BCATW 2015 AGM Update
The Annual General Meeting of the BCATW was held successfully on November 28, 2015 at the Big Rock Brewpub. The turnout allowed association business to proceed as outlined in the Agenda circulated earlier to members.
2015 BCATW AGM – L-R Roc LaChance, John Thomson, Andrew Renton, Chris Millikan, Ruth Kozak, Maros Handzak, Brian K. Smith, Rick Millikan, and Mari Kane. Baila Lazarus had left earlier.
It was a pleasure to welcome newer members to this meeting. Maros Handzak, Roc LaChance and Brian K. Smith all contributed ideas to the discussion. Especially welcome was Andrew Renton, a long-time association member. Also much appreciated were members who provided Proxies.
Elected to the Board for two-year terms were: VP, Baila Lazarus; Secretary, Chris Millikan; Communications Director, Mari Kane; Treasurer, Karoline Cullen. The Board of Directors is a group of volunteers working on behalf of the Association. Members interested in serving on the Board will have an opportunity to step up next year. Think about it, everyone!
The Meeting reviewed the 2014-15 activities, events and finances.
In planning for the upcoming year, Constitutional revisions were accepted, priorities set and Symposium 2016 set in motion.
Mark Your Calendars for Symposium 2016
Photo of Anvil Center by Brian K. Smith
Where: Anvil Centre, New Westminster, BC
When: Sunday, April 17, 2016 To be announced
Theme: Tourism in BC
If you’d like to volunteer for the Symposium Committee, we are seeking a Chairperson, a Sponsor Wrangler, a Graphics Wrangler, and several on-site volunteers. Please contact us to volunteer!
And, please contact us with questions, ideas, feedback and suggestions. Your thoughts are always welcome, expected and appreciated. Many hands make light work!
– Chris Millikan, BCATW Secretary
Build your profile page!
We have a number of members who still need to create profile pages for this site. Without a profile page, we can’t set an internal link to you from your BUZZ blurb. Nor will your name show up in the sidebar for Media Members pages. Also, you are missing out on the extra exposure the page offers as well as a valuable backlink to your own blog or website.
In addition to a profile page on this site, or alternately, you may create a listing on BCATW’s Find a Writer Directory.
If you are unclear about how to set up a profile page, please read This Blog’s for You, and for the directory, read Writers Directory Upload.
If you need assistance posting your page(s), please contact Webmaster Mari Kane.
Profile Page Wanted List
[one_half]Joei Carlton Hossack
John Geary
Gary Grieco
Lenora Hayman
Erica Hargreave
Kami Kanetsuka
Mark Leiren-Young
Craig Minielly
David Morrison[/one_half]
[one_half]Barb Rees
Andrew Renton
Ricky Shetty
Brian K. Smith
Steffani Cameron
Leslie Santos
Grant Withers
New members: Maros Handzak, Roc LaChance[/one_half]
BCATW Member News
Photo of “Cheap Street” outside hundreds of indoor shopping market stalls in Shanghai and a typical intersection of traffic with rules only they understand.
Carol Ann Quibell was thrilled to have her article on ‘Staying Active and Retiring to the Okanagan’ published in the most recent Senior Living Magazine
She is also very pleased to have a number of articles published in a fairly new online magazine for RVers with plans for more in the future. She has recently returned from China and is looking forward to submitting travel pieces on her explorations of Shanghai.
Amsterdam is the focus of a John Thomson story in the December edition of Senior Living (online and print). John is also writing a profile inspired by the blues of Chefchauen for the ezine Dzine Trip. Chefchauen is a Moroccan town in the Rif Mountains. It was originally a sanctuary for Moors fleeing the Spanish Inquisition in the late 1400’s and more recently, Jews fleeing German oppression in the 1930’s. The newcomers painted their houses blue as a symbol of defiance and forebearance and although most Jews left Chefchauen after the War, the blue-rinsed houses remain, repeatedly re-painted as a tourist attraction.
