The June, 2005 Annual General Meeting has come and gone all to quickly.
Always a great opportunity to renew acquaintances with retired teacher
organization people from every province, and to make new friends, this
year’s event was planned to allow extra time for each Director to give more
detailed information on issues of particular importance to their
organization. Comparing and contrasting these issues is a great learning
experience, and allows the wisdom of the larger group to be tapped. A full
AGM report will be posted on the website when the official minutes become
available.
Elections
Some leadership changes resulted at the 2005 AGM elections. The president
for 2005-06 is Pat Brady (BCRTA). Three new Regional Directors were also
elected: Fred Ripley (PEIRTA), Helen Biales (RTO/ERO), and Vaughn Wadelius (RTAM).
As well, ACER-CART was fortunate to continue to retain the services of
Pierre Drouin as Executive Director of the national organization. Retiring
from the Executive were President Val Alcock (RTO/ERO), and Regional
Directors George Little (NBSRT) and Pat Steele (QPARSE). They are thanked
for their years of service on the Executive.
The new Executive members have all had interesting careers prior to
retirement, and as one might expect, they have continued to be busy working
for retired teachers in their own provinces. Let us introduce them to you:
Pat
Brady - President 2005-06
Pat Brady, a B. Ed. graduate of the University of BC, taught for 33
years at most levels of the public school system of BC (in Chilliwack,
Prince George, Mission) ending his career at the secondary level,
instructing several social studies and business education courses.
He was active in his local teachers association, serving many years on
the local executive including the office of President. He also is a Past
President of the BC Teachers' Federation (1977, 1978), the Canadian
Teachers' Federation (1981-82), and the BC Retired Teachers' Association
(2001-03). Pat has been a Director of ACER-CART since 2003 , and was the
Vice-President and Regional Director (West) in 2004-05 at which time he
chaired the Pension and Retirement Income Committee. He has been regularly
called upon to act as an independent chair at the annual general meetings of
the BCTF for the past 20 years, and in 2005, at the CTF annual meeting in
Saskatoon, SK.
Pat continues to be involved on the Executive of his local branch of the
Royal Canadian Legion, is completing his 12th year as a member of the Senate
of the University of BC (recently re-elected for another 3 year term), and
is a Vice President of the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of BC.
He enjoys vegetable gardening, reading, visits to casinos, and fishing.
Fred
Ripley - Regional Director (Atlantic)
Fred Ripley received a B.A. from St Dunstan's, B.P.E. and B. Ed. degrees
from the University of Calgary, and a Masters in Educational Administration
from Dalhousie University. He retired in 1999 after a teaching career of 35
years. Fred had taught in Calgary, Alberta, and in Charlottetown and
Summerside, Prince Edward Island. His teaching was at all levels of the
school system: 6 years in elementary, four at junior high, and 25 years at
senior high. He has taught physical education, mathematics, English and
special education. During this time Fred has served as a high school
department head, and was an area coordinator for the Western School Board
for seven years.
Fred was a board member of the P.E.I Teachers’ Federation for 20 years,
holding various positions with the active teachers organization. He was a
member of the executive, serving his last two years as Vice-President. He
has been president of the P.E.I. Retired Teachers’ Association for the last
two years. At present Fred is on the board of directors for the 55-Plus
Society for P.E.I. and is also a member of the board of directors of the
P.E.I. Real Estate Association. He chairs the Health Services and Insurance
Committee of ACER-CART.
Helen
Biales - Regional Director (Centre)
Helen received her teaching certificate from the London Teachers College
before attending the University of Windsor (B.A.) and Wayne State University
(M. Ed.). She taught for 35 years, 4 in the London Separate Schools and 31
in Windsor Separate Schools, and received her supervisory officer’s papers.
At the time of her retirement she was principal of an elementary school.
During her teaching career, she was always active in the Ontario English
Catholic Teachers Association. She served as its president from 1992-93.
Other federation activities included being a governor for the Ontario
Teachers Federation and a director of the Canadian Teachers Federation. She
worked on many committees at all three organizations.
Helen’s first overseas experience was Project Overseas in Botswana in
1983. As a member of the CTF Trust Fund, she went to Mozambique, Malawi and
Sierra Leone to work with teacher federations. She is the president of the
Retired Teachers of Ontario.
Locally, she has served on the hospital board and a hospital insurance
board, chairing several committees. She has been active in her church as a
lector, finance committee member, and on the Pastoral Council as Chair and
member. A very active member of Sigma Phi Gamma International Sorority for
34 years, she served as International President in 2000 - the first Canadian
President - and last year co-chaired the International Convention in
Toronto. Helen chairs the Pension and Retirement Committee. Her hobbies
include traveling, bridge, golf and reading.
Vaughn
Wadelius - Regional Director (West)
Vaughn retired in 1999 after 37 years in the teaching profession, two in
Manitoba Catholic schools and 35 in the public school system. A 1962
graduate of the Manitoba Teachers’ College, he later completed his B.A.,
B.Ed., M.Ed. and P.B.Cert.Ed. at the University of Manitoba. During his
career he taught in six schools (four as principal) at all levels, his last
(1986-1999) as principal of The Pas’s Margaret Barbour Collegiate which also
included an Adult Education Centre and post-secondary distance education
components.
