August 2001

Manitoba Women’s Institute Educational Program

From Roots to Rooftop

Program prepared by:
Marion McNabb and Lois Neabel
Basswood Women's Institute

The Member / Organization Structure

Take a look at the drawings below.  Please read the words around the circules of fabric.  See where you fit.  Try to thuink of yourself as the circle or the tent pole.

The member is the centre and all the circles.  through her membership she gains friendships, support, personal growth or development, self esteem, satisfaction, and knowledge.

The beach umbrella or tent

The centre post

• Is the member
• Holds up the rooftop
• Gives the rooftop its height

The fabric or tent covering is

• Made by the efforts of women working together
• Made up of the circles of women

The stitching that holds the fabric circles together is made of

• Communication between women
• Listening to each other
• Giving assistance
• Boards and committees working on behalf of others
• Conventions
• Exchange of letters and visits

The ribs, the rafters, that help support the roof

• Are the structures of the organizations that are part of the circles of fabric
• Give the fabric world wide support

You – the member

The member is the centre post, rooted in the grass, holding up the roof top. The fabric is made up of women, woven together from centre post to edge.

It is easy to focus on the abilities and contributions of provincial or national presidents and convenor, and in our mind place them out a little from the rest of us. But, we can remind ourselves that each of "them" came from one of "us". Every national president was first and foremost a member of Women’s Institute in her home community. Remember every member is the important member.

Here are some examples of members.

• The women who started it all – believing there had to be a better way to learn how to care for children and families
• The member strong and determined enough to walk and carry a child several miles so she could meet with other women once a month
• The health educator who had the courage in the early 1960s to talk with women in public meetings, about birth control as well as other subjects, with humor and knowledge
• The member who always sees the positive and tells others about it. Her compliments are sincere and spontaneous
• The provincial president who had the right words for each public official or member, and also had the compassion and strength to bring the subject of wife abuse to the point where it could be discussed in public through out Manitoba
• The women who is always willing to help with a catering job, or a road side clean up, or sort and pack for Goodwill shipment
• The member with executive skills who helps other members learns and practice skills, and improves their confidence and feelings of self worth. She then quietly encourages other women to try and succeed at what they thought was beyond their abilities
• The member, new to province or community, who is willing to use her talents on behalf of women she has yet to meet
• The women who’s talent with written words made things happen in her community and through resolutions kept MWI on its toes
• The women who never volunteers out loud but is always behind the scenes doing the cleaning up or putting up notices or opening the hall
• The woman who moved to a new country and took her ideas for a great organization with her. She expanded the ideas with the help of two women, then many more, to start an international association for country women
• The member who collected friends wherever she went because of her kindness, loyalty, good cheer, and who brought out the best in all of us
• The members who work together on projects that serve others – from donations of time and money to save sight of children, or doing a rural child care survey that becomes the basis for country wide discussion, or providing income generating, health care or education opportunities for women in countries around the world
• The women who’s bubbly personality and good humor encourages us all to work harder to achieve justice and equality for everyone

Each member has strengths and talents. Think for a moment of many more members that could be mentioned by you.

The Rafters, Ribs or Organization Structure

Giving support to the fabric, woven be women, are the ribs or rafters. The organizations that make up the circles of fabric are support by their structures. The rafters are the boards of directors, committees, and rules of Manitoba Women’s Institute (MWI), Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada (FWIC), and Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW).

• Manitoba Women’s Institute (MWI)

Women’s group that became MWI was organized in 1910. The Department of Agriculture then arranged to send two lecturers to speak to gatherings of women to form "Household Science Associations". 17 associations met in the first convention in Winnipeg. They chose the name "Home Economics Societies" and elected Mrs. Chisholm, Morris, as first provincial president. In 1919, the name was changed to Women’s Institutes.

Names of women who hold office at present are listed on page two of each issue of MWI "Institute News".

