Catholic Women’s League of Canada | BC and Yukon Council

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Good morning everyone!  I would like to share some good news with you. Last year our province increased its membership by 113 members! We were one in only four provinces in the country to have a membership increase, and that’s something to be proud of!

Although, having said that, our membership total at the end of 2009 was 9,549 members and my goal for 2010 has been to increase our provincial membership to 10,000, so this year we all must work together as women of peace and hope to increase our membership by 451 members. It can be done! Between our 131 parish councils, each council only needs to invite 3 new members and we will have reached the 10,000 membership goal. As an incentive national has introduced a competition for this year, called The 2010 Membership Incentive Program. The per capita fees for 2011 will be waived for all members in two councils – first: the one with the highest absolute increase in members and second: the one with the highest percentage increase in members from the 2010 membership drive. So, who have you asked to join the League lately?

Now I have another question for you. What does it take to be the organization standing committee chairperson? Does it take incredible organizational skills? I hope not completely, because if it did I have a feeling my husband might say I need another two years at this job to try and get it right! Being organized definitely helps, but it is not the sole criteria. So, is the duty of the organization chairperson to recruit and gather memberships? Well, yes it is, but if that was all the position entailed I, on the provincial level would have a wonderfully easy job, since membership is taken at the parish level and our provincial numbers are sent with the per capita from national to our provincial treasurer and she informs me of our membership stats. » Read the rest of this entry »

Dear League Sisters and Father Tran,

I pray everyone had a blessed Christmas with family and friends and are now rejuvenated once again to continue in our work for God and Canada.

Membership

January is officially membership month, although we should be welcoming members throughout the entire year. For 2009 our provincial membership was 9,525. My challenge for our province is to reach 10,000 members in 2010. That’s only 475 new members throughout the province and less than 4 members for each of our 131 parish councils. I know we can do it!! (Over 10,000 would be awesome !)

National Membership Incentive Plan

This new incentive is so exciting I decided I should quote directly from our national organization chairperson, Velma Harasen’s communiqué #5. “The 2010 membership incentive program: the per capita fees for 2011 will be waived for all members in two councils – the one with the highest absolute increase in members and the one with the highest percentage increase in members from the 2010 membership drive. Diocesan and provincial per capita fees will be paid from the national treasury so that councils at those levels will not be out of pocket. More information on the plan will be included in the winter edition of The Canadian League.” WOW!! So if your council wins, the more members you get the more money your council will have share in God’s wonderful works!

Lapsed Members

Velma has given a suggestion that possibly a parish council could offer for any member who did not renew in 2009 to pay the 2009 membership fee if the member pays her 2010 membership, or pay for 2010 if she pays for 2009! If any council has other suggestions for creative ways to bring back members that did not renew in the last year please let me know and I will pass along these ideas to Velma. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Report Forms

Due dates for annual reports are:

• Parish report to Diocesan – December 15th
• Diocesan report to Provincial – February 15th
• Provincial report to National – March 15th

If you have not received reports from your parish counterparts by December 15th don’t give up on them. Try calling them and asking the questions over the phone. What a wonderful way to make new friends while working towards 100% of councils reporting!

Membership

How successful were parish councils with the “Membership Challenge” put forward by Velma Harasen? I have enclosed both provincial and national membership stats for your perusal and as you can see BC & Yukon have a lot to be proud of, we have the highest percentage of increase in all of Canada! Let’s keep the enthusiasm alive and reach our provincial goal of 10,000 members for the year 2010!!

Remember, personal contact still remains the number one means of recruiting and retaining members. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Dear Sisters in the League and Fr. Tran,

A warm welcome to our newest diocesan organization chairpersons, Lucille Wallace (Kamloops), Lorraine Thibeault (Prince George), and Jenny Shaw (Vancouver). And a special welcome back to a new fall season of The Catholic Women’s League to both Rose Sehn (Nelsen) and Daisy Mah (Victoria).

