From our President, Ruth Kozak
Happy Canada Day!
There is a lot going on at BCATW. The symposium committee is arranging a new venue and making plans for our 2016 symposium, which be on the theme of BC Travel. A committee will be looking over and revamping the BCATW constitution to cover new guidelines for members including travel bloggers, travel photographers, travel book writers.
Enjoy your summer vacations and don”t forget to write those travel stories! If you need some inspiration or coaching come to my Travel Writing Basics worksop at the main branch VPL on July 25, 1pm to 3 pm. FREE.
Constitutional Congress
The BCATW is rewriting its association constitution! In particular, we’ll re-define our membership requirements pertaining to print, blogs, photography and video.
And we want your help. Over the next month, we’ll form a Constitution Committee to hash out the details prior to our Annual General Meeting in October or November. All interested members are welcome to join the committee and attend at least one meeting on the topic.
Please contact BCATW Secretary Chris Millikan with comments and expressions of interest by July 31.
BCATW Directory Site
If you haven’t registered on the BCATW Find A Writer Directory site, what are you waiting for?
This directory gives you an extra opportunity to be found by editors and publishers who are seeking writers, photographers and videographers. And it’s free to BCATW members!
Just go to bcatw.org/directory/ and click on Submit Your Business Listing.
Complete the short form and hit Submit. You will receive two emails in response. The first is an acknowledgment with a link to the page where you’ll complete your listing. The second email contains a login and password.
Log in to the site using the link given and you can add all the information about yourself and your work.
When it comes to genres, we ask that you only include genres in which you have been published.
If you are comfortable with WordPress, you may also edit your listing as a Post. Go to Posts>Yourname and edit your intro paragraph and optimize with Yoast WP SEO.
In fact, it would behove all writers to optimize their listings with Yoast.
So far, we have only 12 BCATW members listed. Once we get to 25 listings, we will more actively promote the site to get you more work. So please place your listing now!
BCATW YouTube Channel
Yes, the BCATW now has a Youtube Channel.
It’s for uploading videos of speakers from BCATW conferences and Meetups, and interesting travel-related videos produced by our members.
If you have a video to upload, contact Mari Kane for instructions.
Meanwhile, please subscribe!
July Meetup
Road Blog: Becoming a Travel Blogger for Fun or Profit
Presented by Blogger and WordPress Consultant Mari Kane
Thursday, July 8 at 7 pm at Big Rock Urban Brewery
So, you love to write and you want to travel. You think you’d to start a travel blog, but wait!
How exactly do you start a travel blog?
Writer/blogger Mari Kane will explain how to get your blog together and take it on the road. Specifically,
• How to choose a niche and domain name
• The blogging ecosystem
• How to create a beautiful design
• What to write for your blog
• The importance of images
• How traffic = monetization
• Why be a joiner
Big Rock Urban Brewery conference room
Mari Kane is the BCATW Communications Director and blogs on BCATW.org as well as managing and contributing to numerous blogs, many of which she has built. On one of her blogs, Blogsite Studio, she gives weekly advice on how to blog with WordPress. Mari has authored two ebooks about blogging on WordPress, Create a WordPress Website in Ten Easy Steps and Escalate Your WordPress Website: Twelve Ways to Take Your Blog to a Higher Level.
We’re very excited to inaugurate a new Meetup location: The Big Rock Urban Brewery at the corner of 4th Ave and Alberta. Those who get there at 6:30 will enjoy a brewery tour.
This Meetup is currently full, but there is a wait list and people do change their RSVPs at the second to last minute. So check it out at BCATW Meetups.
Call for Meetups
We are now planning our Fall/Winter Meetup schedule. If you have a topic you’d like to share or promote, please let us know. Contact: Mari Kane or Randi Winter with suggestions. To give you ideas, here are some of the Meetup we’ve presented in the past:
A FAM and Photowalk in New Westminister
How to Shoot Travel Videos using your Smart Phone with Michael Rubin
EAT MY WORDS: an evening with Eric Pateman
Travelteerism: How to See the World and Serve it too
What to Shoot for on a FAM Trip
How to Use Social Media to Build Your Personal Brand as a Travel Writer
Making, Marketing, and Monetizing Your Blog
Reporting and Writing Off the Beaten Track
Vancouver Photo Walk
Travel Writing Basics
Media Member News
Ruth Kozak will be doing a Travel Writing Basics workshop at the main branch VPL on July 25 from 1 – 3 pm. This is an interactive workshop so bring along your notebooks. This is a great workshop for new travel writers and travel bloggers or anyone who would like to start writing travel stories. Ruth has conducted this same workshop successfully for LitFest New Westminster in 2004 and for the Royal City Literary Arts Society at the NW public library last Spring. Visit Ruth Kozak at www.ruthkozak.com
A series of Karoline Cullen’s photographs (middle two rows and the mom/baby orca) grace the 2015 Galiano Island brochure. 
Irene Butler’s stories and her husband Rick’s photos were featured in the following publications during the past month: Senior Living Magazine – Cyprus – An Exotic Meeting of East and West. What Travel Writers Say – Journey towards the Center of the Earth (yes, being lowered “into” an Iceland volcano!) During the month of July Irene and Rick will drive across Canada via northern routes and ending up on the east coast.
Julie H. Ferguson has not been able to travel so far this year due to her hubby’s ill health. She missed TMAC 2015 and her cruise to Big Chute, and has just cancelled her month-long road trip in the Pacific Northwest in September. But, Julie did enjoy a taste of Scotland at the BC Highland Games in Coquitlam in June, thanks to one of Kerrisdale Camera’s photo walks.
Joan Boxall‘s latest blogpost is on Kayak Cuisine along Howe Sound’s Marine Trail. Spread the word to save this treasured marine environment!
Industry Member News
Groups of “eclipse chasers” and photographers from across the world, will be in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia to view what will be an incredible site. Burnaby-based Bestway Tours & Safaris, in conjunction with the Toronto Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society Of Canada, has organised a 13days tour of Indonesia that will not only cover the eclipse but also other historical attractions in Indonesia. Details of this tour can be viewed at: http://bestway.com/indonesia-total-solar-eclipse/. Bestway has also put together a viewing plus wild game safari for the Sep 01, 2016 annular solar eclipse to be viewed in Tanzania.
Have a great July!
– Mari
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