Yoga for the Office and MOSAIC
Back by popular demand! Yoga for the Office promised to bring some flexibility into our daily work lives. You may remember Karen Rempel as last year’s chapter president. By day, she is president of Monkey Valley Enterprises Inc., which offers technical writing services and nature retreats. But on the evening of January 19, 2010, Karen wore the hat of certified yoga instructor.
Karen teaches this course in workplaces around the city. And she has taught yoga and meditation to young adults in prison. We practiced yoga poses called “the bear”, “carnival ride”, and cat. Most exercises could be done sitting or standing and required no special clothing or equipment.
The new program year kicked off with some fun lessons in flexibility, breathing, and even finger coordination.
Find out about upcoming wilderness programs and visit Karen’s blog at BC Wilderness Visions. For information about her Yoga for the Office class, visit her website, http://www.karenrempel.com.
Readers can see great meeting photos posted at the Coast Lines Gallery, courtesy of our photographer, Marika Piehler.
Also at the meeting, Astarte Sands, an outreach worker from MOSAIC presented a short talk on “Workplace Connections: Why mentors matter”. MOSAIC matches skilled immigrants with Canadian professionals who volunteer as mentors. The goal is to help newcomers adjust to workplace culture such as how to send resumes, why it’s important to proofread, and what kinds of interview questions to expect.
In turn, we can describe what it’s like working in a large city, and for different industries, and the job skills needed to make and maintain our own connections. Mentoring a newcomer is not meant to help the person find a job but rather help them navigate the process.
The winner of the conference registration prize goes to Helen Glavina to attend the Conference for Software User Assistance, courtesy of Joe Welinske of WritersUA. The event takes place in Seattle from March 21-24 and features more than 80 topics about software user assistance. The value of the registration is over $1000.
