CANADA: The delegates of IMF affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) from the U.S. and Canada met recently in Vancouver to discuss how communications will develop in the future. The delegates, including local and district communicators, educators and web stewards, spoke about the ways their union could manage to get on the forefront of 21^st century communications.

The speakers at the forum were IAM general vice president Rich Michalski as Chairperson of the Conference, IAM's Canadian general vice president Dave Ritchie, IAM general secretary-treasurer Warren Mart, and former Senator Hillary Clinton's Chief of Staff Tamera Luzzatto.

One of the most important events at the forum was the launch of a newly designed IAM website http://www.goiam.org/. The developers made the site more user-friendly and added new features including the possibility for visitors to leave their comments, rank and share stories. Interactive video is another innovation on the site. The IAMAW turned its electronic newsletter iMail into a blog. In addition, the site is updated with a new search system allowing the search by keywords known as 'tags'.

Staying on the forefront of new communication technologies the IAM launched its official Facebook and Twitter pages www.twitter.com/machinistsunion.

The IAM event proceeds the IMF-EMF Communicators' Forum, which is scheduled for November 17-18 and will be hosted by German IMF affiliate IG Metall in Frankfurt. For more details see our previous story.