PCWO 94th Semi-Annual General Meeting - April 2017

Report of the 94th Annual General Meeting of the Provincial Council of Women of Ontario

April 22, 2017

Two members of the TACW attended the above Annual Meeting at the Monte Carlos Inn in Oakville, Ontario. Eileen Lackie came as an observer and I was our council’s representative. We had a lovely ride out from Scarborough on a sunny morning and were part of fifteen delegates to meet for breakfast and registration and the “Call to Order” by Mary Potter, president of the PCWO.

The business of the meeting followed with approval of the Agenda, Treasurer’s Report, Nomination Report, approval of the minutes from the 2016 Semi-Annual Meeting at Queen’s Park and other reports by the president, Vice-Presidents and local councils. Gracia Janes, VP Environment, reported on the transport of dangerous high-level liquid nuclear waste shipped 2000 miles from Chalk River to South Carolina.

Since TACW has an annual report in the PCWO Annual Report 2016-2017, I only spoke in memorium of the passing of our dear member Sister Sheila McAuliffe who was also a member of the PCWO and many remembered her.

The theme for this conference was: 100th Anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in Ontario. To carry this theme, Mary Potter bought a two-part film from the NFB called “Women on the March.” She will lend this film on request. We viewed the film mid morning, followed by a discussion. The film, narrated by Pierre Berton, had old footage of the suffragette movement in Canada from 1918. There was a great deal of film from England of the early suffragettes in the 19th century to the 1960s. We as women today owe a lot to these pioneers.

In the afternoon we discussed the Resolutions which TACW had reviewed in our March meeting. Only one resolution was defeated: Satisfaction of Long Term Care Homes. Delegates felt it may not help a long-term care home to have funding cut if the residents, family and staff were not satisfied, but other options should be tried.

Margaret Byl from the Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario spoke on the Women’s Institute 100th year (2017) scholarship. Canada is part of over 900 Women/Country Women of the World that promote agriculture. This year at Canada’s 150th anniversary the Kitchener/Waterloo Museum will hold one exhibit in June on these clubs.

Another federate member, Cailin Whincop of the Ontario Home Economics Association, is a VP Public Policy since PHEA is a membership based organization that regulates Professional Home Economist designation (P.H.Ec.). Part of her work is with Girls Inc. in Durham. Her mission statement is teaching and advocacy to girls 6-18 in the curriculum-based computer programming that Girls Inc. provides. The programs are in school and after school, during March Break and a camp. Another program, Food 4 Thought, provides support and food for young mothers.

I’m submitting to the TACW all the papers from the meeting and urge members to read them.

At 4:00 pm we had a fun auction and super sales, so with the provincial delegates we bought and bought to add a few hundred dollars to the fund.

At night we had a meet & greet time and dinner, then the installation of the new Board. Out guest speaker was Margaret Blair, author and member of the Oakville Study Group and whom our TACW members have met. She wrote two books about her childhood in China and as part of the British delegation during WWII. She showed slides of the publicity her books received in the U.S. which were very interesting.

Thank you,

Connie Zboch