bout de papier, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1984) — June 1984 // Juin 1984, p. 2
bout de papier celebrates 75 years of External Affairs and the first anniversary of its expanded tabloid format. Judging from the comments and letters received from our readers, we seem to be striking the right chords in our efforts to improve communications, particularly with our colleagues overseas.
Like the Professional Committee, bout de papier has been in the forefront in forging a new corporate culture for the Department of External Affairs. By relying mainly on the extraordinarily rich experiences and talents of our members and affiliates of different streams, bout de papier has been able to contribute effectively to certain topical foreign policy debates. On development policy and the aid-trade link, for example, we conducted two lengthy interviews presenting differing views, with Margaret Catley-Carlson, President of CIDA and Bernard Wood, Chairman of the North/South Institute. In the March edition, we explored certain aspects of Canada’s increasing emphasis on expanded ties with countries of the Pacific Rim. These “theme pieces” benefitted from the unusual perspective of personal reminiscences, letters from several capitals, and general overviews from both the private and public sectors. The interview with the Undersecretary, Marcel Massé, in this issue also provides some of his insights on major concerns of importance to the future of the new department. bout de papier has also reported the activities of the Professional Committee and responded to your requests for articles on general consumer advice (tax planning, etc.). For those of you who have had grounds for appeals of either interpretations of FSDs or promotion decisions, we have explained the NJC grievance procedure and the appeals system.
As an added bonus, we have tried to lay the ground work for a self-financing newsletter so that your professional dues can be devoted to other purposes. We are pleased to report that advertising revenues pay for half the production costs. By employing some ingenuity in our advertising strategy now that the newsletter is becoming better known, we hope to achieve our ultimate self-financing target in two years.
Behind the scenes of bout de papier there is a freewheeling Advisory Team whose membership changes depending on the subject matter. For example, we were joined by Don Page and some of his colleagues in Historical Division for this anniversary edition and we are indebted to them for much of the historical content. Among the hardcore team members, we are sorry to lose the excellent services of Denyse Goulet as Professional Committee reporter. She is off to Moscow. Allan Kessel has replaced Denyse but we are sure she will continue to keep in touch through, perhaps, a special “Letter from Moscow” Richard Belliveau, who was responsible for the interview with the President of CIDA, is off to Brasilia. David Malone is going to the Middle East. We shall miss the advice and upbeat witticisms of both Richard and David not to mention their ability to proofread and edit reams of material at short notice.
We have already recruited some new members for the next editions, and we take this opportunity to welcome aboard Bob McDougall (alias A Aalto) who we hope will continue to design challenging puzzles, and George Cowley, the keen eyed observer of the social scene, whose racy writing style is familiar to you.
All team members have worked hard and willingly and deserve a great deal of thanks. bout de papier depends on voluntary services for its success and we are looking forward to hearing from even more of you in the fall. We have only just begun to tap the abundant resources among us. We particularly need francophone editing skills to relieve Christian Sarrazin from time to time. Remember the old adage — “Many hands make light work”,
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1984) — June 1984 // Juin 1984, p. 2. Read the rest of this issue →
