Guide Lines
1 November 2001
+The first meeting of the "Focus Committee" on various guiding topics will be held next Tuesday night November 6th, 2001 at the Sandman Inn on West Georgia Street (at Cambie...behind the CBC building) at 7 PM.
Those of you who signed up to help with this at the October 25th meeting should also receive a phone call from Sharon Winter. If you are not yet familiar with this new committee, it will all be explained at the meeting on November 6th. No need to rsvp.
+Our meeting on October 25th at the Hotel Georgia was the largest ever ! ! ! 60 CTGA of BC members plus 10 guests (including a TD from Seattle)....by the end of the meeting we had received 4 or 5 new membership applications. We now have 130 members, which is up 30 from this time last year. Susan Cox from Industry Canada, Gary Sealey from the Capitol Tour Guide Association in Ottawa, and Houri Nazaretian of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations spoke to us on a number of guiding issues.
+The location of our Annual General Meeting, which will be held on Thursday November 15th, 2001 at 7 PM, will be at the Granville Island Hotel in Vancouver.
The purpose of the AGM (which is a requirement of the BC Societies Act) is to elect Officers and Directors, to consider the balance sheet and all other matters pertaining to the financial status of the association, and to consider and deal with and dispose of all other such business as may properly come before the meeting.
CTGA of BC Vice-President Ian Chuck Herron has become the first board member since November 1993 to say that he will run for the position of President.
I knew that somebody would be willing to take the job eventually !!! Actually Chuck was going to take it last year, but circumstances prevented it till now.
This will mean that I will move to the position of Immediate Past-President and will still be on the board with one vote, just like the other board members.
The other positions to fill that night will be for Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer (or a Secretary-Treasurer), and four directors at large who take on jobs like locations, membership, fundraising, etc. Some of the other present board members will let their names stand for re-election, while others will step down.
The board meets about five times a year....usually at someone's home for about two hours to carry on with the business of running your CTGA of BC. If you would be interested in being on the board, please let us know.....
Members: Please do not nominate people by phone or e-mail.....you can do that in writing with the permission of the person you are nominating or you can do it verbally from the floor on the night of the meeting. No need to rsvp for the AGM.
+The CTGA Christmas Party will be held on Monday night December 10 at the top of Grouse Mountain. The cost will be around $25 per person which will include a dinner and two drinks. There are more details (and surprises) coming to members soon about this annual event. Members will be allowed to bring one guest with them.
+The Annual Christmas Lights Tour, which is open to one and all, will be held during December....we can't confirm the date just yet, but we will be putting out more information in about two or three weeks.
+Next years Annual Brackendale Eagle Count, which is also open to one and all, will be held on Sunday January 6th, 2002. More details will be given out next month.
+During the month of January there will be two or three events, with the regular end of the month meeting being held on Thursday January 31st.
+We are still hoping to raise more money for the Marianne Cederberg Trans Canada Trail Fund.....if you have not yet donated to this, but would like to, please give contact us for more details.
+We have now sent out membership renewals....if your due to renew (and we'd love to have you stay with us)....please send a $50 cheque made out to the CTGA of BC at 1423 Howe St, Vancouver BC, V6Z 1R9.
+To reach our CTGA of BC information and message phone line, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 seven days a week, simply dial 604-251-1500....wait for the prompt and then dial 604-876-2576.
+The CTGA of BC E-group now has 80 of our 130 members on-board. Some of them don't even have a computer and yet they either have an e-mail address or what's known as a webmail address. If you'd like to know more about how that works....just let us know and we would be happy to explain it.
What is the E-group? It is a free closed-circuit message and notice board that contains short CTGA of BC, guiding and tourism related news a couple of times a week (even during the summer) via computers or laptops. These instant electronic messages remove the need to write and print a full newsletter about seven times a year, fold and put them in an envelope and then mail them.
Our E-group service has also helped to bring the members to a closer point of contact with each other, especially for those who can't always get out to our meetings and events.
If members need any further information on our E-group system, please let us know.
For now....Thank You....and Happy Trails ! ! ! Jeff V
A full Guide Lines newsletter is no longer posted here for all to see. Members who have e-mail are now receiving weekly guiding news and information through our closed-circuit message and notice board known as the E-group service. The members who do not have e-mail are still sent a newsletter via the postal system.