April 13, 2013

AGM April Meeting Notes

Last night, PWAC Vancouver members gathered to hold our annual AGM, where we discussed current and future business related to our chapter. I wanted to advise about some of the discussions to keep those who were absent abreast of the conversations.

1. Executive Elections

I, Kelly Thompson, will remain as Chapter President. New professional member Mirey Faema has joined the board as Chapter Vice President. David Conn will remain on as Membership Coordinator and Heather Kent will remain the Treasurer. We still have room for a Communications Manager, should anyone wish to join the executive.

2. 27 April, PD Day

Members are encouraged to register online for our Professional Development Day on 27 April at the VSO School of Music, 843 Seymour Street. Seating is limited! Those registering as students are required to bring valid student ID.

3. Summer Party

Mark your calendars! Our summer party will be held on Sunday, 21 July at Guenther Krueger’s house. More details to follow.

4. Membership

PWAC Vancouver has seen a surge in membership over the last two months and we’re pleased to welcome all of the new writers to the fold. This increased membership means PWAC Vancouver is able to send 5 delegates to the national AGM in Toronto at MagNet. Delegates will have their airfare costs over $175 covered by PWAC National and will receive a stipend from the chapter as well.

5. National AGM Delagates

Those representing PWAC Vancouver at the National AGM are Kelly Thompson, Mirey Faema and Guenther Krueger. Please email me within the next two weeks if you would like to serve as a delegate at the National AGM, as I am required to submit these numbers to National Office.

6. PWAC Presence

PWAC Vancouver has renewed the online presence of the chapter through the blog, Facebook and Twitter. We are busy connecting with local writing programs (at Douglas College, Langara, Capilano and UBC to name a few) as well as other associations such as MagsBC, the Society for Technical Communication, Editors’ Association of Canada and others. We hope that these new connections will boost membership and allow us to engage and network with other professionals in the writing, publishing and freelance business.

7. Writer Retreat

Jointly with Fraser Valley and Victoria, PWAC Vancouver is looking to hold another writer retreat in Spring 2014, potentially on Salt Spring Island or another area nearby. We hope to recreate a sense of community for our writers and provide more opportunities to connect with one another. Stay turned for more information.

Thank you all for your time and please feel free to email me at kellythompson(at)keystonetext(dot)ca, should you have any questions.

–Kelly Thompson, PWAC Vancouver President

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July 8, 2010

Ann Chandler dishes about MagNet

by Ann Chandler

The 2010 PWAC/MagNet Conference in Toronto provided so many interesting and useful seminars it was difficult to choose. Thank heavens for the small conversational groups in the lobby area, where you could chat with those who had attended the seminars you wished you’d attended, and pick up some important pointers. Some seminars were a hit, others weren’t as popular, but each one had something valuable to take home.

Keynote speaker Margaret Webb spoke about researching her book Apples to Oysters, and provided some valuable insight into where our food originates. The first annual PWAC Writing Awards were handed out and the AGM was well attended.

The presence of MagNet will be missed when PWAC holds the 2011 conference in Montreal. It’s a great way to connect with editors and learn about new markets.

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May 8, 2010

PWAC Vancouver AGM Outcomes

The Vancouver chapter AGM took place Thursday, May 6 at the beautiful False Creek Yacht Club. As we watched the sun set from the comfortable private members lounge, I (Sheila Whittaker) recapped the year in PWAC news in a president’s report. Next, Milton Kiang brought members up-to-date on chapter finances with a treasurer’s report.

We moved on to nominations for leadership. There were no new names put forward, and the current executive was unanimously voted to continue serving. The positions of secretary and membership coordinator will remain open. Please contact Sheila Whittaker if you are interested in joining the leadership team.

It was unanimously agreed that the chapter should support delegates travelling to Toronto to the national AGM in June. Five potential delegates have come forward — one more delegate would give us a full roster at the AGM. Please contact Sheila Whittaker if you are interested in going to the MagNet2010 Conference and the PWAC AGM.

