After only five months in office, the president of the British Columbia Women’s Institute resigned in October 1996.
Membership disgruntlement with the process that led to Muriel Washington being elected as president became too difficult to deal with, so she resigned. Washington was one of two candidates running for the three-year term as president at last June’s BCWI meeting. A constitutional change from the previous meeting in 1993 meant the president-elect would no longer automatically progress to president.
So at the 1996 convention there were two women running for the top job – Washington, who won from the vice-president role, and Alice Johnson running from the president-elect role. Johnson’s supporters said there should not have been an election and that she should have been named president.
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At the BCWI executive meeting in October, Patsy Nagel, voted in as president-elect in June, took over as president. Nagel said the group is reforming its constitution “so we don’t get any more misunderstanding.”
First vice-president Helen Over-nes is reviewing and rewriting the constitution. In an interview she noted there were two ways of looking at the constitution, and that means there is something wrong with it.
“The constitution comes first in my view. If the bylaws aren’t in synch with that, it’s an awkward situation.”
Districts viewpoints
Overnes hopes to get this sorted out for the BCWI’s next triennial meeting in 1999. To do that she is canvassing the group’s 15 districts and individual members for what they think should happen.
Until 1960 the BCWI never elected a president. It was run by an advisory group appointed by the provincial department of agriculture. The right to set up as a WI was done by a provincial act in 1914 and that has also led to problems in updating the constitution, said Overnes.
As to the impact on BCWI, Overnes said: “This isn’t the first time that members have disagreed and it won’t be the last.”
Meanwhile the group is also awaiting news on whether the provincial ag department will release its freeze on grants to organizations like BCWI. Nagel said the group didn’t get any money from the province for the 1995-96 year and that by March it should be clear whether there will be any grant for 1996-97. The BCWI has an annual budget of about $50,000 to cover activities for its 1,800 members.
