President Peter McQueen Reports the Latest News from VUNA

VUNA Views, Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter (December), 1998

President Peter McQueen Reports the Latest News from VUNA

Welcome, Kishor: We are pleased to announce that VUNA has a new Treasurer, Kishor Pokharna of Pittsburgh, PA, confirmed by the Council on December 5. Madge Darneille will serve as Assistant Treasurer. More on this in the next _VUNA Views_.

Internet Access Fund: To take advantage of the Internet benefits available to VUNA members described above by John Davis, your group needs Internet access. VUNA maintains an Internet Access Fund, which can provide member groups not on the Internet with one year's funding for full Internet access. Address inquiries to VUNA Internet Access Fund, Attn: Kevin Pickard, c/o Toronto Vegetarian Association, PO Box 2307, Toronto, ON CANADA M4P 1E4; or kpickard@interlog.com. E-mail and the Web provide an easy and effective way to communicate with your members and the public and also give you instant access to the world-wide vegetarian community through IVU and its Internet Partners.

Local groups are using the Internet to their advantage by announcing activities through e-mail to the growing number of participants with e-mail addresses, thus saving considerably on postage and mailing costs. Groups can also publicize activities through regional, national, and international e-mail mailing lists and Web pages.

Regional Council Goes On-line: As an example of the opportunities the Internet offers to vegetarian groups, consider what the VUNA Regional Council is doing. Nearly all the Councillors have access to e-mail and are on a private e-mail mailing list, which enables instant discussion and communication about VUNA concerns. In addition, the Council has begun holding live "cybermeetings" through IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Whereas Council meetings used to require often-distant travel and attendance at a conference, now Council members can meet and vote without leaving home. Although we are still getting the kinks out, IRC meetings promise to invigorate the Council and enable VUNA to use our resources to promote a strong and co-operative vegetarian movement throughout North America.

Food Fair Manual Project and Vegetarian Article Syndication Project: The VUNA Council has approved the Food Fair Manual project and Nancy Winemiller, Manuscript Editor at Cornell University Press, is co-ordinating it. See Nancy's explanation of the project below. The Vegetarian Article Syndication Project has begun and will offer VUNA member groups the opportunity to publish in their newsletters, without charge or copyright concerns, short articles written by experts. This is yet another reason for local groups to join VUNA and IVU. Dennis Bayomi gives details of the project below.

Regional Mini-conferences: A few years ago, VUNA decided to abandon sponsorship of one big annual Conference and co-sponsor regional mini-conferences instead. The last such event was VegFest DC, co-sponsored with the Vegetarian Society of DC in October, 1997. We are looking for hosts and co-sponsors for regional mini-conferences in 1999. Contact me at pmcqueen@interlog.com or write to Peter McQueen, VUNA President, 33 Karnwood Drive, Scarborough, ON Canada M1L 2Z4 for more information.

Looking for a VUNA Webmaster: Finally, IVU Webmaster John Davis is looking for someone to maintain the VUNA Web pages, something he is doing currently from England. John says: "There must be someone in North America who could be VUNA's own webmaster. If you know anyone who might be interested and has the necessary skills, ask them to take a look at the www.ivu.org/vuna--and then contact me [John] on webmaster@ivu.org."--Peter McQueen, VUNA President

Maintained by Judy Miner jwminer@accessvt.com
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