TUESDAY 13^TH OF FEBRUARY. (Yes the date has changed from the 12^th to the 13^th.) Our 3^rd Annual “About Town Tour” will, for the first time, all be on foot. Our starting point will be at The Lookout at Harbour Centre at 8:30 AM with an informal coffee and muffin. By 9 AM we will cross the street to visit the new Simon Fraser University Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue. One of their brand new meeting rooms looks like something straight out of the United Nations in New York City. Over the course of the day we will also visit the new Pacific Mineral Museum, the stately Marine Building, the new Delta Pinnacle Hotel, Tourism Vancouver and a visit with officials from Canada Place, IMAX and The Vancouver Convention and Exhibition and Centre, all of whom will update us with the various changes that have or will soon happen at this busy tourist harbour front landmark.

This meeting will be open to members (for $5) and to potential members for the fundraising sum of $8. Members should keep in mind that our itinerary could change slightly over the course of the day, and that we have ways for you to join up with us if you can’t be with us from the start. Please call for more info. We should be finished by about 3:30 or 4 PM. Please RSVP at (604) 876-2576 or 251-1500 and then 876-2576. There will be time for lunch at the Waterfront Centre Food Court.

THURSDAY 22^ND OF FEBRUARY at 7 PM at The Westin Bayshore Resort and Marina Vancouver. In addition to a site inspection of this fabulous property (and it’s $55 million dollars of recent renovations), we also hope to have a word or two from it’s super General Manager Mark Andrew. A guest speaker from the Rocky Mountaineer Railtour Company and BC Rail about their brand new passenger train are also expected. No need to rsvp.

MONDAY TO WEDNESDAY 26^TH, 27^TH, & 28^th FEBRUARY TRIP TO MERRITT & KELOWNA BC. The three day two night trip to the BC interior will take in the highlights of the Nicola Valley including the Nicola Ranch and a few of the highlights in Kelowna (some of which are unknown to most guides or Tour Directors). As of this writing we will be receiving free accommodations in Merritt and our host in Kelowna is working on same. This trip will be open to members of the CTGA of BC only and will cost between $25 and $40 dollars depending on final bus and hotel figures. Members will also have to pay for some meals and other on-your-own costs. We will depart from downtown Vancouver at 8:30 AM and make various pick-ups as we head east. We expect to return around 5 or 6 PM on Wednesday the 28^th.

If you are even remotely interested in this trip we need to hear from you ASAP as our hosts need an idea right away of how many of us will be coming. Any questions or for more information and to RSVP ASAP call (604) 876-2576 or at 251-1500 and then 876-2576.

While we are dealing with events here…there is going to be a Love Boat Cruise (Valentine Gourmet Dinner and Dance to the live sounds of the “Continental Barbers”) aboard the luxury yacht the Queen of Diamonds on Saturday the 17^th of February. The price of the ticket goes toward buying a new children’s playground in Guelph Park (near Broadway and Main Vancouver). Tickets are $100 per person or $175 per couple. There will also be a spectacular Silent Auction and door prizes !! Boarding starts a 6 PM and sails at 7 PM from the Plaza of Nations. RSVP to CTGA member Trish Alsop (who is one of the organizers of this special fundraiser for the kids) at 8 7 2 – 0 0 9 2 .

MARCH 2001. The regular end of the month CTGA meeting will be held on Thursday the 29^th of March at 7 PM at a location to be announced. We may also hold another meeting about two weeks before that, perhaps for the “Spring Brochure and Book Exchange.” Stay tuned. FYI: The kids “spring break” this year is the week of March 19^th and that is the same week that world figure skating fans will focus their attention on GM Place (forget about getting tickets….they have been sold out for many moons).

APRIL 2001. We have been trying to get the date of the Capilano Suspension Bridge Annual Tourist Guide Appreciation Day, but they have not picked the date. (It could be the 25^th of April but we’ll have to wait for confirmation). We will let you know and that will likely be our last get-together until Thursday night October 25^th. By the way, I’ve now heard from a number of tourism people who are all saying that they expect the 2001 (we love that number) season to be very, very, very busy.

PRIT LIVES ! ! ! We received yet another phone call from the Pacific Rim Institute of Tourism. For the time being some of them are back at work in Surrey. It seems that the Hospitality Educational Advisory Committee (HIEAC – pronounced Hi-ack) has rescued most of them till the end of March. After that they might be with another operator and back in the downtown area. They are not accepting any new applications right now and those CTGA members who were in the middle of their Local Tour Guide Certification will soon be contacted. We hope to have more details and a phone number for you in our next newsletter.

Unless you have already received one, this newsletter should have a new Availability Roster (AR) form with it. We have not updated the AR since last year, only this time there is a choice of where it will be posted. A hard copy which is sent out via Canada Post or fax, or soon to be posted on our web site. The web site would be available 24 hours a day. We don’t get too many calls but from time to time we do receive a few from potential employers who are looking to hire a guide or tour director, etc, for a couple of hours, days, weeks or whatever. Members can opt to have their name and a contact number appear on one list or the other (or not at all). If you are interested we need the form filled out and returned to us ASAP. We want to try and have both lists ready to go on or about March 1^st.

As we mentioned in our last issue of Guide Lines, the former President of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations, Jane Ord lost her fight against cancer early last October. She was born in Newcastle and spent her early married life in West Africa. She qualified as a Tourist Guide in 1973, and in 1987 she became President of the WFTGA, a post she held for six years. During this time she paid us a visit here in Vancouver and spoke to our members at one of our meetings. She was very charming and easy going…very down to earth. Those of us who saw her again at the World Federation convention in 1997 in Montreal remember her amazing ability to tell a story.

