HISTORY OF THE CROSS TRAIL NEWS
The inaugural issue of the Cross Trail News – Vol. 1 No. 1 and then known as the “W.D.A. [Western Dance Association] News” – was published in April 1954 with four half letter-size commercially printed pages. Pictured here is the front page of the W.D.A. News Vol. 1 No. 3 of December 1954. Beginning with Vol. 2 No. 1 in September 1955 the title changed to “Cross Trail News” with the same four page format. Over the years the number of pages increased and several printing methods and page sizes were used, including a period of time with a Gestetner or mimeograph machine. Production switched from paste-up to desktop publishing software in 2006.
Publication has continued regularly since 1954. There were short gaps between editors in the 1950s and early 1960s. The only significant break was for one full dance season (five issues) – September-October-November 2020 to June-July-August 2021 – due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown of square and round dancing. Special Anniversary Editions were published in May 1978 (25 years), October 1993 (40 years), May 2004 (50 years – pictured), and November-December 2014 (60 years – supplement).
The printed magazine was mailed to dancers belonging to the Cross Trail News member clubs in BCSRDF Region 1 (Lower Vancouver Island) and Region 8 (Upper Vancouver Island) and to non-club member subscribers and other readers.
From 1971 to the June-July-August 2019 issue the printer for the Cross Trail News was Bayside Press (Victoria Speedi-Copy Ltd.). In the summer of 2019 Foto Print (Fotoprint Ltd.) acquired Bayside Press and became our printer from the September-October-November 2019 issue until the June-July-August 2024 issue. The publication format was a half-letter size stapled booklet with the number of pages per issue ranging from 32 to 72. The now-discontinued print edition of the Cross Trail News was ISSN 0319-8561.
For the 2023-2024 dance season a pdf version of the half-letter size print booklet (reformatted to letter size pages and with personal information redacted) was published on the BCSRDF Region 1 (Lower Vancouver Island) website with a link on the Region 8 (Upper Vancouver Island) website. Starting with the September-October-November 2024 issue the print edition of the Cross Trail News was replaced with an online edition that is published five times each dance season on these same two websites. The format is a pdf file with letter size pages. The online edition of the Cross Trail News is ISSN 2818-713X.
Cross Trail News Editors
April 1954 – Unknown
November 1954 to May 1956 – Don McLeod
December 1956 to October 1960 – Dawn Draper
January 1961 to June 1962 – John Fairweather
October 1962 to May 1963 – Dai & Win McLeod
September 1963 to April 1980 – Ted Sparshatt (deceased 1980)
May 1980 – Gladys Sparshatt (interim)
September 1980 to November 2003 – Ken Middleton (deceased 2003)
December 2003 to May 2015 – Vic Marshall (retired 2015)
Since September 2015 – Alex Wotherspoon
