History Supplement of the Alberta Women's Institutes

              HISTORY SUPPLEMENT OF THE ALBERTA WOMEN'S INSTITUTE
16
In February 1964, Mrs. Harry Marshall resigned her position as
treasurer of A. W. I, after seven years of service. Her resignation was
regretfully accepted and after several months a new treasurer was
found, Mrs. George McMillan. She assumed office September 1,1964.
At the 1963 A. W. I. Convention we had the first Installation Cere­mony
for the Officers. We tried something else new— door prizes and
they were all well received. An A. W. I. Scholarship of $ 1,000.00 was
established as a Centennial Project, to be awarded to an Alberta
University student majoring in Social Work.
The FWIC Convention was to be held in Wolfville, N. S. and
A. W. I, approached the Government asking that Mrs. V. G. Mac-donald
attend the meeting in order to learn first hand what the
members across Canada were doing in Handicrafts. The Govern­ment
listened to our request and for the first time the Government of
Alberta was represented at a National Convention. Several of Mrs.
Macdonald's suggestions were submitted to FWIC for the 1967
Handicraft Competition. While none of them were used in their
original form, the 1967 Competition was based on one of her sugges­tions,
namely Drawn Thread Work. Several years had elasped since
the last revision of the Handbook. Much work was done by the
Council to bring it up to date, but the material was left with the new
Council to complete and publish.
A Sampler Competition was set up for the 1963 A. W. I. Conven­tion
in the hope that members would gain valuable help before
making a Sampler for the National Competition with the result that
many beautiful Samplers were entered.
An appeal for good used school books to be sent to the West
Indies met with a wonderful response. Shipping them proved dif­ficult.
At Council Meetings when FWIC business was discussed, it was
apparent that it was the Vice- President who should be the Junior
Representative on the FWIC Board and this would help prepare her
for the Presidential term. Mrs. Roberts brought this motion to the
Convention where it passed, and has proven to be a wise decision.
The newly organized Board of Technicians asked for an A. W. I,
representative. The Vice- President, Mrs. John Richards was ap­pointed
and has been a very capable representative.
We also had representation on the Alberta Safety Council,
Canadian Red Cross Society, Cancer Society, The Board of Alberta
Vocational Colleges and Alberta Mental Health Association.
Mrs. J. Bielish, A. W. I. Chairman of Education represented us at
the Canadian Conference on Education in Montreal in March 1962.
In December 1961, Mrs. Roberts was invited to take part in a
panel discussion at the Annual Convention of Farm Women's Union
of Alberta. The topic was " Why do you want to exist as an organiza­tion"?
She gave ample justification for our existence.
The Department of Agriculture turned to the A. W. I, when seek­ing
help in judging the Master Farm Family Competitions. We, in
turn asked that the District Home Economists continue to hold