West Wing of Wednesday Night #5

More from our West Wing

The “Wednesday Night Salon” series – west coast edition is going for its fifth monthly anniversary! As the new relationships are developing amongst all of these great Vancouverites, we are still enjoying the discovery period of new connections and degrees of separation unfolding at each event… Many of you are away on well-deserved holidays, but from the e-mails flying around I think even our August edition will be quite vibrant and well-attended.

After July’s session which included an exciting conversation on Caribbean affairs (at the end of which we resolved that we need to continue the conversation), we still have to tackle a few “biggies”:

· Latin American world – from the future of NAFTA to the International AIDS conference in Mexico to the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt to Chavez – there is lots to explore!

· notable celebrations and civic pride – Canada’s 141^st, BC’s 150^th, la Ville de Quebec’s 400^th etc – how are they handled, what works and what needs to change… as well as summer festivals – be it music, arts or tall ships – and analyze the intricacies of fora, crowds, street performances, city life and what makes a vibrant community.

· UBC Farm – “to be or not to be” … a condo development?

· Women and leadership – myths, realities and next steps

· the Olympics in Beijing – a new “huge leap forwards” or a set back to all efforts to bring in democracy?

· Of course, one never knows where the conversation goes, we may cover all or none, as you will all have things you are currently involved in or interested in that you will bring to the roundtable!

And by most special request (David’s actually – who I think deserves this as in addition to his brilliant participation, he alternates his contributions between resplendent flowers and great scotch ;-), the topics of “global citizenship” and “the state of education” have been reserved for September when he’ll be back from his holidays on the Island.

Last but not least, please do consider bringing along a book you have read lately that impressed you or changed you somehow. I am perennially starved for good book suggestions and if you can bring the book for us to pass around and you could very briefly relate why you liked it, this would be greatly appreciated. We’ll do a lightning round on this, as I do not want to take away from the discussion/debate part.

Please RSVP – details for any who may need them are in the post-scriptum below. If you can’t make it this time, keep in mind Wednesday September 10th is the next iteration (I am trying to hit the second Wednesday of each month). If you already have someone else in mind who you would like to bring along, please let me know. And before I forget – I do have notes for a bit of a write up from the past couple of gatherings, but that will have to wait until the rainy season as it is way too beautiful outside for me to spend any time on them!

I would also be remiss for not mentioning some exciting developments:

• Transformational Leadership for the Age of Innovation, Sept 16-19, 2008, Vancouver BC a unique international experience presented by global pioneers in arts-based learning for business: Ralph Kerle CEO of the Creative Leadership Forum, Asia Pacific and Linda Naiman founder of Creativity at Work with David Fushtey as a guest speaker (both Linda and David have been huge Wednesday night – West Wing supporters!) Details

• there is a new modern dance subscription series in Vancouver with a most exciting line up for 2008-9 http://www.dancehouse.ca/

• one of my great friends and colleagues has just decided to run for nomination for the BC Liberals in the Fairview riding (left vacant after Robertson’s departure on July 15^th to run for Vancouver mayor http://www.gregorbc.ca/)– I first met Margaret McDiarmid when she used to represent BC on the national health scene, and the more I got to know her the more I admire her for her passion, determination, integrity, courage to say and do the right thing and unwavering commitment to creating a better world. I am a huge fan of this ex-rural family physician and am actually hosting her launch into politics – in exactly two days Thursday August 7^th she will be announcing her run for the nomination in our garden and you are all welcome to come between 5h30PM and 8PM to be part of this event (and enjoy the cocktail) – if you can’t make it, but would be interested in getting to know/supporting her in any way, do let me know as I am now part of the “committee to elect Margaret”

Wishing you many more days of sunshine!

Alexandra (and husband James)