This June, Wendy Nelles resigned as Co-Director of the Write! Canada conference.
Wendy attended her first conference (then known as God Uses Ink) in 1988, and was asked to become part of the conference committee. In 2001, after co-founding The Word Guild, she became co-director of the conference.
Wendy gave the following speech at the 2010 Write! Canada closing plenary after she was presented with an inscribed picture of some of the conference grounds. She received an extended standing ovation from the 200+ faculty and attendees who attended Write! Canada 2010.
Edna and I would like, belatedly, to express our appreciation for the critically significant role Wendy has played in the development of The Word Guild and Write Canada.
We particularly were appreciative of the considerable liaison work she did in bringing this federally-incorporated registered charity, Christian Info Canada and The Word Guild together. It seemed that the timing was both right and providential and Wendy was astute enough to recognize that.
The story of the various iterations of Christian Info Canada, and its historically-related and similarly-named cousin, Christian Info Society would make a book, we are sure. Its latests, of course, was the development of Christian News Ottawa, in 1998. That became ChristianWeek Ontario a decade later, operating under Fellowship for Print Witness — thus freeing up the charity for its next phase of usefulness.
In any case, Wendy was the unsung hero in that transitional endeavour. John Irwin, who had been the CIC chair, has continued on the new board, chaired capably by Les Lindquist.
And the rest, as they say, is history.