JUNE
1987
THE FEDERATION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA WRITERS NEWSLETTER Mailing Address: P.o. Box 2206,Main post office, vancouver, 8.c., v6B 3w2 Office Address:
Ste. 706, 402 West Pender St., yancouver, B.C., Phone Number: 683-2057
PRESIDENT'S REPORT
The makeup of the provincial Council has altered c_onsiderably this year, with three members stepping down and one returning in another guise. I wani to thank Elfreida Read and Muriel Maclean for the great job they did with the newsletter, our single most effective tie between members, and Bella Chan for her work as Treasurer. All had held their positions for three years and I felt sad to see them go. Jan Drabek has ensured his place in Federation history as the last Chairman. At the AGM we changed the title to the less cumbersome "presi_ dent". Among other constitutional amendments we continuity presidents
provincial ime as far as f'm concerned! Jan is a fine person to work with, always reliable and steady.
v6B lT6
May 9th, the Federation was invited to meet at the Sylvia with two members of Council, Allan Ball (playwright, B.C.) and Nancy-Gaye Rotstein (poet, Ontario). Present for the Federation were two previous chairmen, Jan Drabek and David Watmough, Sandy Duncan, Allan Twigg and myself. Much soda water was consumed. What emerged: no extra money for B.C., similar to the Atlantic project last year. We gathered administration of funds had been a disaster. Concerns expressed about cut-back s program, number of women on juries, ion process. (Watmough, a senior writer, been asked, other writers, arbitrarily, it seems, are asked over and over.) The feeling was expressed that the Council was already doing more than its share for B.C. May 10. Hearings by seven members of the Council tre,
off the Fed
our approach and submit written briefs. For the n ce, major writers' groups re under the aegis of the ves much credit for this. Thanks to her, the Federation looked great, and at meetings, writers came out looking organized. On May 8, members of the arts community met
with
the Council at a reception at the Great Hall of the
"Tackle your provincial government. We've tried to soften them up for you, told them how unpopular they are. It's up to you now."
in choreographed succession; we seemed to have the meeting sewn up to such an extent began lining up along the stairs, wouldn't get a turn. presentations w a timed five minutes. Contrary to fears which had been expressed about publishers dominating the meeting, writers took up 80-85V0 of the time. Even
and gender-bi
for
children's litera successful meet
rilv
out cial government was obvious; every time a cross remark was made about them, the audience clapped.
presentations.
Zoe Larl.dale