Happy summer – finally! While I’m not sure that “real” summer has hit us yet here in Victoria, at least the calendar says it should be warm out every day and mostly the afternoons cooperate. But I’m not sure that I’m taking a summer breather yet like I should…so much has been going on!

I’m just emerging from a couple of particularly busy months, partly due to my teaching the Fundamentals of Event & Conference Management class through Camosun College Continuing Studies – a 24 hour, 7 session course that was an amazing experience – this past spring. I had twelve wonderful women students representing almost all age groups and with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Their common denominators were that they were smart, personable and willing to share what they knew. We had a site visit to the Fairmont Empress and three different nights featuring guest speakers, and wonderful content, activities and discussion throughout. The next offering of this course is already planned for January 26 to March 6, 2013 and interested individuals can visit Camosun’s website for registration details.

The other big news that I haven’t yet mentioned here in this space is that I changed day jobs from Volunteer Victoria to Royal Roads University in May. I’m now on a one-year contract as an Instructional Designer with the Centre for Teaching & Educational Technologies (CTET) at RRU and spending my days thinking and advising faculty about e-learning. While saying goodbye to VV after six years and returning to RRU (since yes, I’ve worked there twice before) has been a big change, I’m excited about all the opportunities the future has in store. I’m particularly happy that I’ll still remain involved with Volunteer Victoria as a contract facilitator, most notably with their Overview of Volunteer Management course this fall.

The other great thing of course has been my foray into graphic facilitation and graphic recording since early May, and last night in particular I spent a fantastic evening with the BC Human Resources Management Association‘s local Advisory Council doing graphic recording of their meeting. The image above is the wall chart that I created out of the group’s brainstorm. I only wish that I had gotten more than an iPhone photo of it as the photo quality is pretty poor. I’m excited to say though that the group has the original and may plan on laminating it and bringing it out to inspire members at their future mingles! This is a wonderful group to get involved with if you have a human resources-related role in your organization and I thank them for inviting me into their session.

What I feel most of all now is alive with the excitement of right now and the possibility of what’s to come. This knowledgeable person said recently that there is no such thing as chance, that we ask for things to come into our life. And literally I know that to be true. What a spring it’s been…and oh – the things that I can see coming ahead! I can’t wait…