Part-way through summer News from Pres Deb
Posted by Joan Jackaman on Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Dear Membership;
I hope your
summer has been as wonderful as mine has been. First a trip of a life-time to
Newfoundland where we enjoyed every minute, to my first Canadian ACWW conference
in Halifax, which was exciting to say the least. I offer you this update as a
keeping in touch more so than a formal report and I trust the others who were
also in Halifax might have input as to their own experiences during the
conference.
I felt very
pleased at the recognition SOS received at every opportunity and overall, we had
a great showing. We picked up a new member. Anne Innes of London Area paid her
dues while in Halifax so was able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of
the SOS contingency.
We had five
members there in all. Myself, membership coordinator Annemarie McDonald, Cindi
Rabstein, Hania White and of course our newest member, Anne Innes.
I think
I speak for everyone there when I say we were disappointed that our World
President, May Kidd was due to her husbands illness, not able to attend.
She did however treat us to not only a "welcome" message complete with a
musical intro, but a message delivered via internet half way around the world.
This not only reassures us that we have moved soundly into the next century and
all that that entails, but we have a leader who is able and willing to jump
forward without hesitation. Her message was inspiring.
Of primary
interest is the "Women Walk The World" effort which is to take place April 29th.
We are to begin at 10:00 local time - we are to be creative in our walk
choice - be it for exercise, sponsorship or awareness. This is to take
place in every country (over 70) and involve as many ACWW members as possible.
This could have as many as 9 million women walking on the same day at the same
time.... truly women walking the world! What a great idea and it aligns well
with the heart-healthy actions being initiated in many countries
as well.
I do hope SOS
can offer a unique and creative method for our own walk, either by location
or result (sponsorship and awareness). And I would like to see a lot of input as
to how we could make that happen. This brings me to my next point of
interest. As the tree selling idea has not been as friendly as we had
originally hoped for and an alternative to that was a suggestion for a
bookmark as a handout in malls or what have you, I am going to suggest we
combine these two efforts and get our finalized bookmark ahead of where we
may have and offer it as our handout on route during our walk the world event.
As a side-note, the
idea for a bookmark came from Shirley Thaiss, our projects coordinator. She is
looking into pricing for us however, we will need a final logo before we
actually go to print. AGAIN, we may need to e-vote in order to expedite the
process. Thank you Shirley for the idea as well as your efforts thus
far.
I have spoken
with a lay-out designer and should have some initial samples (minus logo of
course) to send via email by late October.
A lot of
contacts were made while at conference and I was particularly pleased to have
spent time with U.S.A. President, Beverly Erchart and as soon as I find her
card.... I will be in touch with her again.
As your
president I took it upon myself to offer a small gift to our Canadian President,
Margaret Yetman, World President May Kidd, and Canadian W.I.
President, Ruth Blenkhorn. These gifts contained a small clay pot of
forget-me-nots (only for those staying in Canada), a bottle of maple syrup
each and photographs (or newspapers) pertinent to each one, taken at the
ACWW conference in Hot Springs.
The
meals were good, the company was excellent and the business, speakers etc. was
kept very interesting. I hope to have a more formal report ready to send via
email to all members by early October.
Nova
Scotia did a great job and I look forward to the next conference.
I trust you
will all enjoy what is left of our summer and once home - in early Sept. I will
be in closer contact working closely with you all to fulfill our objectives. For
now, keep safe and keep in touch. ~ Debbie