Jane encouraged worldwide professional training for guides and designed the WF logo of the two hands “the hand of friendship and the hand of guidance stretched across the world.” Last spring she traveled to Cyprus where she was awarded Honorary Membership of the Cyprus Tourist Guides Association for her contribution to world guiding. She was also made an Honorary Member of the Scottish Tourist Guides Association and a Life Fellow of the Guild of Registered Tourist Guides of Britain. Even in the last weeks of her life Jane kept busy and was helping to put together Scotland’s bid for the next WFTGA Convention in 2003 (and if they get it, it is felt that the CTGA of BC should make every effort to send as many members as possible). Guides from all over the U.K. attended her funeral, which she had planned down to the last detail, including instructing her family in how to organize “the passengers at her last party.” Rest In Peace with all of our love sweet Jane.

Past meeting: On January 25^th we met at the Granville Island Museums for a tour of the Sport Fishing, Model Ships and Model Trains Museums. Our host, who is also the owner and curator, John Keith-King, proceed to dazzle us with an incredible array of display’s and information. If any of you couldn’t make the meeting, let us know and we can arrange for you to step inside. It is amazing how much is in there and how great a museum it is. Next time you are there with a bus load of folks, do encourage them to have a look especially if they have kids. We had over 30 members and eight guests including guest speakers from Malibu Yacht Charters and the new Takaya Tours. A great turn out and meeting with thanks to one and all ! ! !

Further to our opening paragraph about the CTGA of BC finally getting a website, here’s Our President Jeff Veniot… We had looked at getting a site for about two years but the costs were all over the map. It wasn’t until a co-worker of mine mentioned his web designer son-in-law, Robert Broyles, that things began to happen. Rob has also taken training at being a webmaster and so we talked about what I thought we should have. After our board gave the go ahead on January 15^th, I took some of our information sheets and newsletters to him the next day. Over the next six hours we both co-wrote the final product, but it was at Rob’s suggestion that we add some pictures, a message board, some hyper-links and few other things that I never had any idea about. He then registered our name and presto by 10 PM January 18^th, 2001 we received our final clearance and www.ctgaofbc.com was available on the World Wide Web. There are a few ways to get in touch with Rob….by e-mailing him at robert@ebroyles.com or going to www.ebroyles.com/contact.html, clicking on his “button” on page one of our site, by leaving a message on the message board, or contact me. With his help we can make changes and additions as needed. As I later found out, Rob gave us quite a deal price wise and we are very grateful to him. He is also willing to talk turkey with anyone who would also like to have a website set up.

I only know of three other guiding web sites and if you have access to the internet please see the World Federation site at www.wftga.org, The Guides Association of New York City at www.ganyc.com, and The Guild of Professional Tour Guides of Washington DC at www.washingtondctourguides.com. We are looking for feedback on the NYC and DC sites as they both offer things that we should consider in the future (like a code of ethics, certified master guide list, etc.) One of our members, Patrick Weitemeyer, has some pictures of us taken at some of our meetings at www.epsbc.com/ctgabc.

One of the other things that also went into full service for our “on-line” members is our E-group service. This is a closed circuit message board (it is separate from the one on our web site which is public…meaning anyone on the web can see it) only for members of the CTGA of BC. It is not a “chat-line.” It is an easy and free way for any one of us to quickly post a message for all the other members/users to see. Suppose any one of us suddenly gets an important notice that needs to be passed onto the membership or if we just want to pass on a bit of guiding or tourism related news or almost any kind of a message…a few quick words are typed into a computer, one e-address is entered and off it goes within seconds to everybody in the e-group. Over half of our on-line members are now on this service (ask them what they think of it). If you have e-mail and you didn’t receive the invitation to join our e-group over the last two weeks (for CTGA of BC members only), please contact me. If you did receive the invitation, but you are still not receiving our e-messages, please call me.

Further to this I have also just started another E-group service called “Guides Across Canada” (guidesac…). It works exactly the same as the E-group mentioned above except this one is open to anyone in Canada who is working full or part time as a guide or Tour Director. The service does not replace the need for a Canadian national guiding association, but until one comes along it will be an easy way for all of us to better communicate back and forth with each other, and to learn about concerns that guides have in different parts of the country.

Both E-groups have a moderator, me, who invites guides to join the e-group and can cancel someone out of the service if it was found that they were sending in-appropriate material. E-groups, which is now run by Yahoo!, has very little or no “spam” (advertising). Guides Across Canada already has members in BC, Alberta and Ontario and we expect a few from Quebec and Nova Scotia to log on any day now. All e-group members can now choose to receive the individual e-mails (whenever they are sent) or to read them at the e-group web site when ever you like. Contact me and I’ll explain how. The Guides Across Canada e-group and our own association can only grow with your help. Encourage others to either contact me by phone, leave a message on the ctgaofbc.com web site message board, or take their name and phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses and pass them on to me. If you have any questions or require further information…just let me know…(604) 876-2576. Thank you.

A welcome and hello to all of our brand new members and a thanks to those of you who have recently renewed your memberships. Till next time…Happy Trails ! ! !

Please remember that our CTGA of BC info and message line is open 24/7 at (604) 251-1500...pause...then dial 876-2576 after the prompt.