Sunday 19 May, 2013

PAL Canada® is looking for a new Executive Director and welcomes potential candidates to apply.


Please click here to obtain a copy of the job description.


CALL FOR NOMINATIONS TO PAL CANADA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PAL CANADA is looking for several persons who want to make a positive difference in the lives of seniors who work (or have worked) in the professional performing arts. At our Annual General Meeting on June 24th, 2013 we shall be electing our new Board of Directors.  We strive to build a strong and effective board by ensuring that it is comprised of a broad and diversified base of talented and skilled people. Our Board will be made up of 10 persons elected at-large from across Canada as well as representatives from the 8 PAL Chapters in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto, Stratford, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, and ex-officio representation from the professional associations and performing arts unions who founded PAL Canada® in the 1990’s.

This year there will be at least 6 vacant seats to be filled.  We have a particular need right now for candidates with backgrounds in the legal and communications professions and, as always, candidates with a knowledge of fund raising and accessing governments.  As well, we are most interested in hearing from potential candidates in Saskatchewan, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador

The Board meets 6 times a year in Toronto, with members from other parts of Canada connected by conference call.  Meetings last approximately 2 hours.  Each member of the Board is expected to be actively involved with the activities of at least one of the Board committees.  All Board members need to become current members of PAL Canada® if they are not already.

Our Board members are passionate about the performing arts—the people who devote their lives to creating Canadian live performance, and to our mission:  Taking Care of Our Own.  Previous experience as a board member for a non-profit organization is an asset, as is experience in business or other professions.

If you are interested in being considered by the Nominations Committee, please contact  Allan Macmillan, Secretary at macmillan22@gmail.com at your earliest convenience.  Note also the final date of May 10, 2013 for receipt of formal submissions of nomination for election to the Board in the Notice of Elections below, as well as the mailing address.

 

NOTICE OF ELECTIONS: BOARD OF DIRECTORS, PAL CANADA FOUNDATION

The By-laws of PAL Canada® Foundation currently make provision for 10 Members-at-Large to be elected to its Board of Directors by the membership. The term of office is for two years from the date of the Annual General Meeting which, this year, will be held on June 24. The terms of all current members of the Board who are Members-at-Large will expire at the 2013 Annual General Meeting.  Four of the incumbents have indicated their willingness to stand for a further term.

There are, therefore, at least six seats to be filled.  If, by the deadline for nominations there are more nominations received than seats available, there will be an election and nominees will be advised as to the election procedures.

We encourage any member in good standing who would like to become a candidate for a seat on the Board of Directors to submit a nomination. If you are not currently a member in good standing and would like to be eligible for nomination, please contact the PAL Canada® office to make the necessary membership arrangements. The nomination will bear the signatures of two other paid up members of PAL Canada®, as well as that of the nominee indicating a willingness to serve. The inclusion of a brief biography of the nominee would be helpful, but it is not an absolute requirement at this point.

Nominations should be directed to the Secretary, PAL Canada® Foundation Inc., 110 The Esplanade. Suite 333, Toronto, ON, M5E 1X9 and must be received no later than May 10, 2013.

 

 

Base tan does not protect from skin cancer risk: studies

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Lesley Ciarula Taylor, Toronto Star

There is no such thing as a safe tan regardless of how dark-skinned you are and tanning beds breed their own cancer, two comprehensive new studies report.

“One big misconception was that you could get a light tan, a base tan, and then feel protected. These are myths, they just aren’t real,” said Dr. Edward DeFabo of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

The second study, by European cancer researchers, revealed 3,438 cases of skin cancer were caused specifically by sunbed use, with each exposure jacking up the risk to fully double if the tanner was under 35.

DeFabo and other scientists proved that UVA rays, which are particularly intense from tanning salon lamps, acting on skin pigment create a lethal combination that exploded into skin cancer.

“I didn’t believe it when I first saw it,” DeFabo told the Star. “We believed pigment protected us.”

And so scientists spent another year testing and verifying their results.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, reveal that skin pigment, melanin, is the key factor in triggering the genetic damage that leads to malignant melanoma when exposed to UVA rays.

“UVB is still the major player in melanoma. UVA plus melanin not far behind,” DeFabo said.

“There is an enormous amount of UVA coming out of tanning lamps.”

In fact, dark skin pigment produced spontaneous UVA melanomas that even rare albino skin did not, he said. Albino skin was still susceptible to UVB melanomas.

The European analysis of 27 skin cancers studies in 18 countries also found dark skin was not the absolute protection it was thought to be when using tanning beds.

To read the full article: http://www.thestar.com/healthzone/news%20&%20features/article/1233047--base-tan-does-not-protect-from-skin-cancer-risk-studies

UNDER THE DISTINGUISHED PATRONAGE OF
HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE DAVID JOHNSTON, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., GOVERNOR GENERAL OF CANADA