1928 - Annual Convention

              F O U R T E E N T H A N N U A L C O N V E N T I ON 45
REPORT OF PUBLICITY SECRETARY
( Mrs. J . F . Price, Calgary)
I f any writer you know had told you that for the last ten years he or
she had been turning out two books a year, an average length of 50,000
words each, you would realize at once that at least he or she had not been
idle. That is a conservative estimate of the work of your publicity secretary,
i f she had just written for the one paper— the A l b e r t a Farmer or Calgary
H e r a l d Weekly— twenty books on W. I. work. But that is only one paper,
f o r two- thirds of this material has been supplied weekly to two other papers
— copy concerning the north to the Edmonton Journal Weekly or Alberta
F a r m J o u r n a l , and copy dealing w i t h the south i n the Lethbridge Herald.
Rain or shine, sickness or health, the reports that come i n f r om over two
hundred branches must be filed according to their district, then read care­f
u l l y , news items culled and typed in four copies, three sent regularly fifty-two
times a year to three papers. Then there are the magazines— the West­erner,
that receives copy regularly for its bi- monthly issues; the Western
Home Monthly, that gives us a turn of four provinces, which means material
for about four issues each year; other Canadian agricultural and W. I. maga­zines,
which take our special stories when they " break"— I refer to the Mari­time
Farmer, the Quebec syndicate ( some five or six publications), the B . C .
A g r i c u l t u r a l Journal, and Home and Country of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia. The copy of the forty- two constituency conferences has to be gone
over, re- typed in duplicate or triplicate form— the north to the north, the
south to the south. Also I have personally reported two district conferences,
one at Lethbridge and one at Stettler.
The papers, or at least the daily papers, pay for this, the regular income
being $ 47.50 per month. This finances the publicity department. From
this also is bought all supplies of paper and envelopes, carbon paper, and
stamps. There is also the wear and tear on a typewriter. I am now on my
t h i r d machine, a second- hand one, and two new ones i n ten years.
I am glad to announce that the F a r m and Ranch Review intends to carry
one column per issue, or two columns of our news per month, i n its woman's
department, of which Mrs. Annie Genge Larbalistier is now editor. Mrs.
L a r b a l i s t i e r is a veteran member of the W. I. too.
A g a i n let me say there are only two things I expect from the local W . I .,
f r om the person who does your publicity, usually the secretary: ( 1) Get the
report of the meeting to me as soon as possible, preferably the evening of
the day of the meeting; ( 2) i f there is a local paper, get the account i n the
next issue. If you are a constituency publicity convener, get a report of
the constituency conference to me as soon as possible.
D u r i n g this season do not become impatient if branch news does not
appear, for every available bit of space is taken up with the conferences.
I f you send copy and follow the publicity " do's and don'ts," a copy of
which should be in the possession of every W. I. and passed on with the
minute book, and you do not see the news of your reports, complain. I
can always trace the trouble and give you a copy of what news has appeared.
1 welcome complaints. It shows interest, and invariably it gets me i n direct
touch with the person responsible for sending it.
Recently I was very much impressed by the statement of a prominent
A l b e r t a educationalist, who had been born and educated in O n t a r i o : " I am
so sorry for the children of the west," she said. " They so lack the tradition
of environment. In the east almost every tree or landmark has some his­t
o r i c a l significance." That is true. But we have our landmarks, too, only
our children do not know them. What organization, situated as it is i n every
corner of the province, can remedy this situation better than the Women's
Institutes? Scour your neighborhood for these places before it is too late.
The old timers w i l l tell you. Don't let your community do away with the
f i r s t house. Preserve the remnants of the old forts. You i n the south
f o l l ow the line of the first famous march of the North- West Mounted Police.
Y o u i n the north follow MacKenzie's t r a i l . Already old F o r t Edmonton has
been torn down. The historic spruce on the Peace H i l l near Wetaskiwin
has been cut down. Let me read you this poem w r i t t e n by a Calgary woman,
H i l d a Walker Davies, an old timer of Wetaskiwin: