The countdown to our National AGM is on with only about 40 days remaining before the meeting and the end of my term as your President. We’re busy pulling together our agenda, working on preparations for the meeting, and writing our year-end reports. It’s going to be a great Atlantic event mixing hard work with equal amounts of pleasure. The Atlantic Chapter is planning a good old fashioned - (we’ll tell you when you get here) - with genuine East Coast - (secret recipe, can’t tell). So be sure to wear your best Albert County dinner jacket because this is going to be a humdinger.

CAPIC Affiliation

I am pleased to report that the GDC and the Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators (CAPIC) recently signed an affiliation agreement whereby our two organizations have agreed to work together to promote our common goals. 

While the GDC and CAPIC have enjoyed a long-time collaborative relationship over the years, formalizing our partnership and mutual collaboration will help build and strengthen our respective brands in addition to promoting our members and their work. 

Our strategic alliance with CAPIC continues our efforts to align closely with like-minded organizations in the creative services industry and complements our affiliation agreements with Societé des designers graphiques du Québec (SDGQ) and the University and College Designers Association (UCDA). You can read more about our agreement with CAPIC in this issue and on gdc.net.

National Scholarship for the Thinking Designer

The GDC is blessed with hundreds of members who are generous with their time, willing to share their experiences, and donate to causes that are close to their hearts. Such is the case with GDC Fellows Ray and Casey Hrynkow. The GDC Foundation is extremely pleased to announce a new educational scholarship for design students championed by Ray. 

The Ray Hrynkow Scholarship is to be awarded to a third year student in a four-year design degree program. The award will go to a candidate showing great promise as a thinking designer — one who demonstrates an understanding of sociology and anthropology in their work. The scholarship will award $500 this year, through the GDC National Scholarship program which will be judged in April. 

This is our first named scholarship and we couldn’t be more pleased to be working closely with Ray and Casey on this initiative. You can read more about the Ray Hrynkow Scholarship on our web site at http://www.gdc.net/designers/index/articles/1378.php.

Maintain your CGD status

It’s membership renewal season and that time of year to think about what being a professional designer means to you. Do you want an edge over the competitors in your market? Do you need resources and tools ready-made for use in your design business? Do you want to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a designer who has experienced something that may be causing you grief? Then renew your membership in the GDC or join if you’re not already a member. We’re like your extended designer family and we’ll roll up our sleeves to help you any way we can.

The GDC now offers new options for monthly payments and automatic renewal annually to make it easier than ever to maintain your status as a Certified Graphic Designer (CGD). By the way, adding this new feature to our web site caused a few hiccups but everything is fixed and working fine now so if you experienced some issues, give it another try. 

Thanks everyone for your continued support and participation in the GDC. 

Jim Hudson, BDes, CGD
National President 2010-2012

Header image detail of GDC@50 poster by David Coates, FGDC, Vancouver, BC. Proceeds from the sales of these posters go to support the GDC Foundation. Click here to see more.