Finances are plaguing another branch of the women’s institutes organization as declining membership and government cuts take their toll.
In a recent letter to members, Sharol Briere, the British Columbia Women’s Institute director in charge of finance, said the loss of an annual $25,000 grant from the provincial government was a serious blow.
“We are currently using our membership dues to run the provincial office,” she wrote.
“It is not enough to cover all the expenses, hence the deficit every year for the past three years.”
Read Also
Ask tough questions to determine if business still works
Across the country, a hard conversation is unfolding. Many producers are starting to ask a tougher question: can we keep doing this the way we always have?
Briere asked members for ideas and outlined options, including using scholarship funds and other bequests meant for education to run the organization, shutting the office in Langley, B.C., and laying off the staff, or winding down the group.
She appealed to members to keep the office open, saying that without it, “all that would be left would be small community groups all doing their own things in their own communities with no larger connection to the rest of the world.”
Both Briere and BCWI president Joan Holthe declined to comment further on the situation.
B.C. is not alone with money problems. In the past year the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes had to close its office at the University of Saskatchewan and lay off its staff person.
The national group, the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada, moved its office from Ottawa to save money. It is now located in the museum in St. George, Ont., which FWIC runs as a tribute to the movement’s founder, Adelaide Hoodless.
The office will continue to remain open year round instead of closing for the winter, which the museum used to do.
