"I Love to Read Month", "Freedom to Read Week" and Literacy Action Day (LAD) provide timely opportunities to focus on literacy from a variety of perspectives.

February 19 was Literacy Action Day on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Learners, practitioners and volunteers from across Canada were busy meeting with Members of Parliament and Senators to promote literacy.

Some of the days' highlights included:

• the launching of the Learners' Advisory Network. On behalf of LLC, I congratulate all the learner representatives and, in particular, those Laubach learners, for this achievement.
• the number of individual meetings with Members of Parliament increased substantially from last year.
• a question about literacy was raised during Question Period, exposing all members present in the House of Commons to the relevance of the day.
• for the first time since LAD was organized, all political parties participated in the reception to wrap up the day.

LAD is a one-day event, but there are things each of us can do in our own communities throughout the year to keep literacy on the national agenda. Visit your Member of Parliament's constituency office. Talk about literacy and convince them to speak up for the 48% of Canadian adults who have low reading skills.

Information kits are available upon request from the Development Office that can be given to Members of Parliament.

THANK YOU ; Laubach Literacy of Canada gratefully acknowledges the continuing support from the National Literacy Secretariat, Human Resources Development Canada for LLC's Literacy Challenge 2000 strategy.

Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of Human Resources Development Canada met with the six national literacy organizations as a group. I was proud to represent LLC and speak about our objectives and programs. Let me assure you that literacy has a Minister with compassion and presence.

Following LAD, members of Laubach's Executive Committee met with Senator Joyce Fairbairn. It was an opportunity to highlight LLC's programs as well as prepare the groundwork for our next long-term planning document. Senator Fairbairn continues to be a strong advocate for literacy and a supporter of Laubach programs.

On another note, I wish to share with you the internal matters of the LLC Bylaws. The major differences in the proposed revisions are a reduction in board size, the elimination of appointed Directors and the addition of a mail-in ballot. All LLC councils, Board members, Provincial Presidents, Provincial Training Officers and staff members have received drafts of the revised bylaws. Please contact the Development Office if you would like a copy. Bylaws will be on the agenda for the next Annual Meeting scheduled for Saturday morning, June 13, 1998 at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

There will be a Board Roundtable as part of the conference. I welcome your feedback in terms of topic areas you would like the Board to address. You can email me or call the Development Office, toll free at 1-888-248-2898.

I hope to see you at the conference in Sydney, NS for constructive discussions and informative workshops.

D. Lark Gamey, President
email: gamey@brandonu.ca