Page 5 West Vancouver Historical Society January 2005 Brenda Wicking’s Speech on West Van High’s First Annual Brenda Joan Wicking (later Corkill) was the main force behind the production of West Van High’s first annual in 1935. She was at the top of her class from start to finish. She did Grade one at Altamont School, and finished at Inglewood in 1938. She was fifteen or sixteen when she prepared the following speech, delivering it from memory: Mr. Chairman, Honourable Judges, Ladies and Gentlemen: The topic I have chosen to speak on this evening is one I am very familiar with. It is the Production of an Annual. I wish now to outline the work that is connected with it. In the production of our annual, the position of business manager has gained me excellent experience. The first business accomplished was the election of an Investigative Committee, who justified their name and submitted a report of the approximate cost of publishing an Annual. We mimeographed letters to send to the leading printing firms of Vancouver and this municipality. Estimations for the printing job were received just before Christmas. Meanwhile, committees were organized to canvass certain merchants and firms to obtain advertisements to defray the expenses. All members of these committees were thoroughly instructed, examined and tried, before they started out on their campaign. Even a rehearsal was held, each person demonstrating the manner in which he thought best to address “hard-boiled business menâ€. During the Christmas holidays, the committee started work. As I was one of the Vancouver campaigners, I am going to give you one or two examples of the reception we received. The first we called told us that we would have to get permission from the Board of Trade before we could collect an ad. from the firm. After signing up a long form with numerous questions to answer of this firm, and after having to wait about two weeks for a reply, we finally obtained an order for a $4.00 advertisement. At one firm the Editor-in-Chief visited, the manager explained that at the beginning of 1934, they put aside so much money for advertising for the following two years, and that they had spent that amount by now. Would she care to come back in 1936? I had to go to the seventh floor of a building to call upon one business man. Upon opening the door of his office, I beheld three men, obviously celebrating the Chidstmas season by having a littleâ€"tea party! One man skipped nimbly into the next room, one tried to hide behind a cupboard, while another one came forward rather .sheepishly to greet me. No! the manager was out; and would I call again? To make matters worse, the weather was cold and snowy. Soon after this, the Executive chose the Annual Board, and work began. Every editor started out enthusiastically collecting poems, stories, jokes, etc. The personals were written during composition periods under the supervision of Mr. Lane. These were handed over to the editors to read and re-read, correct, and re-write. Each article that was submitted had to be written out again on one side of the paper only. Every sheet was pasted on to drawing paper of a standard size. Almost every study period during this time was spent by different editors in the Annual room, which was the official meeting place and work-room of the Board. As the write-ups were completed, they were read and corrected by Mr. Lane. Numerous articles were submitted, but because we could not use all of these, they were sorted according to merit. The best were marked with three stars, the poorer ones with two stars, and so on. The material was gathered in a remarkably short time, and was mounted, ready for a stenographer to type. In planning out the magazine, page by page, the number of lines of printing matter per inch was figured; the total lines per page; and even every word in an article was counted. It was a common sight to see some editor pursuing a student to inquire about the latest news of his write-up. The Literary Editor, with papers in her hand, absently exclaimed, “Where is that story? It was here a minute ago!†Those of you who have seen our Annual will have noticed many illustrations in black & white. These were all made by Grade 8 students. Shortly after the Annual was begun, a lino-cutting club was organized, and the excellent lino-cuts inserted into the book were made by the members. The printers received the cuts, all ready for the press, as the pupils had mounted them upon wooden blocks, type-height. During Education Week, the Annual Board held a general meeting, at which many parents and visitors were present. Each member of the Board gave a report, while Miss Ray and myself told of our experiences with ad, collecting. To supply a wider choice in literary material, a limerick contest was started. Copies of the Grade 9 oral compositions were collected. We purchased some films to take profile pictures of each member of the staff. These were made into lino-cut illustrations. Numerous pictures were also taken of the (Concluded on Page 7)