PCWO 95th Annual General Meeting - April 2018

Report on the 2018 Provincial Council of Women of Ontario AGM

95th Annual Meeting – April 21, 2018 at Monte Carlo in Oakville, Ontario

Theme: Looking Beyond on the 95th Anniversary of the PCWO

I attended the annual meeting of PCWO at the Monte Carlo in Oakville for one day on Saturday, April 21. Last year I attended the PCWO AGM with our TACW secretary Eileen Lackie at the same venue, so it was comfortable to attend alone and be greeted by delegates I’ve met previous years. The PCWO has a new president this year, Edeltraud Neal, and Mary Potter is now past president. There were about 17 delegates and guests which included the 11 members on the Board and four Local councils of woman: Ottawa, Toronto and area, London and area, and Niagara District. As well, the provincially organized societies that were present included the Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario (FWIO); Ontario Home Economics Association (OHEA); and the Business and Professional Women’s Clubs of Ontario (BPWOntario).

President Edeltraud Neal called the meeting to order and the business of the morning proceeded. After the minutes, the treasurer gave her report and the Presidents and Vice Presidents of Economics, Resolutions, Seniors’ Issues, Status of Women and others followed. Our TACW annual report was included in the PCWO annual reports of which I have a copy for our members.

An interesting panel discussion on the theme “Finding Opportunities in Changing Times” took place after the break for coffee and was aptly led by Catherine Bulter of PCWO, VP Status of Women. The panelists were Sarah Bingham from Kitchener and Alberta Johnson, who is the past president of the Provincial Council of Women of Manitoba (PCWM) and she just completed studies in Public Administration at Ryerson University. They both talked about the need for advocacy groups and mentoring for younger women to carry on in what seems to be a time of chaos.

As is true for many groups, there are no umbrella groups such as in the National, Provincial and Local Councils of Women to help organize the individual groups, which all compete for membership. But the panelists agreed women are good organizers and do get together for good causes. Sarah works as an adviser on business structuring and how to first decide who will be your customers, how to serve them and how have a vision which will result in profit. She also has organized a hands-on teaching method for Sign Language for deaf people and she is executive director of the Women’s March of Canada, which started after the Women’s March in the United States after President Trump’s inaugural. This is the third generation of the feminist movement and the women now are working to solve today’s problems. It was an interesting discussion for delegates to join in.

After lunch, PCWO ratified changes to the Standing Rules. The afternoon was spent on the five resolutions in drafts and updates which council members had studied in their individual meetings. The final form will be presented to MPPs at the PCWO meeting at Queens Park in the fall. The afternoon closed with auction sales lead by Gracia Janes and a model helper to raise money for the PCWO with all the eclectic donations from delegates. In the evening we all enjoyed a well-prepared banquet in the Churchill Room at our hotel.

The guest speaker was Joyce Wayne, an author and blogger. She has many interests and though she was to talk about the new “un-retirement trend,” she changed the topic to a new trend in the world of politics and government by a seeming rejection of democracy and move to more authoritarianism. Joyce was an editor at Quill & Quire and the head of the journalism program at Sheridan College, where she founded the Sheridan Centre for Internationally Trained Individuals. Among her many talents she is a novelist and her second novel, recently published, is about Soviet spies operating in Ottawa during WWII titled “Last Night of the World.” She brought and sold the books and we were delighted to buy autographed copies.

Thank you to President Edeltraud Neal for a productive AGM and as a TACW member it was a privilege to attend.

Connie Zboch