Pine Lake History - 1956-1975

              Alberta Wis to stay independent
By DORIS HEARN
By a count of nearly three to one, delegates attending the Alberta Women's Institute
convention— meeting at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. June 3- 6— voted down a resoli
tion to ask for financial help from the A l b e r t a legislature to help maintain a provinci:
office
If passed, this resolution would have reversed a unique 40- year tradition of independent
Alone among provincial women's
institutes in Canada— and the As­sociation
of Homemakers Clubs in
Saskatchewan— the organization in
Alberta operates without govern­ment
help: grant, office space, cler­ical
or executive secretary contri­bution.
Up to now it has maintained its
province- wide organization for 60
years without a provincial office,
each succeeding secretary and/ or
president having to make room in
her own basement, attic or cup­boards
for current supplies and
decades of records.
At Edmonton the more than 300
delegates and visitors argued the
pros and cons of asking the Al­berta
government for help in fin­ancing
the badly needed office
space.
The long history of independence
was evident even in the arguments
of those in favor of asking for
help— make the appeal to the de­partment
of agriculture instead
of the provincial cabinet— ask only
for office space, not an outright
grant of money.
But after long discussion nearly
three- quarters of the delegates
voted to continue to " stand tall"
— to quote from one of native
women guests— and stand free
from any financial obligation to
anyone.
The AWI freely acknowledges
its educational debt to the exten­sion
department of the provincial
department of agriculture and to
the cabinet for its special grant
of $ 500 to send an AWI delegate
every three years to the Associated
Country Women of the World
conferences.
A total of $ 17,000 has already
been raised for the central office
fund and a resolution was passed
unanimously during the last ses­sion
of the convention directing
each of the AWI clubs to put on
special events during the next two
years to quadruple this amount by
the next biennial convention in
1971.
New order
At the 1967 biennial convention
the AWI executive was directed
to form a Structural Changes com­mittee
to study the streamlining
of the organization which is now
divided into over 200 branches, 34
constituencies and five districts.
These divisions were made when
more people were living on the
land and when railway lines
governed district divisions. The
highways have now taken over and
population has been concentrating
in certain areas. The recommenda­tion
now is that AWI be divided
into a number of areas, " greater
than the number of present dis­tricts
and fewer than the number
of constituencies" and that these
divisions be made after consulta­tion
with each branch and to be
decided according to convenience
of road travel.
The 1969 delegates instructed
the committee to continue its work
and be prepared to submit a plan
for the 1971 convention to con- •
sider. At present the districts vary
from three to nine constituencies
and the tatter by from three to 15
branches. The readjustment has
two main objects: 1) to reduce ex­penditures
by cutting down the
number of officers whose expenses
are paid to conventions; and 2)
to bring borderline isolated
branches into contact with more
branches to stimulate interest and
to spark projects. President Mrs.
Martha Bielish admitted that there
would be more work for some of
the area directors but that this
should be considered as a chal­lenge,
not a threat. " You are going
to open your arms a little wider
and embrace a few more friends,
she said.
Message from FWIC
Mrs. George Clarke of St. John's
Newfoundland, president of Fed­erated
Women's Institutes of Ca­nada,
began by complimenting
AWI on the lovely sunshine pro­vided,
admitting that real sunshine
is something of an event in her
home province.
She reviewed the history of
FWIC and the women's institute
movement from its beginnings in
1897 at Stoney Creek, Ont.. and now
worldwide. She listed the impor­tant
" firsts" marking the reigns
of recent FWIC presidents: the
first national convention; the idea
of buying the Hoodless homestead;
the constitution consolidation and
the ACWW stamp; the start of the
far north institutes in the Yukon
an/ t Morfhiuoft Torrilnrifli;' ihi »
stitute conference asked for three
things:
• that the AWI go on record
as being opposed to taxation on
farm dwellings;
• that school buildings and
facilities be made available free
or at a nominal charge for non­profit
oganizations within the com­munity;
• that all grade seven or eight
pupils be checked for color bliml-ness—
particularly boys— to help in
career choosing since nearly all of
the new electronics careers are
closed to color blind people.
~~ anje at6erta i
O F F I C I A L D E L E G AT
THIS IS TO CERTIFY
has been duly elected a delegate to the !
of the Alberta Women's Institutes at Edmontol
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Time out from the busy AWI convention at Edmonton for a little fresh
air and sunshine: left to right, Mrs. Joseph Bielish, Warsplte, retiring
president after four years in office; Mrs. George Clarke, St. John's,
Newfoundland, president of Federated Women's Institute of Canada,
guest speaker at the convention; Mrs. C. L . Alexander, Cayley, newly
elected AWI president; Mrs. Chester Oxtoby of Olds, AWI secretary.