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Almost five years ago to the day we were in the midst of a very exciting time – preparing for the inaugural ForestEDWest Conference at the amazing Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta. Those of you who attended this conference, and/or the two ForestEDWest Conferences in between will agree, we’re sure, that these were special events. The camaraderie, learning, networking and sharing that took place at ForestEDWest I through III were, in our minds at least, perhaps the best of any conference experience we’ve had in our professional careers.
These successful conferences, and indeed the ForestEDWest Network have come about due to the hard work, commitment and enthusiastic support of the steering committees, conference committees, and importantly by the individuals and organizations whose attendance at the conferences have made them so special. In truth, we have taken a lot of ‘bows’ for the commitment of all of you – we may have started up ForestEDWest, but it was you, our friends and colleagues who have made it so special.
Those of you who attended FEW III in Kelowna last January will recall that the Alberta contingent offered to coordinate and host ForestEDWest IV – and according to our biennial scheduling, FEW IV would be held in January 2010, just over one year from now. Of course holding the next year would mean all of the work – and all of the fundraising – gets done this year. Not surprisingly, with the global economy in bad shape, with the forest sector continuing to be in dire difficulty, and with an anticipated belt tightening across the country – we do not believe it is prudent to move forward at this time. Having done a brief ‘straw poll’ of a few people as well, funds for conferences are expected to grow increasingly hard to come by for the next year (at least).
As such, we are writing to notify you that the initial organizing committee for ForestEDWest IV has decided to postpone the conference until 2011. While we recognize that skipping a year may cause a slight loss of momentum, we also believe that having a conference that does not meet the lofty standards set in 2004, 2006 and 2008 would do a disservice to ForestEDWest. It is our plan to reassess the situation towards the end of 2009 and will be in contact with you all again, with the hopes of a return conference again in Alberta in 2011.
Should you have any questions, comments or concerns, please drop either of us a line (direct emails below) - or if you haven’t already, we encourage you to join the ForestEDWest Facebook group – simply enter ‘ForestEDWest’ in Facebook’s search field. Perhaps we can fill the conference void by staying touch that way – at least for the time being.
All the best for the New Year, and we look forward to many brighter days ahead.
Steve McIsaac & Alex Drummond
Co-Chairs, ForestEDWest Network
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Steve McIsaac, Inside Education – smcisaac@insideeducation.ca
Alex Drummond, University of Alberta – Alex.Drummond@ualberta.ca
Continue on to ForestEDWest 2008 homepage, click here: http://www.forestedwest.ca/2008/home.html