MEMBERSHIP

Last September I explained that my goal for our province was to increase our membership to 10,000 by the year 2010. For 2008 we reached 9,436 members which was a 4% increase from 2007! Thank you to all the parish councils that successfully increased their membership. As our national organization chairperson, Velma Harasen states, “You’ve proven that it can be done!”

The most recent figures I have for 2009 is for the end of July, which places us at a provincial membership of 8,284. For your information I have enclosed a spread sheet on the breakdown of membership in each diocese throughout the province. Also our national total membership as of August 26th was 93,170 and national’s goal is to reach 100,000 members by October 31st of this year.

Velma Harasen has issued a challenge for every parish council throughout Canada and I encourage all of us to take on this challenge and illuminate our enthusiasm for the League to the world! Her challenge is: “If a council’s current membership is…

• 25 or less, recruit ONE new member,
• Between 26 and 60 members, recruit TWO new members
• Between 61 and 100 members, recruit THREE new members
• Over 100 members, recruit FOUR new members.

Of course, MORE would be even better!”

Velma also asks that “When submitting the names of those new members to national office, please note that these are the “CHALLENGE” members.” A tally will be kept and after the deadline of October 31st 2009 there will be prizes! ~ Remember, most women don’t sign up as members on their own, they are waiting to be asked, so let’s step forward and ask! The more members we have, the stronger a voice we have in our work for God and Canada. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Sandra Stajduhar

Meeting With Government: March 25, 2009

Four members of the BC & Yukon Provincial Council of The Catholic Women’s League of Canada met with Liberal and New Democratic party MLA’s to present and discuss CWL resolutions. The delegation consisted of Marianna Caldwell, president, Nancy Simms, president-elect, Sheila Quinn, Legislation chairperson, and myself, Sandra Stajduhar, Resolutions chairperson. A report has been sent to and printed in some newspapers – this report has more detail.

Information on the CWL and the resolutions was prepared and given to the MLA’s beforehand, and while the information and the oral presentation were the same in both cases, the two meetings varied. MLA Randy Hawes, Government Whip, introduced us and chaired the meeting with the Liberal caucus. There were about sixteen members present, with others joining us as other meetings concluded – followed by a photo shoot. The meeting with the NDP was an informal table discussion with three MLA’s – Claire Trevena (North Island) critic for women‘s issues, Leonard Krog (Nanaimo) critic for the Attorney General, and Harry Bains (Surrey-Newton), Olympics critic. In both cases, our presentation was received with interest, and questions, comments and suggestions were offered in return. We attended the afternoon question period in the legislature and were introduced and thanked by both parties.

The information package prepared for the MLA’s included all 2008 resolutions as well as two past resolutions still of interest. Briefs, bibliographies and action plans were included. In the oral presentation, specific items of concern, particularly in B.C., were highlighted as we asked for ongoing support in resolving issues. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Good morning, I have wonderful news! For the past two years we in BC/Yukon increased our membership by 7%! And that is all due to your unceasing hard work and dedication to the League! So congratulations everyone!

But, now what I see as the challenge that lies before us is not only to continue increasing in membership, but to also retain the members we have. How do we do this? Well, there are a few things we as can do; the first would be hosting workshops. Workshops are an inspirational way to educate members about the League and help them understand all that they personally have to offer in their service to God and Canada. In this past year we as a provincial council travelled throughout the province facilitating workshops for members to become more comfortable with public speaking, conducting meetings and with their overall understanding of the League. Members took away from these workshops a confidence to accept positions within the League and not only willingness, but a desire to stand up and tell their stories to all of us. We are still offering this workshop to any councils that would like to host it for their surrounding area. We have also developed another day long workshop that we would love to facilitate throughout the province. This workshop will help members realize their beauty within, discuss maintaining peace and will challenge members to be leaders. So please contact me and we will set up at date for either of these workshops to be presented. I would also recommend for diocesan executives to facilitate your own workshops within your diocese as a way to grow together in confidence and knowledge of the League. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Dear Sisters in the League and Fr. Tran,

Membership

January is membership month. However, the recruiting process should continue throughout the entire year! What is your parish council doing to invite new ladies to join the League? Many women are just waiting to be asked. I challenge every League member to step out of their comfort zone and ask someone in their parish to join the CWL. As our national organization chairperson, Velma Harasen states, “Every woman in the parish community deserves to belong to The Catholic Women’s League of Canada, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that happens!”

