Developments leading to the establishment of a committee on distance education for Western Canadian universities are reported in proceedings of meetings, a steering committee report, and a proposal. An invitational meeting was held in April 1981 to consider: the state of the art on the use of electronic communications media, consortia arrangements within and among provinces, provincial mandates for distance education, and possibilities for cooperation/coordination in producing distance delivery courses. The proceedings of this meeting include: information on Telidon for distance education applications; a meeting schedule; information on the University of Calgary's new teleconferencing center; data on radio/television use at Athabasca University, 1974-1981; and summaries of distance education at the Universities of Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Lethbridge, Alberta, and Victoria. Also included are proceedings of a September 1981 meeting that considered a steering committee report concerning the establishment of a distance education consortium. Finally, a May 1982 proposal to establish a Western Canadian Committee on University Distance Education is presented. (SW)