Minutes from the May 14, 2014 Edmonton Regional Women's Committee meeting.
In attendance:
Darlene Lewis, Chair
Lynn Richards, Vice-Chair
Jhumpa Mohapatra, Secretary
Elaine Alt, Treasurer
Dragana Ristivojevic
Meeting called to order 6:40 pm
Agenda was adopted. Previous minutes to be circulated for approval.
Treasurer's report
Elaine said the bank statements come to the regional office and she has not received any emails from the regional office for the past few months. Will follow up.
Chair's report
Darlene volunteered at the Labour Appreciation Night. She said we missed the Homeless Connect event as the deadline was April 2. She was invited to speak at a CRA rally on April 30 but that did not happen owing to some communication failure. Dragana said at least 50 people turned up for the rally and the speakers explained the different Bills.
Habitat for Humanity volunteer
Habitat for Humanity has been helping build homes for low-income families. The RWC is looking at volunteering as a group during the building season. Darlene will send the group registration form and ask for dates available for volunteering. Once we know the dates, Carm can send a call out for volunteers from the locals. We are tentatively looking at a September deadline.
Women's Day celebrations
Pat Taylor (local 30851) and Debra Foster (local 30016) won the autobiographies of Olivia Chow. The cup-cake event was a success at Meadowlark and Canada Place. Lynn and Jhumpa send photos of the event to Carm for posting on our website.
Delegate to the Prairie Region Convention
Email from Carm indicates that sister Deb Sutton, who was the alternate, will be going on behalf of the RWC instead of Sister Bhupinder Johal. The Triennial Convention of the PSAC Prairie region will be held in Saskatoon from June 27 to June 29.
Draft calendar of events presented
Darlene distributed copies of the draft colour-coded calendar of events. It was suggested we populate the calendar with upcoming events and meeting dates for posting on the website.
Volunteer opportunities
As the RWC aims at working with and supporting community groups, members decided it was worthwhile to do some research on volunteer activities they want to engage in. Organisations such as the Women's Emergency Accommodation Centre (WEAC) offers homeless women an emergency place to stay. Volunteer Canada helps to connect volunteers and organizations. Uncles & Aunts at Large, volunteers offer companionship, mentoring and friendly support to children ages 6 to 18 from single-parent families.
PSAC childcare campaign-kitchen table conversations
RWC, in association with Carm, will host a brunch to encourage kitchen-table conversations among PSAC members. This will be a mini workshop on childcare issues. Plan is to hold it on a Saturday, tentatively June 14.
2013 Financial statement
The financial statement was audited by Lynn and Jhumpa on April 16. Darlene will forward to Winnipeg.
Meeting adjourned 7.40 pm. Next meeting on June 5.