Thanksgiving gives us a chance to reflect on all the things we are thankful for. At Velsoft we have so many — the wonderful roads around our palatial head office, having a coffee shop close by that takes debit, one bathroom, seamless integration of our global offices… 

 
But Velsoft is really made up of its people! That is what we are most thankful for. I thought this would be a time to reveal just one thing that we are thankful for about each Velsoftian (if your name does not appear below check with Sandra to see if you work here!)
 
We are thankful for:
  • Ian S’s uncanny ability to know when it’s 4:30 without aid of any timepiece.
  • Maria’s hands-on approach to her exercise routine.
  • Carol’s decision not to beg for her job back at the News after her first day here.
  • Keith’s youthful exuberance and naivete.
  • Brandon’s girlfriend- she has worked wonders!
  • Sandra’s willingness to bend HR rules for all of us.
  • Jean’s capacity to forget things we promised would be done for him.
  • Sydney’s ability to hide her animal side while at work.
  • Dylan’s emotional outbursts that remind us how close each of us is to the edge.
  • Jim’s skill to calm the creative storm that is Velsoft.
  • Bonnie’s singing and dancing lunchtime office performances.
  • Michael’s idolization of everything Dave.
  • Dave’s idolization of everything Michael.
  • John C’s steadying influence in the office.
  • Pablo’s capability to keep Jean in line.
  • Pete’s – what does Pete do?
  • Rachael’s wonderful gift of Wrike.
  • Simon’s gentle editing of Digital Marketing Course material.
  • Marty’s tremendous leadership of the sales staff in our Halifax office.
  • Luke and James F’s quite efficiency that sometimes make it seem they are not even in the office.
  • Ian T’s ability to criticize the work of any person at any time!
  • Nathan’s efficient running of our New Brunswick office- and not looking out the window all the time!
  • Pat’s ninja attitude.
  • Craig’s desire to always be at Head Office to maintain his sanity.
  • Other John’s tireless mentoring of so many of us.
  • Cindy’s ability to work through all her mood swings. 
  • Jordan’s supervision of Marty in the Halifax office.
  • James M’s not driving right by the office.
  • Matt’s – who’s Matt?
  • Skyler’s efforts to learn English from Dave.
  • Jan’s Monday morning coffee and treats.
What’s In the Pipeline:
  • Jan is working on our latest eLearning courses.
  • Keith is doing components for ESL and finishing up the Office 365 releases for Nov and Dec.
  • Carol is editing Digital Citizenship and working on the Writing for the Web Refresh.
  • Ian Smith is doing research for the refresh of our Softskills courses and eSport project
Tech topics:
  • Updated the course resource centre to allow for dynamic resources.
  • Work is in progress on several custom projects.
Course Count:
 
Here is the official count of courses for both courseware and eLearning, broken down by Computer and SoftSkills.
Computer
SoftSkills
Total Courses
Courseware
282
162
444
eLearning
863
162
1025
 
Did you know:
Indigenous peoples in North America began celebrating the fall harvest with a feast before the arrival of European settlers.
 
In 1578, Martin Frobisher and his crew became the first Europeans to celebrate Thanksgiving in North America.  This was 42 years before the Mayflower landed in the site of modern day Plymouth Massachusetts.
 
November 6, 1879 was the first official annual Thanksgiving in Canada although it wasn’t until 1957 that it became an official holiday. This is when the date for Thanksgiving was officially set for the second Monday of October.
 
Canadians ate 145.5 million kg of turkey in 2010, Dave ate 8.2 kg that year and slept for 2 and a half weeks!
 
Bonne Jour de l’action de grâce
Feliz dia de gracias
Quch thanksgiving
Furaha shukrani
Gelukkige Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
 
 
(kudos to those who can identify the languages that the above are written in- hint, the last one is English)