BACKGROUND

Current

Chief instigator of Hole-in-the-Wall Communications, a Vancouver company specializing in graphic, editorial and database design, Macintosh training and support.

Journalism

The Vancouver Sun, 1984-1987	Copy editor to begin then night wire editor News-service background was good training for digesting and compiling national and international stories from a half-dozen wire services. Major achievement in this position was to keep a full queue of tightly edited stories during a period of tiny newsholes. That's not glamorous work but doing it well demands excellent news judgment and a good command of English.
Southam News Service 1980-1984	Senior copy editor Responsible for editing and transmitting the bulk of each day's news budget, liaising with domestic and foreign correspondents as well as fielding queries from editors at the then 18 Southam daily newspapers across the country. This whole period was one big highlight. I got to work with and edit the work of some of Canada's most distinguished journalists, including some I had read as a youngster when I delivered the Ottawa Citizen.
Calgary Herald 1979-80	Staff writer and later desker My first chance to work cityside for a major Canadian daily. This included stints covering police and court. Calgary was booming at the time, and the paper's large newshole gave me a chance to try longer, double-truck features.
Ottawa Journal 1977-79	Bureau staff writer My bureau's coverage area included more than four counties in Eastern Ontario. Operating some 50 miles away from the Journal offices, I largely set my own news agenda, which included county and local governments, boards of education, district health councils and more. A priceless experience!
Weekly newspapers 1974 -77	Editor, writer, photographer, graphic design I began my news career with a 6,000-circulation weekly newspaper, The Record-News in Smiths Falls, Ont. The weekly paper market then was in great turbulence, which meant working at several over a relatively short period in such Ontario markets as Midland, Perth and Arnprior. Turbulent or not, I marked several significant achievements: a national editorial writing award (CCNA) for a series of editorials examining the struggle for francophone education rights in Penetanguishene, Ont.; and a fistful of content and design awards from both CCNA and OWNA.

Graphic Design, Computers and Training

Hole-in-the-Wall Communications 1987-now

Principal This company has been a vehicle for me to merge a lot of my interests in information technology. This includes: computer graphic design, publishing systems, databases and the Internet. For nine years I handled design, final editing and layout of Education Leader, a twice-monthly newsletter published by the British Columbia School Trustees Association. The newsletter was a perennial first-place winner in North American newsletter awards (Editors Forum and APEX). In graphic design we've handled everything from trade-fair magazines (GLOBE 90 and 92) to food and other product packaging, government research reports, municipal maps and more.

Training

By direct contract or by sub-contract, I've taught more than 1,000 people in one or more of these Macintosh software packages: Quark XPress, PageMaker, Illustrator, Photoshop, Filemaker and MS Word, as well as Mac System Administration and Troubleshooting. A partial list of organizations whose employees I've trained: Baker-Lovick BC Hydro B.C. Ministry of Education (Distance Learning) B.C. Technology Industries Association BC Tel B.C. School Trustees Association Copyco Services Dominion Directory Health Employees Union Hemlock Printers NORCO Bicycles Pacific Press Tandem Design Associates Teamsters Local 66 Thunderbird Homes Of particular interest was a lengthy training engagement when Pacific Press, publisher of Vancouver's two dailies, made the transition to full pagination using the Quark Publishing System. I trained most of the staff in both newsrooms, usually three or four at a time, in intensive one- or two-day sessions.

EDUCATION

University	Carleton University, Ottawa, Ont. Journalism program, 1970-73 I completed three years of the four-year honors journalism program but was forced to withdraw for economic reasons. (I had been both working and going to school full-time for three years. One had to give.)
High School	Grade 13 graduate (Ontario Scholar), St. Joseph's H.S., Ottawa, Ont., 1969

COMMUNITY