruth Kozak’s big news this month is that her historical novel SHADOW OF THE LION has been accepted for publication in the UK. This novel was indeed a long journey and out of the many research trips Ruth also developed many travel articles. She has just returned from another wonderful trip to her ‘second home’, Greece and Wales, her family home and has another big collection of stories waiting to be written. Ruth also had her story about Barkerville published in Off Beat Travel in July.
Irene Butler and her husband Rick are motored out! Since driving to TMAC in mid-June they continued to driving east, chalking up 8,000 km visiting family and collecting stories as far as Halifax (cheating the roadways by hopping a flight for their Winnipeg-Halifax-Winnipeg portion). On another note: Travel Confessions? We all have them….some make them public. Irene’s is the second one down at Europe Up Close
Julie H. Ferguson has little to report in the way of major travel, but she is again facilitating the summer sessions of the Port Moody Writers’ Group. (Fall reg is now open.) She was delighted to be invited to the inaugural July garden party by Pretty Estates Resort held, of course, at Rowena’s Inn in Harrison Mills. It was a spectacular day with pink bubble, a Rolls Royce on the lawn, a perfect British afternoon tea, dancing to band, and everyone dressed up à la Gatsby. She’s planning to write about the experience—but she will tell you that she wore a fascinator…. Vancouver feature and images will be pubbed within a couple of weeks by the International Alliance of Travel Writers in Allways as a feature. Safe travels, everyone, if you’re heading out with the hordes!
(The wonderful dancers who entertained the guests at Rowena’s garden party are our Featured Image for this Buzz. © Photos by Pharos 2013)
Joei Carlton Hossack has had a super-busy July starting with an article – Confessions of a Beadaholic – published along with a letter to the editor, plus five pictures in the July/August edition of the RV Times. During that same month she converted 3 of her books to e-books and are now available at Amazon for the Kindle. Among them: Czeching Out – The search for Franz Kafka, The Turquoise Coast and her first main-stream book – Alaska Bound and Gagged. As a little treat after all the work is done, including a lecture at a Good Sam Camping Rally in Hope, British Columbia Joei will be on her first cruise. She’s heading to Alaska on September 13th. The conversion work continues.
In Sept. 2012, photographer Francois-Xavier De Ruydts and writer Heather Lea, along with their friend Shawn Campbell, took a 5-day adventurous bushwhack into the remote area surrounding Pitt Lake. In the 1950s a plane crashed in this area carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and Nazi gold. All onboard were killed. What happened to the valued goods? The story is published in Mountain Life magazine. Enjoy the adventure!
Darlene Foster has just returned from Alberta where she did research for her next book, Amanda in Alberta-The Writing on the Stone. She was accompanied by her twelve-year-old assistant (also known as her grandson). She visited the Bar U Ranch, the Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller, the Hoodoos, Red Rock Coulee and Medicine Hat. She is busy putting all her new ideas down on paper while enjoying the fabulous sunny days in Vancouver.
The August BUZZ is late because Karoline Cullen was in Paris, living like a local in the 20th arrondisement, exploring new neighbourhoods, and walking, walking, walking.
–Karoline and Darlene
Your August BUZZ Co-Editors
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