To: Canada Interest Group Members
From: Natasha Buis, Chair

Good Day, Everyone —

Today is NACADA day for me! I am trying to get a number of Interest Group related things off my desk and into your in boxes! There are a few things I wanted to mention to all of you that I think deserve recognition.

1. Congratulations to Ilene Gilborn of Mount Royal College! She submitted and had an article accepted for the NACADA Academic Advising Today e-publication. The article is entitled "Balanced Scorecard Approach" so make sure you take some time to read through it (February 2006 issue)! Ilene is the only Canadian author identified by NACADA who has submitted to recent publications. I know that many of you are working on innovative projects on your own campuses. Please consider writing up some of your findings for one of the NACADA publications.
2. During the recent Region 8&9 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, we held a Canada Interest Group session, which was a round table session that touched on topics of interest to the participants. I have worked with Julia Wolf from the NACADA Executive Office who posted the notes from this session on our Interest Group website under "News and Updates". Take a look at the information at www.nacada.ksu.edu/InterestGroups/C35/news.htm to see if there are any topics that you think should be expanded on for our Canada group newsletter. 
3. Thank you again to Ron O'Neill from Memorial University for taking the initiative and getting a list of Canadian and other interested Advisors compiled. It was a really big task and he did a wonderful job of getting it started. We currently have 232 Advisors and their contact information recorded. I have taken over the responsibility as caretaker of the list, so if you know of people who are not on the list but wish to be added, please contact me directly at natasha.buis@lethbridgecollege.ab.ca. On May 17th, Ron sent out an updated copy of this contact list. I have been adding information to this list and will be sending out a new version shortly. If you sent me an email after May 17th, you should have received a confirmation indicating that I have added your information.  If you have not received a confirmation e-mail from me, please contact me again.
4. Many of you have submitted professional development opportunities to me for Advisors in your areas. The BCADA group has provided information regarding their conference opportunities, and there has been information regarding the Alberta Student Advisors conference, and the Alberta Services for Students conference. I would also like to thank Tom Fairbairn from the Ontario College of Art and Design who has been kind enough to let me know about the hard work he and his colleagues have been up to. He and a number of other Ontario Advisors are in the process of trying to arrange a venue to meet with one another - a monumental task, I would imagine. So three provinces have provided information regarding PD opportunities in their areas. If you have recommendations, please pass them on to me! I would like to include this information in our first newsletter.
5. I have begun working on our first newsletter. I need information from you folks! I would love to hear about new programs (academic or service based) that are being offered at your institution. What colleagues are you working with that deserve a special mention? What burning questions do you have for your peers across Canada ? What tricks are you using to alleviate Advisor Burnout on your campus? What is your funniest "advisee"' story (student names will be omitted).
6. You are receiving this e-mail because you are from Canada and/or designated your preference to be a member of the Canada Interest Group on your NACADA membership form. If you only receive e-mails sent by Julia Wolf from the Executive Office on behalf of me or someone else, that means you have not signed up for our interest group listserve used for discussion purposes. FYI - You do not need to be on this listserve to have your information added to the Canada Advisors contact list. If you are interested in joining our listserv list, please go to www.nacada.ksu.edu/InterestGroups/C35/listserve.htm.

As June begins, I hope that you are all ready to take advantage of some much deserved time off!  Hopefully you have holiday time to use over the course of the summer, and some of you may be off campus for the entire summer! If any of you are in the Southern Alberta area over the course of your summer holidays, I would encourage you to stop into LCC and say hi. It is always nice to put names to faces and to hear how we share so many joyous and trying experiences no matter where we are from.

All the best,

Natasha

Natasha Buis
Academic Advisor, Enrolment Management & Learner Services
Lethbridge Community College
Alberta, Canada
natasha.buis@lethbridgecollege.ab.ca
1-800-572-0103 (within Canada); 403-320-3323