The mission statement states MWI is organized "to promote personal development, agriculture and rural development, the family, and community action-locally and globally".

Since 1910 these purposes have guided the programs, activities, and outreach of Women’s Institute. The education of women and their families has focused on:

• Nutrition and health issues of the day
• Home improvements and economic survival
• Community responsibility and social concerns
• The needs of others at home and across the world

But, let’s be specific. Using the support of local WI’s and MWI, here are a couple dozen items members have organized, sponsored, promoted:

1. The first music and drama festivals in rural areas
2. Libraries
3. Community rest rooms
4. Baby, dental, tonsil, eye, and TB x-ray clinics
5. Food, good nutrition, and financial management courses
6. Sewing, gardening, and home furnishing courses
7. Senior’s homes
8. Rural electrification in the 40s and 50s
9. Home Economics training
10. Home Economist services in rural and urban areas
11. Leadership training schools
12. Defensive driving courses
13. Farm Vacations
14. Cancer education, research, breast cancer screening
15. Rural child care needs
16. Family law legislation
17. AIDS awareness
18. Life skills courses in high schools
19. Recycling depots
20. Reproductive technology issues
21. Farm and child safety
22. Income tax legislation re: farm women
23. Responsible for an acre of land at the International Peace Garden
24. Annual discussion of issues with cabinet members of provincial government

MWI continues to bring information to its members and local communities. MWI pressures local, provincial, and federal governments for needed changes.

• Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada (FWIC)

The board is made up of a President, President-elect, Executive Administrator, an Executive Officer for each province, and 10 Directors, usually the provincial WI presidents.

Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada (FWIC) has a proud history.

A national organization meant that rural women across Canada could speak with one voice; programs and projects could be co-ordinated.

Representatives from each province met in Winnipeg in 1919 and Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada were born. "Federation was most fortunate to have as its first president, Judge Emily Murphy (Janey Canuck) of Edmonton. Judge Murphy was an outstanding woman with driving power, executive ability, and loving personality, whose heart went out to rural women and their welfare. She spared no effort to bring the new organization into prominence both provincially and nationally." (Quoted from "FWIC 1919 - 1960" by Elizabeth Rand.)

An interesting note and a good reminder to members in 1998 – 99, is the wording of a 1921 resolution. "FWIC recommends that expenditure of funds raised by Institutes be confined to the Institute organization … to further the aims specified in the constitution … and guard against the danger of degenerating into money making machines."

The National Board of FWIC meets annually in one of the provinces. In the first years the meetings were held in conjunction with the provincial WI conventions.

Dr. Nancy Adams of Ethelton, Saskatchewan, president 1953 – 57, worked steadily toward the establishment of a National Office and the holding of a National Convention.

Mrs. Lillian Townsend of Birtle and later of Winnipeg chaired a committee working toward that end. It was not until 1957 that an office was set up in Ottawa and the first National FWIC Convention held.

This was celebration of the 60^th anniversary of the founding of Women’s Institute. To mark the occasion, Henry Birks and Sons Ltd. presented the new president, Elizabeth (Mrs. Keith) Rand, Nova Scotia, with a President’s Pin. The design is the FWIC crest with a diamond at the Four Corners!! This pin is still handed on the new president at each triennial (3 year) conference.

Manitoba can boast two FWIC presidents, both of whom began their WI careers in Birtle – Jennie (Mrs. David) Watt 1923 – 25 and Marion (Mrs. Victor) Fulton 1970 – 73.

Jennie Watt was Birtle WI’s first secretary when it organized in 1910. Mrs. Watt was one of the Manitoba representatives, at the founding meeting in 1919 in Winnipeg.

Marion Fulton came to Birtle from England as a "war bride". She soon joined the WI serving in many capacities locally, regionally, and provincially. She was president of Manitoba WI 1956 – 58, became president of FWIC in 1970, and ACWW Area Vice-President for Canada 1974 – 77. Marion continues to act on committees for MWI.

