Loyalist District 1, New Brunswick Women's Institute
Report for the year 2008-2009
There are eight branches in Loyalist District 1 of the New Brunswick Women's Institute. All of them are located in the St. John River watershed between Southampton to the north-west and Lakeville Corner to the south-east. During 2008-2009 the ninth Branch, Otis-Culliton, disbanded. The loss of their members and the death of three from other Branches brought our membership to 98, including our one new member, Ann Williams, whom we welcomed to the District.
Our spring planning meeting was held in Victoria Hall in New Maryland and our Fall Convention, in the Keswick Ridge Community Hall. We 33 women were indeed fortunate to have NBWI President Glenna Geer, Area Director Lorna Estey and Loyalist District II President Jean Stairs-Logan attend our 80th Fall Convention where Lorna and Jeanne Kaye Speight of Lower Kingsclear WI spoke on their WI experience. The ladies from Lakeville Corner ran a silent auction.
GOALS: In an attempt to increase the flow of information between the Branches, strengthen the friendship and understanding between our members, and foster the goals of the WI, we developed five main initiatives: computer courses and computers for members, a bus trip, cross-branch entertaining, newsletters and a web page.
COMPUTERS. Twenty or more of our members took free computer courses from Computers for Schools - NB and even more purchased refurbished computers from them at $10 for desktops and $20 for laptops. Every Monday in November 2008 and in February 2009 we received a two-hour lesson from the young technicians at Computers for Schools. Since they would not accept pay, our Branches took turns providing refreshments which we shared with the "boys". We are sincerely grateful to Sandra Abbott and Roy Crawford for helping more of our WI members enter the computer age.
BUS TRIP. On Saturday, July 18, 2009 our members and the Fredericton Garden Club joined forces to take a day-long bus trip to St. Andrews. When we 30 women (and one man) arrived there was a sandwich buffet waiting at Sheila Washburn's family home. This became our headquarters for the day as some went on a garden tour, some went shopping and some just enjoyed being "by-the-Sea". We ate a pot-luck supper before heading back to Fredericton.
ENTERTAINING. We drew Branch names from a hat at our Fall Convention. Branches that had seldom got together socially before, except at conventions and planning meetings, enjoyed becoming better acquainted with members of another Branch.
NEWSLETTER. Our eight-page winter issue and our four-page summer issue of "News and Views" proved to be a great way to publicize all our District initiatives. They also allowed us to reinforce the various programs of the NBWI and publicize the special events of each Branch. Only one copy was mailed to each secretary, however each Branch had at least one computer-literate member to whom the newsletter was sent by email. That woman printed copies and took them to their next meeting so that, with very little cost to the District or Branch, everyone in the District received a copy.
WEB PAGE. Periodically our web master posted information on Branch activities to our website and made other documents, such as scholarship application forms, downloadable. Besides there being a home page for the District there is a page for each Branch in the District. To download copies of our newsletters go to our website: www.loyalist1.ca.
We have had some success and a lot of fun in attempting to meet our goals for 2008-2009.
President Sheila Washburn, Lower St. Marys WI
Vice-President Joan Hunter, Keswick Ridge WI
Secretary Eva Scott, Dumfries WI
Peggy MacKenzie, Maugerville WI
© Copyright 2009 Sheila Washburn