Tuesday 15 April 2008

Nat Press Club

The majority of press clubs in Canada have downsized or bolted their doors since the 1990s, but not the National Press Club of Canada.

The National Press Club in Ottawa turns 80 this year with a new location, a new membership drive and 14 newly elected board of directors.

"After some very difficult years, the National Press Club was saved through the efforts of many but particularly through the commitment of Tim Kane, Rosaleen Dickson, Ed Murad and Spencer Moore," Rennie MacKenzie, incoming president, said yesterday.

Tim Kane, outgoing president, says in a CNW Group press release: "The goodwill toward this Canadian institution is strong. We have a membership that now exceeds 100 persons, there is money in the bank and a great new location in downtown Ottawa."

The press club's web site tells the history of the club,

"It all started in January of 1928, when two young reporters, Francis Rowse of the Ottawa Journal and Guy Rhoades of the Ottawa Citizen, were drinking coffee in a Sparks Street lunchroom," says the site.

"They mused over the lack of any place in town to meet after work, a place for fellow journalists to rendezvous and talk shop. What Ottawa needed, they felt, was a club for newspapermen."

And the rest is history.

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