The latest figures I have from December 15th is that our membership for BC/Yukon was at 9,263 for 2008. So far this is an 81 member increase from 2007 with a possible few more coming in before the year end. Let’s keep up the incredible effort and before you know it we will have surpassed our goal of 10,000 by 2010!!

Our very own BC/Yukon webmaster Rebecca Gebeshuber from the Vancouver Arch-diocese developed recruitment postcards that national office has now approved and will be distributing with the second membership remittance package in sufficient quantities for each unpaid member. Each parish council will receive a new remittance form, list of unpaid members and recruitment postcards, list of paid members and permanent membership cards for each. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

Dear League Sisters and Father Tran,

Report Forms

Enclosed are the diocesan annual report forms, please distribute the appropriate forms to your corresponding diocesan chairpersons. I pray that you have distributed the parish annual report forms and have encouraged all councils to submit their reports.

Due dates for annual reports are:
Parish report to Diocesan – December 15th
Diocesan report to Provincial – February 15th
Provincial report to National – March 15th

Development Funds

This is just a reminder that there are both Provincial and National Development Funds available. » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms

WUCWO North American Regional Conference, August 8 – 10, 2008

For me the WUCWO Conference began with Doreen Gowans and myself arriving at the hotel in Winnipeg on August 7th and being asked by Agnes Bedard to help sell WUCWO supplies at a table near the registration, which we happily agreed to do. This gave us an opportunity to meet many wonderful ladies from across North America, including the WUCWO President General, Karen Hurley whom we were trying to sell items to without realizing who she was! The next morning Agnes had Doreen and I assembling the table decorations and a large WUCWO poster for the conference and then we were back to work selling items throughout the conference. Just having the opportunity to do this work for WUCWO was an experience I wouldn’t have missed for the world. Marie Cameron also asked us if we would display handmade outfits that were made by a friend she had met through WUCWO who escaped a war ravished country (the name has escaped my mind) with all of her family murdered except her grandchildren, she is now making and selling these outfits to provide for her grandchildren. We sold all three outfits Marie had brought! » Read the rest of this entry »

Submitted by: Nancy Simms, BC/Yukon Organization Chair

After we were well rested from the WUCWO regional conference, with our hour and half lunch break the 2008 National Convention began in Winnipeg with an invigorating resolutions dialogue meeting. Women from all corners of Canada came together to educate themselves on the resolutions that would be presented to the floor of the convention. Six resolutions were given to us to read through and discuss and it is amazing how fast two and a half hours can go by! We then took a short dinner break before heading across the street to the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral for the opening mass where I was honoured to carry up the Yukon flag in the opening ceremonies.

Monday morning began with liturgy of the hours and then a thought provoking presentation by a panel of three keynote speakers. Dr. Moira McQueen, Executive Director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute spoke to us about decision making at end of life. She told us how “Dying is the most important thing we do.” Therefore, it is extremely important that patients’ rights are honoured and that they are told the truth about what is happening to them. Patients should be involved in decision making, whenever possible, regarding treatment or withdrawal of treatment, ordinary/extraordinary measures and what is proportionate or disproportionate for what the patient and the family can bear. Dr. Moira also educated us on Pope John Paul II’s statement on Artificial Nutrition & Hydration. Summarizing it by explaining that in all that we do for the dying we must remember Veronica whom Jesus met on His way to be crucified, she did not pretend to take away what He had to endure, but only relieved or gave affirmation to the suffering. Veronica reached out in compassion as we all must do. » Read the rest of this entry »