The Westerner for February 14, 2011

Fort Edmonton Legacy Project:  Al Sanderson is joining John to participate on the steering committee - they would like other members to assist them by joining an Edmonton West advisory committee - call John if you are interested

Athlone School:  Kasey announced a Mom's Club has been started - program March 22 is a cooking class - she is looking for people to attend and help - events will occur about every 2 months

Bill Mcdonald advised the school is thanking us for the help in getting 30 students to Edmonton Journal Games - attend yourself on February 22 and see the students perform.  The principal is looking for more volunteers - see Bill if you can help - he just donated $100 to provide a fund to allow the school to give some students exposure to an Indian restaurant to help in their studies of India.  Thanks, also, to Bert and Brian for the donation of shorts and T Shirts so the student athletes are properly attired

Muriana Muchado:  Doug Sollows advised he has had email communication with Mariana, a former Brazilian exchange student to our club - she has graduated in engineering and is working for an American company which means a move to Sao Paulo - she recognizes the great experience our club gave to her with the exposure to another culture.

Belise:  Duane and Kathy are travelling to Belise next Friday for 2 weeks - Duane to reconnect with principal of Independence High School in Placencia plus to meet the scholarship winners of the scholarship funds we left on the previous visit; Kathy will do some professional development work with some of the teachers

50/50:  Dave and Richard did not match cards - they received a book each donated by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta; thanks to them for the donation

Hockey Pool Winners:  Charlie, Kathleen Gowers, Steve

Second Notice:   Allan Plesniarski is proposed for membership in the Club by Chris Gowers.

Finemaster:  Cheryl fined Bert and Chris for wearing conflicting ties; tables with no women or red badges; if you did not know that a group of owls was a parliament and a group of porcupines was a prickle

Guest Speaker:  Jerome talked about the Alberta Book Publishing Industry.  Publishers and authors are story tellers; Canadians need to tell their stories or they will be lost.

The Book Publishers Association of Alberta was founded in 1975 (there were no publishers in Alberta prior to 1969) which is owned by Albertans and is designed to assist each other. More than 200 books were published in 2009.  A prize fund has been established in amount $10,000 to reward the best author.

Examples of some of the publishers:  Lone Pine Publishing concentrates on nature books; Free Hand Bools, Calgary, designs exquisite covers; Rocky Mountain Books published the Incomparable Honeybee with an attractive cover; Maggie & Pierot publishes children's books; Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing; University of Alberta Press published People of the Lakes - a wonderful book.

Jerome talked about IPad books on line where pages show up on your screen - audio and/or video may be added in the future.  Jerome has written 5 or 6 books - his book Golden Prairie is a free electronic book.  Jerome's firm, Spotted Cow Press, has published about 20 books.  The U of A Bookstore helps in celebrating a wide range of Albertan books

Jerome was thanked by Mike Ryan.