YAMASKA LITERACY COUNCIL R O A D W A Y S

Volume 22, Issue 2

January 2006

Alan Ross at the helm

Yamaska Literacy Council welcomes Alan Ross as President. Alan has been a tutor since 2001, volunteering his time and skill to help adults in the community, and at the federal prison, improve their literacy skills. You may have met Alan at our booth at the Brome Fair or walking the streets… in the Christmas parade, or cracking his whip at Board meetings. We welcome Alan, and offer him our full support, as we launch into our 25 years of literacy service to the community. Onward…

As a high school teacher I worked for many years with eight other staff. I feel right at home with our Board of Directors. For a couple of years I chaired meetings of the MTA (Montreal Teachers Association) which may explain my crotchety insistence on Rules of Order. It also meant many more meetings. I'm still not sure that I enjoy the process, but I am sure that the product - the results of these meetings - are better than those of any other system.

I want to thank Susan Reininger for getting me involved in YLC, Wendy Seys for putting up with me and running a tight ship, Joani Tannenbaum for her continuing guidance and help, the other members of the Board for making the meetings interesting and productive, and Joe Everett for joining the Board as student representative and for giving me hours of fun as his tutor.

I thank Francine Bastien, my partner in this lifetime adventure. We live at 3 Bodor, West Brome, (450) 266-3777, earnscliffe@aol.com.

I invite you to call with suggestions and comments on YLC and we will invite you to a party in June (date and directions to follow).

Welcome Louise

YLC welcomes author Louise Penny, as an honorary patron to our organization. Louise braved the elements to walk in the Christmas parade as part of the YLC contingent. A rather auspicious first meeting, but rest assured, Louise proved to be of "sturdy stock".

"A bit about Louise…"

Born in Toronto, Louise enjoyed a career as an award-winning radio journalist, hosting hard news and current affairs broadcasts for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She worked in Toronto, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Quebec.

Louise published her first novel Still Life in 2004, which earned her acclaim as the Runner-up for the CWA Debut Dagger Award. She is currently working on her second novel.

Louise, and her husband Michael live in Sutton in an old United Empire loyalist brick home, "surrounded by maple woods and mountains and smelly dogs" (her words, not mine.)

YLC looks forward to getting to know Louise, and uncover ways in which she can work with us to help promote literacy.

You can learn more about Louise and her work by visiting www.louisepenny.com (Louise has dedicated a page to literacy!)

We very much look forward to her second novel!