I found this email from a conversation between Oliver Oike President of the Manitoba Chapter and Mark Busse Past President of the BC Chapter and thought I'd share it with everyone. Not only because these guys are very eloquent on their comments but also because I think it speaks to many of us about the meaning of our GDC Membership and how we value our own profession and career development.

Join us at the Museum of Vancouver on Thursday, November 19th for Practivism2, part of our ongoing GDC/BC Design Speakers Series. We’re proud to bring you an incredible group of presenters who will talk about design and social change: Andréa Pellegrino (Design Ignites Change), Kara Pecknold (IDEO Human Centered Design Toolkit) and Nathan Shedroff (Design is the Problem).

Mark Busse's tribute to VANOC Design Director Leo Obstbaum, who passed away suddenly at the age of 40.

GDC/BC is proud to present the second installment of the Design is Our Business series. This time we have the honour of having Blair Enns, founder of the Win Without Pitching www.winwithoutpitching.com movement and a business development adviser to marketing communication agencies.

Ray Hrynkow MGDC is creative director, senior designer and strategist for Herrainco Brand Strategy + Design. He attended the September 'Design is our Business' breakfast event and I asked him to share his experience on what was our first Business Development event. Here's what he had to say:

Our friends at The Alcuin Society and Emily Carr University would like to invite all GDC members to an Awards Ceremony, honouring the designers and publishers of the winners of The 27th Competition for Excellence in Book Design in Canada – 2008.

Graphex 2008: the Best of Visual Communications in Canada will be featured as an official exhibit from October 24–November 4 at the Gallery of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University in Beijing as part of Icograda's World Design Congress "XIN"

Common Thread – October 7 to 17 at Emily Carr University of Art and Design on Granville Island – will feature 20 posters showcasing work from respected contemporary designers.