Shadow Ridge’s 8th hole has San Jacinto, 8,500 feet, as its back drop, which distracts Julie every time she drives off the tee © Photos by Pharos 2015.
Julie H. Ferguson is on vacation, a real vacation, for a month in Palm Desert, California. It’s her annual golf pilgrimage that avoids the gloomiest months of the year in Vancouver. Julie had no intention of working in this paradise of permanent summertime, but fate decreed otherwise. Two days after her arrival, Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Golf Club asked her to do a photo shoot for them over two days during her first solo week.
Julie has both stayed and played here every year since 2003 when the resort opened. Her final two weeks with her husband will also provide fodder for several articles – Julie is spending two hours at a wind farm; having more picnics in Joshua Tree National Park in the high Mojave Desert, her favourite spot; touring the Annenberg Estate, and taking a Behind the Scenes private tour at the Living Desert, a sort of zoo and botanical garden.
Mari Kane has launched a new website to promote her unpublished book, Mouthfeel: Confessions of a Wine Slut. The site features excerpts of the book intended to build buzz and grow an online following to help her sell the book to a publisher. You can help support the process by subscribing to Mouthfeelbook.com, Tastingroomconfidential.com, and by following Mari @marikane where quotes from the book are now posting.
Ruth Kozak’s Athens e-book guide, ATHENS AND BEYOND, is now available on Kindle. Ruth has also been granted permission by Hunter Publishing to write another ebook guide on the Greek Islands.
Irene Butler and her husband Rick found Belgrade Serbia full of wonderful surprises! Their experience is posted on What Travel Writers Say.
The Butler’s are now trekking through Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay before making their way to the southern tip of Argentina to embark on an Antarctic Expedition!
Erica Hargreave is excited to be teaching Social Media Storytelling in the Winter Term at BCIT. This project-based course will help you to further your travel storytelling across the digital-verse and to build an engaged audience for your stories. You can read more about the Course. This post-secondary accredited course is online, so you can take it from wherever in the world you might be, and on your own schedule each week. Erica also offers one-on-one tutorials throughout the course for students in need of extra help. Register for the course.
You can also read past articles on digital storytelling in Erica’s ‘Digitally Yours’ Column in Reel West Magazine. Her latest column is on Digital Video Success.
Upcoming Meetups
There is no BCATW Meetup scheduled for December, but we are planning the lineup for Spring of 2016. Please stay tuned and if you are not a member and receiving alerts please sign up for free at Meetup.com
If you are interested in presenting at a BCATW Meetup, or if you want to nominate a speaker, please contact us.
Keywords To Profit with Cijaye DePradine
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 7:00 PM at Big Rock Urban Eatery
Presented by WordPress Workshop
WordPress Workshop members have asked to learn more about keyword research, and now we have the perfect person to tell us about the esoteric art of the keyword. Cijaye DePradine.
Author of the upcoming book Knowledge To Profit; How Leading Experts Transfer Their Knowledge To Increase Profits, Cijaye DePradine has been deeply immersed in Corporate, Executive and Collegiate training since 1995 (specializing in Marketing Online & Offline).
Having delivered over 15,000 hours of training, developed over 1000 hours of curriculum and experienced billings up to $1000/hr as a mentor and consultant, Cijaye is a true leader in the field.
If you want to discover how Cijaye has successfully turned keyword research and targeting into multi-million dollar revenues, you don’t want to miss Keywords To Profit on January 19th, 2016 at Big Rock Brewpub.
She will take you through her entire process – leaving nothing out – and you will walk away viewing “keywords”, “blogging”, “SEO,” and “Search Marketing” as far more powerful to your growth and success than you could have ever imagined.
Keywords To Profit is currently unannounced but you can RSVP now!
Happy Holidays from BCATW!
No matter what your faith, we at the BCATW would like to extend to our members wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season. May all your celebrations be bright!
We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.
–Hilaire Belloc
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