FWIC over the years has encouraged the promotion of the Arts and good citizenship through national competitions each triennium.

The Senator Carine Wilson Competitions is for a project in citizenship.

There are three Tweedsmuir Competitions, community history, handicraft, and a cultural project. The actual subjects for competition vary each triennium.

Education, Youth Work, Health Concerns, Agriculture, Consumer Needs, Rural Child Care, Family Violence, Pornography, Canada’s Constitution, Status of women, and much, much more have been addressed through FWIC in order to inform, motivate and affect change for "Home and Country".

Projects in the last few years have included Rural ChildCare Survey, Health Education in co-operation with the National Council of Jewish women and a Literacy workshop in every WI in Canada in 1998

FWIC has co-ordinated many projects directed through ACWW to sister organizations in other countries. Some of these have been co-action projects with United Nations. Remember Women Feed the World, the Landrover for Lesotho, Water wells for Africa, knitted squares for Zambia, and on and on.

• Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW)

As early as 1797, would you believe, rural women were thinking of organization. In that year, the Agricultural Women’s Organization of Finland came into being. In the middle of the 19^th century, the Grange was established in the United States, the only farm fraternity in the world where women enjoyed equal rights with men.

In 1897, the Women’s Institutes were founded in Canada. A year later the Norwegian and German women organized, followed in the next few years by Irish, Danish and Swedish groups.

In 1913 Mrs. Alfred Watt, a Canadian, went to London and it was she who helped found the first Women’s Institute in the UK, in Wales in 1917. The National Federation in the British Isles was organized in 1917. East Africa, Australia, and New Zealand followed in the next few years. Mrs. Watt soon began to think in terms of an International Organization of rural women. FWIC passed a motion in 1921 to empower Mrs. Watt "to be the ambassador of the Canadian Institutes and to use her influence to bring about an international federation as speedily as possible".

Townswomen had organized in the International Council of Women in 1888. In 1893, the Marchioness of Aberdeen became the President. Lady Aberdeen appreciated the problems of rural women and in the early twenties Mrs. Watt was able to interest Lady Aberdeen in the idea of an International organization of rural women. As the official history on ACWW states, "a spark was set to tinder".

In 1927, a resolution was passed by the Executive of the International Council of Women that a committee be formed "to consider conditions under which rural women’s organizations work". Three women of this committee, Lady Aberdeen, Mrs. Watt, and Miss Zimmern, were to become the founders of the Associated Countrywomen of the Worlds. Canada had representatives at the first conference of rural women, London, England, in 1929. In 1933, the ACWW was formally organized. (The above information was from "FWIC 1919 - 1960", by E. Rand).

The ACWW Board Consists of:

• The World President,
• Deputy President,
• Secretary Treasurer,
• Nine Area Presidents,
• Committee Chairs

1. Projects
2. United Nations
3. Promotion and Publication

ACWW 1997 projects included 23 development projects worldwide, in Ghana, Columbia, Mali, Cameroon, Australia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe.

ACWW Member Societies in Canada include 10 provincial Women’s Institutes, Les Cercles de Fermieres du Quebec, women of the National Farmers Union, women of Unifarm, Alberta, and FWIC.

Canada has been host to ACWW Conferences in Toronto 1953, Vancouver 1983 and will again in Ontario, 2001. These conferences provide women an opportunity to discuss concerns and share solutions to problems. As an example, the speakers at the 1998 ACWW meeting in Pretoria, South Africa were all from Africa. Their presentation dealt with concerns to women worldwide.

Conclusion

The value of volunteer work and enthusiastic participation at the local level is beyond measure. The real bases of the worldwide partnership of women is more truly reflected in millions of individual actions rather than what any financial accounts can ever show.

Take away the individual volunteer bases and the structure crumbles; no widening ripples in the circles; no nourishment root; no centre holding up the roof.

WE REALLY DO MATTER!