1939 - Convention Report

              20 A L B E R T A WOMEN'S INSTITUTES
Body and duly affiliated Branches, one essential of affiliation being the pay­ment
of yearly dues. At stated intervals election of Provincial Officers must
take place. The Branches are organized with certain objects in view, only one
of which is community service; the other equally important being the study
of home economics, public health, agriculture, the holding of short courses,
etc., and the uplift of social life in rural and other communities.
But we have obscured this fine simplicity with other issues. There is,
you will notice, no mention of a Constituency Organization in either the
Statute or the A. W. I, constitution. This smaller organization, though a non­essential,
was continued after 1929 because it was felt that more women
could attend the Constituency Conferences than the Provincial Conventions.
You may think too that the Constituencies are self- supporting. They are
not entirely so. Most of the Provincial President's expense allowance goes
in visiting Conferences, and every year the Directors travel hundreds of miles
on the same errand at Provincial expense. It may surprise you to know that
in a two- year term it costs the Council about $ 1,300.00 to send these officers
to Constituency Conferences.
Then two of the Districts decided to hold District Conferences, self-supporting
too, it would seem. But they would like the Provincial President
or her deputy to attend, and that is another small item of expense.
In order to have a good representation at Provincial Conventions the
system of paying the transportation fares of delegates was adopted— a very
fine and equitable arrangement, if the branches are willing to pay dues for
this purpose.
With an eye to its future membership, the Alberta Women's Institutes
decided to help the W. I. Girls' Clubs to the extent of $ 150.00 with an eye to
national unity, they also pay $ 150.00 a year for affiliation with the Federated
Women's Institutes of Canada.
These are a few of the non- fundamentals for which we pay every year.
I have not included literature, stationery, office expenses, Convention
expenses, for these are essential to any organization.
The sum of $ 1.00 which is the present membership fee was not set
arbitrarily by the Council but at a Convention of delegates after they had
considered what they wished to pay for. If they should want to pay less,
they will have to indicate what services or expenses they wish to curtail.
When a Branch writes that it is disbanding because it wishes to use all its
money locally, there is really no argument. These women have become a
community organization of some kind and dissociated themselves from the
name " Women's Institute." When a Branch cannot or will not pay, it is
defaulting and allowing the other Institutes to shoulder the financial burden.
If it is genuinely suffering from hard times, the Council has sent question­naires,
which, upon examination, have resulted in adjustments for a number
of Branches.
I do not think I encroach on the Treasurer's report when I say that this
Council has counted every penny in its efforts to make ends meet. When we
took office, after the 1937 Convention was paid for, there was a little over
$ 800.00 in the treasury with an immediate expenditure in sight of $ 1,100.00
( of which $ 400.00 was F. W. I. C. arrears). The current account was so low
that it was impossible to send Mrs. Thompson as Provincial Delegate to the
F. W. I. C. Convention at Toronto, and she was very gracious about accepting
this situation. Office supplies of all kinds were at a low ebb, and until the
next year's dues came in very careful planning had to be done. We would
welcome a resolution which would discuss the general policy at this time.