We discussed the format, frequency and location of meetings. It was agreed that we should meet monthly throughout the summer at FCYC (1661 Granville St, Vancouver) to network, enjoy socializing with chapter members and take advantage of the gorgeous patio. FCYC enjoys an amazing view of Granville Island and False Creek. Other benefits of continuing to meet here include:

the venue is free
it is easy to book (no negotiation hassles)
it is a quiet, private members lounge — not open to the public
we can use the private boardroom for ProD meetings
there is lots of free parking
the bar prices are very reasonable, and purchases are optional
the Aquabus Hornby St. stop is right beside the venue
the Southbound bus stop, Howe St @ Drake St (#59839) is not too far. The 4, 7, 10, 16, 17, and 50 all stop there.

A date for a late-June meet-and-greet at the FCYC will be announced soon. Watch your inbox for the evite! The theme of this event will be ‘Stories from MagNet2010.’ Delegates to MagNet in Toronto will share their experiences with those who were not able to attend. With any luck we’ll get a day as beautiful as Thursday and we’ll be living the good life on the patio.

Your questions and comments are welcome below!

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December 1, 2009

Notes from Barbara K. Adamski’s Talk

The Vancouver Chapter was pleased to host speaker Barbara K. Adamski at the meeting on Thursday, November 19th. Thanks to all those who made it out to the meeting. I hope to see you all at the holiday party on December 9th.

For those who could not make it, here are some of the highlights.

A brief bio: Barbara K. Adamski‘s non-magazine work is a combination of writing and editing but for corporations, small businesses, and educational institutions (and individual authors). Her forte as a writer and editor is studying the genre of the project, whether it be annual reports, audio scripts, or encyclopedia entries. It’s her skill in figuring out the constraints of a genre that allow her to reinvent herself and take on a variety of projects. Barb is also fluent in Japanese and began her writing career in Japan.

Barb prides herself as a generalist, in stark contrast to our last speaker Colin Moorhouse. She is a “stickler for detail” and meticulously fact-checks all of her work.

Tips from Barb:

mention things you can do as “value added” for a client. These things might include photography, film, voice work, layout, sourcing photos or editing. This can earn you extra income from the same client
put your skills out there
add some non-writing information to the “about me” section of your website. You never know what will be of interest to potential clients.

Tips for new writers:

try many publications and clients to decide who you like working for
don’t continue to work with clients that you don’t enjoy working with (unless dropping them means no groceries!)
when negotiating or pitching, make the connections for your clients. Relate other projects or past work experience to the job they want done to prove to them you can get the job done
if your website has enough variety on it, point the client in the direction of an article that may relate to what you want to write for them.

Finding work online:

evaluate sites carefully. Always verify and validate job postings by checking out the employer’s website. Don’t respond to jobs with no contact info and never do samples for free. (Sending samples of published work is fine and often necessary)
try professional job boards when looking for work. http://www.jeffgaulin.com/ is a good one
Listservs may help you get work, if you behave well when you are on them. Be genuine and helpful and you might find that occasionally it results in work
PWAC has many listservs, including http://list.web.net/lists/private/pwac-l/. However, personal connections are a better way to get work. This means you need to get out and make those connections
http://featurewell.com/ is a place you can sell reprints of your articles. It is worth checking out.

Notes written by Sheila Whittaker. Thanks to Barb Adamski for speaking to us!

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September 24, 2009

Meeting Notes

Hello PWAC Vancouver!

In the spirit of social networking, I (Sheila Whittaker, current PWAC Vancouver chapter president) started this blog. It took me about 5 clicks and the same amount of minutes. Maybe less. It was as easy as setting up a Hotmail account and as free. I am confident that you can all do this!!

It was great to see those of you who were able to make it out to the meeting last night. For those of you who couldn’t make it, you missed a very interesting presentation by Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604. We were impressed by both her wealth of knowledge about social networking techniques and her organized presentation. She was able to answer any question thrown at her with calm confidence.

