Remembering a workshop I did once

I posted this on the Write! Canada website today. Even if you aren't a writer, you might find it a fun read.

In the fall of 1995, when Audrey Dorsch resigned as the editor of Faith Today and director of the God Uses Ink Conference, I was part of the planning committee. Even though Faith Today was short-staffed and assistant editor Marianne Meed Ward knew she could not handle the workload of both putting out the magazine and organizing the conference, we decided to go ahead and hold the 1996 conference. Larry Matthews, who had been part of the committee, agreed to be the conference director that year. But things were a bit rushed.

Back then, the conference didn’t actually start until 5:00 pm on Thursday. A few years earlier, we’d started having an early bird workshop for those who wanted to come earlier. We would charter a bus for an off-site trip to an interesting location, and then give people an hour or so to write something based on what they’d seen and heard. Then the organizer would judge the stories and we’d give prizes. I remember going on field trips to a mission in downtown Hamilton, the Hamilton Spectator, an historic church, and a book distributor’s warehouse.

Anyway, we decided we didn’t have time to organize a field trip for this year, so I volunteered to do something on-site (which was then Redeemer College in Ancaster.)

Read about what I did, and why I had such fun doing it – not to mention meeting someone who became a very good friend.