His teacher organization service included the provincial executive of the
Manitoba Teachers Society (1977-87), serving as MTS Treasurer (1981-83),
Vice-President (1983-85), President (1985-86), and Director of the Canadian
Teachers Federation (1984-87). He served on international teacher training
projects in St. Vincent & the Grenadines (1981-83), India (1982), Thailand
(1991, 1993) and Malawi (1999). A member of the RTAM Board since 2000,
Vaughn chaired the Group Benefits committee (2003-05), is the RTAM webmaster
(2002-06) and was Vice-President (2003-05). In May, 2005 he was elected RTAM
President for 2005-06.
Vaughn was an RTAM Alternate Director at ACER-CART (2003, 2004, 2005) and
a member of the ACER-CART Communications Committee (2003-05), which he now
chairs, working on the development of the web page. He continues to play a
leadership role in local community organizations, and assists in training
aspiring principals in Manitoba. His favourite hobby is walking his
granddaughter to school.
CTF Assistance
We are fortunate to have the support of the Canadian Teachers Federation.
CTF provides a meeting space for our annual meeting, and the use of a
dedicated staff secretarial person, Lynne Richard. ACER-CART is also allowed
to use the CTF address to receive our mail.
International Assistance - Book Development Project
RTAM proposed at the AGM that ACER-CART follow its lead in devoting 1% of
its budget to educational assistance in developing countries, and
highlighted a project RTAM supports - the CTF International Fund’s
collaboration with the Pan African Teacher Centre’s Book Development
Project. While the AGM delegates felt that the current budget of ACER -CART
was just too small to allow for this presently, it was suggested that member
organizations might consider the example of RTAM in joining financial forces
with CTF (and CIDA) to support this very worthwhile endeavor.
The Project, begun in 1996, responds to the almost complete lack of
reading materials for African children by developing appealing, authentic
and affordable storybooks. It has two basic parts - the creation of locally
relevant stories, then the publication and the distribution of the resulting
storybooks. Writers' workshops for selected teachers from a number of
countries give them training in a variety of writing techniques. The results
of their creative efforts are uniquely African stories that tell about
people, places and events that make sense to African kids. Then these
teachers return to their respective countries as resources persons to other
teachers, and their stories are illustrated and published. To date 128
teachers have been trained and more than 16,500 book copies published, but
more needs to be done as funds are always in short supply. More information
can be obtained by contacting CTF or checking out the information on their
web page (www.ctf-fce.ca). Donations can be sent to:
CTF Trust Fund (BDP), 2490 Don Reid Drive, Ottawa, ON K1H 1E1
For contributions of $10 or more, the CTF Trust Fund, as a
registered Canadian charity, will provide an official receipt
for income tax purposes.
The President Comments
The vast majority of the readers of these comments realize
that ACER-CART has five major objectives -- liaison and mutual
assistance amongst our member organizations; the
responsibility to promote and support the interests of retired
teachers; the taking of joint action on matters of mutual
concern; cooperation with like-minded organizations; and to
continue to support and promote public education. Within the
context of our objectives, the 2005 Annual General Meeting
afforded us an opportunity to share experiences/information
and adopt policies which we will promote in an effort to
improve our “retirement years”.
The Delegates to the AGM directed our Executive Committee to pursue
particular issues with the federal government and all of the federal
opposition parties. Those issues will be found in the report of the 2005 AGM
and I’ll not repeat them here. Suffice it to say, that we will be contacting
all federal political leaders and all federal parties to ask for support
and, in turn, the enactment of legislation which will bring to fruition the
policies we believe to be of primary and immediate importance to all of us.
When we have received and collated the responses, it is our intention to
advise Member organizations which will, in turn, pass that information on to
their individual members.
The real strength of an organization is the commitment of individuals to
support actions taken locally, provincially or nationally. While “the
leadership” can set the stage, the actors (individual members) have the most
potent influence on individual legislators. Phone calls, emails, letters,
and so on, to support the leadership are very effective. Lobbying is a joint
effort by the organization and the individual members. The impact on a
Member of Parliament is certainly enhanced when the “grass roots” voter lets
the MP know that his/her vote may be determined on the stance taken on
specific issues.
Recently, Val Alcock (Past President of ACER-CART) was part of a
delegation of representatives from a congress of national seniors groups
which met with Mr. Ken Dryden, federal Minister of Social Development. The
major focus of that meeting was to see the creation of a Seniors’
Secretariat at the federal level. While the details in respect to the
composition and operation of such a Secretariat is still in the
developmental/discussion stage, we believe that the creation of such a body
will afford seniors more direct opportunities to influence governments and
legislation which particularly affects those of us who are retired. We will
be keeping ACER-CART member organizations advised as developments occur.
Please feel free to contact your Regional Director (listed elsewhere on
this site) from time to time during the next few months.
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