The Story of the Alberta Women's Institute

              THE

STORY

OF

THE

ALBERTA

WOMEN'S

INSTITUTES

thirty-seven members; Lea Pa~k with thirty-~ight .members; Magrath with twenty-seven members; Pmcher Creek wIth t.hIrty members; Raymond with forty-five members; Verdant Valley wIth twenty members. Among those organized too late to qualify for the grant were Walsh. Taber, and Crossfield while others were contemplated. W". Handbook Drafted In the same year the first Women's Institute Handbook was drafted but not actually finished and printed until 1915 when the required membership was reduced from twenty to fifteen members. Plans were made for the establishment of a system of travelling libraries and a start was made on the loan collection of materials for preparing papers on a variety of subiects of particular interest to rural women. :vIiss Stiven resigned as Superintendent of Women's Institutes in 1914 and is now Mrs. H. G. MacDonald. of Edmonton. She was succeeded by Miss Mary MacIsaac. Events Lead to First W". Convention In January 1915 the Women's Institutes then in existence in Alberta were invited to send delegates to a convention of the United Farmers of Alberta to be held in Edmonton. The invitations were sent out by the secretary of that organization. When the delegates arrived in Edmonton they found the convention planned to draw up a constitution for the United Farm Women of Alberta and to elect a Provincial Board for this new body. Some of the delegates felt that the province was too young to support two rural women's organizations so nearly similar as the W.L and the U.F.W.A. were at that time and requested that the constitution be made broad enough to include not only farm women but also women living in the hamlets. villages, and towns, so that one strong organization would result. This precipitated a discussion which ended in the adoption of a resolution which required one to be the wife or the daughter of a farmer in order to belong to the organization to be known as the United Farm Women of Alberta. This meant that the women in the small towns, villages. and hamlets were left out and a number of them felt that the convention held nothing further for them and left the meeting. Among these \vas Mrs. D. R. McIvor of Cowley who had been a charter member of the Lion's Head W.I. in Ontario prior to coming west in 1906 and who later occupied a number of important offices in the Alberta Women's Institutes. She, along with two other ladies interviewed the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. Duncan Marshall and asked him if a Women's Institute convention could be arranged. As a Seeds and Fairs Convention was scheduled to be held in Olds in March it was suggested that the W.I. Convention be held there at the same time. The matter of expense to the institutes was such a vital one that Mrs. McIvor suggested that the government pay the railway fare to the convention of one delegate from each institute. After a pause the minister said, "I will see what can be done". And so it came about that not only were -8-