WINNIPEG – It’s easier to laugh than cry, which is possibly why Enid Clark chuckles when she talks about the Manitoba Women’s Institute branch in Newdale.
“In Newdale, we have two (young members). They’re in their 50s,” the organization’s past-president said following a MWI workshop in Winnipeg Nov. 16.
“I hate to say this… but if you want to talk about rural depopulation, you come to Newdale.… We still have four of five organizations … but it is extremely difficult (to keep them going). And our WI is the same way.”
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The situation may look bleak in Newdale and other small communities in rural Canada, but there are often ways to breathe new life into old organizations.
That is why Clark and other women from rural Manitoba attended the workshop in Winnipeg, which is part of the MWI’s legacy series held this fall to celebrate the organization’s 100th year in the province.
The series included speakers and presentations in Killarney, Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Steinbach and Winnipeg.
Carolyn Pletsch, program co-ordinator of Rural Women Making Change, a research alliance based in Guelph, Ont., led the Winnipeg workshop.
She told an audience of two dozen women and one man about her research into women’s organizations in rural Canada.
Pletsch and her colleagues surveyed groups to assess the mandate, current status and future prospects for women’s organizations across the country.
“It’s kind of grim,” she said in an interview following the workshop. “To use an agricultural analogy, it’s a tough row to hoe.”
In her presentation, Pletsch outlined weaknesses and problems facing rural women’s groups, including a lack of knowledge about website design and information technology, which are essential communication skills if groups want to stay relevant and attract new members.
“It requires fundamentally a change in people’s understanding of information and communication technology.”
It can be a kiss of death if a group doesn’t have an active website, she added.
Pletsch said rural women’s groups can use community asset mapping to build upon fixed, social and economic assets in an organization or community.
She called it a pathway out of negative thinking.
“How do we move this from a hole that we wallow in to something positive?”
Betty Kelly from Poplar Point, Man., said MWI’s legacy series has restored her faith that rural residents can rejuvenate their communities and move forward in a healthier direction.
“I’m one of those overstretched people,” she said.
She said the structure of established organizations often deters younger women, who prefer immediate action.
“We don’t have the time to preserve the organization in the old way,” she said.
“One of the things the church is moving to is fewer committees and more task groups. So I can sign up for a project that excites me, knowing it’s just that project and when it’s done, I’m done.”
MWI functions primarily as an advocacy group on behalf of rural women, but Clark acknowledged it will have to evolve to meet the desires of young and busy women.
“Our members are aging, so now it’s how do we attract the younger members, the working members?” she said.
“We have to change. We know we have to change. If we don’t, our clubs will all fold.”
