Overview of 118th Annual Meeting

Delegates at work

Our "leaders" from the working luncheon

The following is prepared by Marilyn McGonigal, on behalf of the Local Arrangements Committee - A good overview!

By all accounts the National Council of Women of Canada 118^th Annual General Meeting should not have been the huge success it turned out to be. Such meetings take a couple of years to properly organize; acceptable venues are hard to book on short notice; and finding sponsors and quality speakers available at the right times takes a lot of work and luck. In six months a talented, hard working committee of approximately 21 experienced members of the Councils of Women in Manitoba pulled it off.

Our LAC (Local Arrangements Committee) co-chaired by Monika Feist and Marilyn McGonigal, the then presidents of the Local and Provincial Councils of Women, gathered together the experts on hand to chair sub-committees for the Program, Venue, Finance/Budget, Registration, Fundraising/Sponsorship, Communications/Public Relations, Transportation/Billeting, Volunteers/Hospitality and Docket committees.

From November to May, the Committee met 17 times and came up with a Reception hosted by the Lieutenant Governor and his wife, three excellent programs with one lunch and two dinners plus two Saturday afternoon panels free to the public. Additional perquisites for our out-of-province delegates included a bus tour of the city, tours of the Hydro Building and the Museum of Human Rights, a trade show on Saturday with Made in Manitoba Products, a hospitality suite for the weary travellers and an interfaith service Sunday morning.

Two notable outcomes of this annual meeting were the launch of NCWC’s Common Program for the next two years on the subject, Women and Mental Health, and a unique Joint Declaration signed by NCWC and Aboriginal Organizations and by delegates and Aboriginal sisters on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday’s lunch program started with Ella Amir, Executive Director of AMI-Quebec Action on Mental Illness (formerly Alliance for the Mentally Ill), who spoke on ‘Who is Caring for the Caregiver?’. She presented compelling statistics and realities of women as caregivers of their family members in need of care due to mental illness, whether by reason of nature, injury or advancing age. A very informative Panel discussion led by Bev Goodwin included Ann Pederson, Director of the BC Centre for Excellence for Women’s Health, Roberta Stout, an Aboriginal woman researcher with Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence focusing on Aboriginal Women’s Health, and Lori Peters, Coordinator of the Provincial Eating Disorder Prevention and Recovery Program in Winnipeg. Over the next two years Councils of Women across Canada will explore the issues and solutions to help provide women with appropriate supports and urge governments to recognize and adopt critical improvements to deal with the needs of caregivers in Canada which will reach crisis proportions in future in an ageing population.

Also on Saturday we heard from Nahanni Fontaine, Special Advisor on Aboriginal Women’s Issues for the Aboriginal Issues Committee of Cabinet (Manitoba Government), and Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of Native Women’s Association of Canada, (NWAC) about the tragic and urgent issue of missing and murdered women in Canada. Barbara Houle, whose daughter was murdered in July 2009, shared her story with us to illustrate the pain and inhumanity of all the stories, for which we thank her. R. B. Russell Vocational High School students in their award winning Community Action Program performed a moving and compelling play they wrote about a classmate who suddenly disappears and how this unresolved mystery affects their lives over many years.

The Federal Government’s role in not continuing the NWAC Sisters in Spirit Project which investigated and documented missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada was the inspiration for and subject of a Joint Declaration signed by NCWC, AMC (Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs) and NWAC, and delegates and individual Aboriginal women attending the Aboriginal Program Saturday. We made a commitment to work together with Aboriginal Women and the Federal Government on this and other critical and systemic issues of violence against Aboriginal women and girls. The Joint Declaration is a living document and has since been signed by other groups and will be circulated for support across Canada.

The Saturday evening banquet was a highlight with Heather Bishop’s story of her intrepid struggles in the feminist movement and her songs inspiring women to continue the battle for equality and human rights. All this in a setting where Jaime Black’s inspired art display of red dresses – The REDress Art Project - reminded us of missing and murdered Aboriginal Women.

Friday’s Development Organization (DO) buffet and fundraiser organized by Arlene Draffin-Jones was an inspiring evening where we heard what women can do with a little seed money from the DO to get them started or to help existing women’s projects far away and at home that promote a better life for women and families.

We were fortunate the venue at the Viscount Gort Hotel came available for our meeting just as renovations were completed. The meeting and events were fully subscribed and well received. The Local Arrangements Committee is very grateful for the energy and expertise of all the committee members and many volunteers who made it possible to show members and friends from other provinces some excellent hospitality and a good time in Manitoba.

LAC members: Maxine Balbon, Peggy Barker, Lori Blande, Joan Butcher, Arlene Draffin-Jones, Catherine Dunn, Monika Feist, Elizabeth Fleming, Helen Garrity, Susan Hancharyk, Karen Hoeft, Barb Kendel, Leona MacDonald, Marilyn McGonigal, Irene McKenzie, Leonore Saunders, Mary Scott, Bonnie Siemens, Rokhaya Soumbounou, Elaine Stevenson, Carolyn Garlich, Kelly-Ann Stevenson, Sally Thomas, Barb Toews.