AWI President's Newsletters

              Wasn't that a party! I hope everyone who
was fortunate enough to attend the
Famous Five Celebrations enjoyed the
festivities as much as I did. Lucky for me,
I actually met and chatted with Adrienne
Clarkson at the Governor General's
Reception. Martha Bielish was my
companion that morning when we had the
opportunity to meet Her Excellency and
visit briefly with her. A charming lady
indeed! Take a look at Nancy Millar's
new book - The Famous Five - Emily
Murphy arte the Case of the Missing
Persons. If you are having trouble finding
it in your area, let us know and we will
attempt to obtain copies for the office.
Membership Dues:
Once again that time of year has arrived
when branches are assessed membership
dues. When Alberta Women's Institutes
was in the early stages of existence as an
organization, money was needed by new
branches to " start- up". Branches were
allowed to keep their membership dues as
operating money for the first year of
operation. Membership dues were
collected annually for each person who
was a member the preceding year. The
intent was that when and if a branch
folded, they would of course forward the
membership dues owing the year in which
they ceased to be active. However, this
does not usually happen. Branches fold
and forget they owe membership dues for
the previous year. Collection of dues has
always caused a great deal of confusion
for treasurers, and been the most asked
question of the office how many
memberships do we pay for?
Council passed a motion at the September
meeting to change the wording of our
policy to collect dues for the current
number of members in January of each
year. Therefore in January 2000, brances
will forward the new membership dues of
$ 20 for each member enrolled in your
branch at that time. I encourage each
member to also purchase their subscription
to the Home and Country, as it is still the
best source of information we have.
FWIC Convention 2000
A reminder to check your mailout for
information on how you can obtain a
registration for the Brandon Convention.
Each province has been asked to donate
$ 200 in good quality crafts as a money-making
venture. If you would like to
contribute, please bring or send your craft
( priced of course!) to the Convention in
June and those who are attending the
Brandon Convention will take them.
All FWIC competition items should be
forwarded to the office by January 10* to
allow time for pre- judging before being sent
to FWIC for entrance into the various
categories-
Changes To Creative Writing
Competition!
Council has approved a change to the
categories of the Creative Writing
Competition. The non- fiction category
will now have three ( 3) sub- categories -
Memoir, Essay and Travel Story. We
hope that this will give you added
opportunity to share your talents. As well,
prizes in this competition have been raised
to $ 25, $ 15 and $ 10 for first, second and
third placing. The Provincial Handicraft
Award will receive the same amount of
money. The winners of the 12 designated
handicraft awards will receive an award of
$ 25 for their prize. The decision to raise
the award amounts was unanimously
agreed on by council in an effort to
recognize the efforts of the membership in
supporting our competitions and to
recognize the talent that abounds in our
organization.
Obituaries for August to September
will be published in the
October issue of Home
and Country
New Members for January to December
will be published in the
February issue of Home
and Country