BC Fieldworkers Reports

Jerry Horne, BC Lower Mainland

Welcome to all the new tutors who received their basic training at workshops across BC. A special welcome to new Lower Mainland tutors in the Tri-Cities, Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver. New Surrey tutors include five Peer Youth Tutors from North Delta Senior Secondary School. Let me know how you're progressing. If you haven't been able to find a student as yet, we may be able to find one for you.

Additional tutor workshops are coming up in Mission, Richmond, and possibly again in Vancouver, so if you know someone who wants to tutor, let me know, and I'll add their name to the list of participants for upcoming Tutor Training workshops.

Please think about how you can help Laubach Councils across BC, and particularly in Richmond, Surrey, North Vancouver, Vancouver, Mission and the Tri-Cities. Call me at (604)263-6606 any time, and we'll talk about how you can become more involved.

Other ways you can work for literacy
If you have a spare evening or two per month, we need your help to enhance our activities in British Columbia. There are a number of ways you can be of service: Council leadership. There is much we can be doing at a Council level. If you would like to help organize community literacy programs, there are funds and support available to organized Councils. Councils also need volunteers to help organize tutor workshops and to help administer council activities (Laubach librarian, record-keeping, publicity and tutor liaison).

Tutor Trainer
At present, Myrna McGregor is our only tutor trainer in the Lower Mainland. She too is a volunteer, so Myrna can only be expected to do a limited number workshops per year. To become a certified Laubach trainer you need to apprentice at six workshops, as well as take additional training. It's a long process that I have just begun. We need two or three others to begin the process in the Lower Mainland. Call Myrna or me to discuss.

BC and National Board
Laubach is growing in importance across the country. We need BC representatives to help to direct the organization both at a provincial and a national level. You needn't be a tutor to take on this important task, you just need to have a deep concern for people, and a belief that literacy can make a difference in people's lives.

Spring Conference
We're hosting the 2001 Laubach Literacy of BC Spring Conference in the Lower Mainland. We'll be contacting some of you to help out with this activity, which will take place June 8-10, 2001 in Richmond. Tasks may involve registration and hosting of the 30 -50 guests we're expecting from across BC. We may also require billets for our out-of-town guests.