For the past three annual meetings, members of the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes had spirit-dampening discussions about financing.
“I decided we wouldn’t do that this year,” said SWI president Shirley Wenaas. “We had no money so we didn’t dwell on it.”
Last year the SWI closed its office at the University of Saskatchewan, laid off its employee and had the executive do mailing and communication work from their homes. That situation will continue because of falling membership numbers and a lack of government grant money. Wenaas did all the preparation for this year’s annual meeting.
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“This is something women do,” she said.”When it gets tough, you get tough.”
On June 4-6 in Maple Creek, Sask., the SWI listened to cowboy poetry with a women’s theme, heard about a project to repopulate a ranch with free-roaming bison, toured an aboriginal women’s inmate lodge and cheered the role of women in leadership positions.
As part of the SWI’s long-term water project, each region reported on its educational activities of the past year to convince rural people to test their wells and conserve water.
The members also passed two motions. One encourages schools to use anti-bullying programs while the other asks that the federal and provincial governments ensure that public schools don’t lose funding to aboriginal schools.
