True North Drafting has submitted an application to the GCA. Zana Gordon will be taking our application to the next board meeting in Early November. I hope all of you members will welcome us with open arms! If you haven’t been to the GCA’s website lately, there have been great improvements since the last time I visited. Check it out here: http://www.gca-bc.org/

True North Drafting was recently involved in a case study with Microsoft. Our phone system that we recently upgraded to is powered by Microsoft, so naturally a small business like TND was a perfect canditate for a case study. The whole thing can be viewed on Microsoft’s web site here: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002853

Well I finally got my new Samsung Instinct and what a disappointment. It turns out that Bell has “locked out” a lot of the features that us Canadians would find useful. If you’re looking at this phone for your business use you should be aware of the following items:

You cannot use a pop3 e-mail account with this phone. Your only e-mail option is with Hotmail, very frustrating! You can also forget about receiving pictures by e-mail, that has also been disabled with Bell. Playing mp3s can only be done if you actually BUY the songs from Bell, that’s right – even if you copy your own mp3s onto the memory card, this phone will not play them! Thanks Bell and welcome to 2008!

I purchased this phone with the impression that the above items were possible, boy did I get suckered in by some uneducated sales people. I am currently in the process of getting an e-mail over to Mr. Matthew Summers at the Bell store at Lougheed Mall, I am hoping he will see the error in his staff’s ways and allow me to return this phone and maybe even cancel the contract. I will post a follow up to this dilemma when I hear back from Bell.  

By the way, my new cell number is 604-345-8783 (for now). – Kelly

I have had several clients ask me if I have any knowledge of outsourcing shop drawings to India. Although my answer is no, I think it’s time to try a little experiment for fun. This week I am going to actually send a set of architectural drawings to India (electronically of course) and have them prepare an actual set of shop drawings for me. I will choose a smaller project like a Starbucks or McDonalds and see how they do with them. Upon completion I will post the drawings for all of you to see.

Well after almost a year of working on drawings, our work is now complete on the 61 storey Shangri-La project located at 1128 West Georgia in Vancouver, BC. The 119-room hotel will occupy the first fifteen floors of a new 61 story landmark building, making it the tallest in Vancouver. TND worked with Dave Husson of DH Glass Solutions to produce shop drawings for multiple areas of the building that included hand rails, showers, steam showers, lounge glazing, canopies and many other unique glass applications. The hotel is scheduled to open in January 2009.

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/vancouver/shangrila

It seems that everyone is getting on board with the new Taper-Loc glazing system that was recently introduced by CR Laurence. About 4 of the last 5 sets of handrail drawings that TND has prepared has used this new system that eliminates the need for messy expansion cement and apparently reduces installation time by 50%. The system is designed to work with 1/2″ or 3/4″ glass and meets all building code requirements. Click the link below for some informative videos on this new system.

http://www.crlaurence.com/Adv/TaperLoc/video.html

Well we finally did it, after 13 years of answering each other’s calls and screaming “RYAN, LINE 2 !” as loud as we could across the office, we broke down and invested in a new phone system. Our new Response Point system comes complete with a virtual operator that allows callers to simply say the name of the person (or department) that they want to speak to. Messages are e-mailed to our computers and even forwarded to our cell phones if desired. We would love to get some feedback from our customers on this new phone system, so please feel free to comment. A special thanks to my good bud Erik Lagerway over at www.Lypp.com for getting this system up and running for us, after using it now for a couple of months I don’t know how we functioned efficiently without it.

True North would like to welcome our new controller, Elayna Christensen. Elayna will now be handling all financial matters at TND. Her 14 years experience with the city of burnaby combined with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria will bring a fresh outlook to our organization.

True North Drafting recently completed the shop drawings for the “Peak 2 Peak” gondola base stations at Whistler/Blackcomb. This is one of the most exciting and publicized projects that TND has been involved with. Randy Goodwin (owner of Whistler Glass) had to overcome many unprecedented challenges that included driving up and down Whistler Mountain on a daily basis in a pick-up truck, an experience that is far from the average commute to a job site. Randy also indicated that weather played a large role in this project, given the elevation and exposure to extereme winds. This new gondola ride spans 4.4km/2.73 miles and reaches a height of 436m/1,427ft above the valley floor below. We look forward to being there for the grand opening on December 12, 2008.

See more at the official Peak 2 Peak site: http://ww1.whistlerblackcomb.com/p2pg/

Visit Whistler Glass’ website here: www.whistlerglass.com

   Welcome to True North’s first “official” post. As owner of True North Drafting, I will attempt to keep this page updated with fresh, relevant and sometimes entertaining posts for all us in the glazing community.  I welcome your comments and input. – Kelly Wayne, Owner