Here are some tidbits of points she made and resources she shared:

-you want favourable information about you (hopefully your website) to rank high in a Google search. Google yourself. Take steps to control what turns up in that first page.

-buy yourname.com, even if you don’t use it. You just don’t want anyone else using it.

-on your website, make sure you keep your About page up to date. Add relevant new articles you’ve published, talk about trips you’ve been on, add new educational accomplishments, speaking engagements, etc — make it current and useful. It is an important marketing tool.

-choose a social media path that works for you, you don’t have to use them all. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.

-a blogroll is recommended to drive traffic to your site. The theory is that if you link to other pages in your field, your readers click through to those links, as they are interested in the topic. The writer of the visited website sees in their blog stats that your site sent them traffic. They link back to you in return and readers of their site click through to your site. An “I’ll scratch your back” kind of situation whereby readers are shared. For an example, see Miss604’s blogroll.

-When using Twitter, avoid link overload. Post a variety of different things, not only links. The idea is to add value to your followers’ stream. Promote your online presence by linking to your new posts on your blog. Be conversational. Learn to use #hashtags in Twitter .

-you can use Twitter as a freelancer for many purposes: building your brand, getting your name out there, marketing your published work, gaining readership, building a following of readers, following trends, generating story ideas, finding sources, making contacts, following editors and replying to their demands for writers, learning about upcoming events and other opportunities, sharing news… the list goes on. You just have to follow the right people.

-if you’re blogging, make the URLs of your posts have key words in them. It is good for Google results.

For helpful links, read this post too.

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September 24, 2009

Social Networking Links

Here are some useful links that Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604 shared with our group tonight.

http://www.slideshare.net/miss604 -> Miss604 has shared the slides of some different presentations she’s made. The information will be similar to what she went through with our group.

http://whomwah.github.com/tweetme/ ->A WordPress plugin that posts a tweet to Twitter when you publish a blog post.

http://mashable.com/category/how-to-web/ -> many how-to articles about social media, including “What the F**k Is Social Media? Here’s an Answer.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o ->A short video: Twitter in Plain English. Good for newbies.

http://search.twitter.com/ ->Find out what people all over the world are talking about online. Ummm … can you say Story Ideas?!

http://trendsmap.com/ ->see Twitter trends by geographical location. More story ideas.

http://twittpoll.com/ ->Conduct polls to find out what people *really* think.

http://www.pmcwriters.com/blog/post/show/10-free-twitter-tools-for-businesses- ->Twitter tools that are free. This includes Hoot Suite ” a professional Twitter client allowing you to manage multiple twitter accounts in one location. You can manage multiple users and contributors, which makes this a perfect solution for larger businesses. Hoot Suite also makes it easy to track statistics and monitor what people are saying about your brand.”

http://mashable.com/2009/02/25/tweetup/ ->Tweetups are meet ups of all sorts for Twitter users. Twitter can mobilize people. Find out how and remember that meeting in person helps to promote your presence online.

http://hummingbird604.com/2009/03/24/tweetups-directory-in-vancouver/ ->Learn more about local Tweetups.

http://wefollow.com/ ->Find people to follow on Twitter through this directory. You can search for topics at the top.

http://blip.fm/ ->Post your own music or search for any MP3 imaginable. Create your own radio station. You can post links of songs you like to your Twitter page as well. It’s kind of like Twitter for music, and it works with Twitter if you like to share.

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September 24, 2009

A Few PWACers on Twitter

In case you’ve caught the Twitter bug, you might want to follow your fellow PWACers on Twitter. If you’re on Twitter and I didn’t list you, add a comment below and I will update the post.

Vancouver:
Claire: http://twitter.com/clairesowerbutt
Sheila: http://twitter.com/rubysuitcase
Milton: http://twitter.com/miltonkiang
Kristen: http://twitter.com/wordsmith100
Karen: http://twitter.com/karenpinchin
Jane: http://twitter.com/janevm
Kathleen: http://twitter.com/KathleenRake
Alexandra: http://twitter.com/A_Reynolds