New Resource Available!

Check out the Step by Step Guide to Importing that has just been added to our website!

This is a great free resource for Canadian Entrepreneurs.

Look under the Resources tab, or in our What's New section on the home page.

New Benefit for General Members!

All FITT certificate and diploma holders, who are also FITT General Members (this excludes Free Full-Time Students), now have access to Harvard Manage Mentor10, a professional development series offered in partnership with Harvard Business Publishing.

Harvard ManageMentor 10 is the most practical, engaging online resource for fostering management skills and applying them on the job immediately. Members gain access to action-oriented information on 42 key management topics, developed under the guidance of world-renowned experts, practitioners, and business leaders.

To take advantage of your new benefit today, log in to the members’ only section of our website and click on the Harvard ManageMentor tab. It’s as simple as that!

A Certificate of Achievement will be awarded to all members who have completed 21 modules. Contact Jennifer Bowman (jbowman@fitt.ca or 613.230.3553 ext. 108) today for more information on this exciting new benefit!

Chapters Gift Card Winners!

FITT would like to thank YOU - a valued member - for your continued support.

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, all members who renewed before November 7th were entered into a draw for a chance to win 1 of 12 Chapters gift cards. Here are the lucky winners:

• Larraine Adrain, CITP, Agricom International Incorporated, Coquitlam, BC
• Lisa Di Michele, CITP, Al-Ti Express, Candiac, QC
• Carmen Elizabeth Kimlin, CITP, JP Morgan Chase Global Trade Services, Burlington, ON
• Vincent Taddeo, CITP Cavendish Farms, Dieppe, NB
• Sherilyn Acorn-Leclair, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI
• Eric Maag, Northern Ontario Trade Initiative, Timmins, ON
• Chris Maxwell-Smith, C-Max and Associates, Mississauga, ON
• Kamran Etessam-Yazdani, Unique Garnet Incorporated, North York, ON
• Serge Robinson Désir, ALSTOM Transportation Information and Security Incorporated, Saint Laurent, QC
• Paul MacCuish, Telus, Vancouver, BC
• Grant Titan Dalton, Full-time Student, Hamilton, ON
• Rafael Campos, Full-time Student, Vancouver, BC

We look forward to continuing to work on your behalf by helping you to acquire the information, support and knowledge you need to market your products and services around the world. We thank you in advance for renewing your membership and for your help in promoting the benefits of FITT to your colleagues and peers.

The World of Social Media

Last month we announced our latest venture into Social Media with the creation of our Facebook page & Flickr account. We have now added icons on FITT’s homepage for easy access to both, as well as an icon for our RSS feed. Click here to be redirected to our homepage now.

We are currently working on creating a FITT group on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. Through your network you can:

• Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Search for great jobs
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings
• Find high-quality passive candidates
• Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

We will be updating the LinkedIn group page regularly with news and information on FITT – including events, announcements, and general points of interest. If you have something to share or would like to learn more about FITT and our friends, please drop by.

We hope to see you there!

Reminder: Pro-Rated Membership Fee Schedule!

On June 1, 2007 FITT implemented a Pro-Rated Membership Fee Schedule and introduced the FITT Membership Year (September 1st to August 31st).

Renewing FITT members, according to the implementation schedule, in 2007-2008 would have seen their renewal date adjusted to either May 31, 2008 or August 31, 2008 based on their original date joined.

New FITT members would have paid a pro-rated membership fee (according to the fee schedule below) and would have an expiry date of either August 31, 2008 or August 31, 2009 [depending on the month joined].

The purpose of the above-mentioned procedures is to align all FITT members on a common renewal date (on cycle with the FITT Membership Year). The process of coordinating this change will take until August 31, 2009, and we ask for a bit of patience while we finalize our latest membership updates.

All FITT Members now have an expiry date of August 31, 2009.

Please click here to view the FITT Membership Fee schedule.Reminder: Pro-Rated Membership Fee Schedule!

If you have any specific questions regarding your own personal membership file, or any general questions regarding the FITT Membership Year or common-renewal date schedule, please contact FITT Membership directly at jbowman@fitt.ca or 800.561.3488 ext. 108.

Conference Draw Winners!

With the Holiday Season looming, FITT has gotten in the giving mood a little early.

We would like to congratulate the following community members for winning our draws at the Canada Trade Sumit in Saskatoon, SK, and I.E.Canada Conference in Toronto, ON:

Sid Friesen, of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, and
H. Ruth Snowden, from the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association Inc.

Both participants will be receiving two books, Get Smarter, by Seymour Schulich and Who’s Your City, by Richard Florida.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booths and we hope to see you at the next event!

FITT Members' Forum - Call for Topics

Over the next few weeks, we will be mapping out topics for our monthly Members' Forum.

Are there issues or topics that you would like to see highlighted? Or, do you have a great resource or article that you'd like to share with your community?

Let us know your thoughts!

You can log-on to our Facebook Page or Discussion Forum to voice your opinion, or send us an email at: marketing@fitt.ca

FITT Flickr Account - Come and See Who We Are!

With our CITPs, students, and members working throughout the world, it’s time for a face-to-face!

FITT would like to invite all of our friends and members to participate in our new Flickr group. A collaborative tool for photo sharing, the FITT Flickr album is a central location for images related to FITT, our regional events, classrooms, conferences, and more.

If you have participated in FITT events in the past, or if you’d like to get more involved in our programs, we encourage you to visit the site. There, you’ll find a collective photo album, commentary, and an interactive discussion board.

Whether you have a Flickr account or not, simply click the following link to browse through our album: http://www.flickr.com/groups/fitt

If you are a member, log-in and join our group to contribute your own photos or participate in discussions.

We hope to see you there!