Continue reading »]]> The April 16 CFUW meeting will be at a different location:
 Holiday Inn BRONTE, 2525 Wyecroft Rd., Oakville, ON Social commences at 7:00, speaker at 8:00 followed by the business meeting.

Guest Speaker

The guest speaker will be Dr. Lorraine Woolford “Training Surgeons in Third World Countries” Dr. Woolford has taught obstetrics in Ethiopia, Uganda and R

Monday, May 14th: AGM Tickets

Tickets will be available for the Oakville AGM. The guest speaker will be Mary Jane Lovering, landscape architect. Her topic will be Healing Gardens. Tickets are $40. Available from Sue Stephens, Jane Heakes, Val Irvine and Susan Walkinshaw.
Reserved tables are available, tickets must be purchased to reserve a table, please contact Susan Walkinshaw.

Membership Fees
There will be a motion to increase membership fees for 2012-13 by $15. The proposed increase is $5 for scholarship and $10 for the Oakville club expenses.
The scholarship donation has been $10 since 2003. The proposed scholarship donation of $15 only accounts for inflation since 2003. Many of our members have voluntarily made a substantial donation in addition to the base donation. The administrative costs are very low as the committee members donate their time to read the applications and bake all the treats for the June Parent and Child Award Winner Tea.
The CFUW Oakville portion of fees has been held at $34 since 2008-9. Costs have been kept low by only sending one delegate to the CFUW National AGM and Ontario Council AGM. The executive transition meeting in June is a pot-luck dinner rather than a catered event. In addition, many members have donated their time to keep costs low.
The proposed budget for 2012-13 is available in the April newsletter sent out April 1.

Scholarship
Motion: That CFUW Oakville and the Scholarship Trustees co-host a dinner event with the Canadian Club of Halton Peel on November 22, 2012. The event will be arranged by the Canadian Club. CFUW will be responsible for working with the Canadian Club to find an appropriate speaker. For each ticket that CFUW sells at the guest rate, $10 will be donated to the Scholarship Fund.

Dragon boaters
Make a pledge to the Dragon Boat Team and support the University Women’s Club of Oakville Scholarship Fund.

Resolutions
Resolutions were presented and discussed at the March General Meeting by a large group of dedicated members who understand the importance of CFUW advocacy. The resolutions were presented in a small group setting so members had a chance to focus on one resolution and make recommendations. The discussion was at the March meeting; hence, the April meeting will focus on voting to accept or reject. The resolutions titles and recommendations are as follows. The complete resolutions and recommendations are outlined in the April “In Touch” sent out April 1 by Susan Walkinshaw.

RESOLUTION 1. RETENTION OF WOMEN IN SKILLED TRADES AND NON-TRADITIONAL OCCUPATIONS
Motion to Approve as printed

RESOLUTION 2. THE INCLUSION OF WOMEN AND GENDER SENSITIVE APPROACHES IN EFFORTS TO MITIGATE AND ADAPT TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Motion: Reject and send back to Halifax for further study.

RESOLUTION 3. MORATORIUM ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL WIND TURBINE DEVELOPMENTS
Motion: Accept the resolution as amended.
PROPOSED AMENDMENT:
Reword the Resolved clause to read,
RESOLVED, That Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW), strongly urge all pertinent levels government to institute a two year moratorium on the construction of industrial wind turbine developments in order to analyze existing international scientific studies looking at site placement parameters, economic efficiencies, negative impact on human health and environmental concerns. This would result in the development of uniform national standards and regulations.

RESOLUTION 4. TOWARD A MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGY FOR CANADA
Motion: Accept as printed.

RESOLUTION 5. FULL ACCESSIBILITY AND BARRIER- FREE ENVIRONMENTS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
Motion: Accept with one amendment.
PROPOSED AMENDMENT. Correct the full title of CRPD. It should be ‘Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’, which covers not only physical disabilities, and is supported by the rest of the resolution.

RESOLUTION 6. ENSURING FOOD SECURITY IN CANADA
Motion: Accept with amendments.
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS.
Resolved 1. Delete ‘with a dedicated budget’ and add “people resident in Canada”. Resolved 1 to read: to create a comprehensive coordinated national food security policy to ensure an affordable, accessible, nutritious and sustainable food supply for all people resident in Canada.
Resolved 3. Delete and replace with
Resolved 3. Delete and replace with
3. to remove barriers to urban and rural food production.

Continue reading »]]> Dear CFUW Members,
 
Recently we have had some inquiries about the new CFUW website, so this message is intended to provide you with a quick overview and some clarifications on how to use and navigate the site. Firstly, it is important to remember that there are two separate websites: the main CFUW website and the Membership Site. The main CFUW website is used by the general public, fellowship applicants, members and staff, and can be found at www.cfuw.org as well as www.cfuw.ca or www.fcfdu.org. Although the domain names are different, the content is the exactly the same. Conversely, the Membership Site has not changed; it can be found at www.cfuwmembership.org. More details are provided below on how to use the two different websites, as well as changes that have occurred to some of the links in out older email communications as a result of the switch over to the new website.
 
CFUW’s Main Website (www.cfuw.org ), (www.cfuw.ca ) or (www.fcfdu.org )
 
CFUW has 3 different domains that all take you to the same content/website: www.cfuw.org, www.cfuw.ca and www.fcfdu.org 
While there is a place to login on the new website, the login is for staff use only. This is the gateway to our content management system, which allows staff to add and alter content on the website.
In the upper right hand side of the home page, you will find three As. These are for font sizes – small, medium and large. To change the size of the print, scroll your cursor over the size of A that you want. The default setting on the website is medium.
Under the font size, you will see a magnifying glass where you can search the website for something. For example, if you wish to find the form for special projects, type in “special projects” and you will see that that form is located under Forms and Manuals. You can then click on that section and scroll down to the Special Projects Application. You can follow this same process to find other information of interest, such as “Resolutions”, and “the Communicator”.
On the home page, you will see a blue bar with the words Home, About Us; Advocacy/Policy; Membership; Fellowships; Clubs and Councils. These headings indicate the separate sections of the website. If you click on one of the titles, for example- Advocacy/Policy, it will take you to that section. If you look down the left hand side of the Advocacy/Policy page, you will see the sub-sections or menus for that section. You may then click on the section you wish to visit. You will see a Take Action section, as well as Advocacy Issues, Resolutions and the Policy Book all listed there.
If you wish to request a certificate, you may find the form to do so under Forms and Manuals in the Clubs and Councils section.
A new item that may be of interest to you on this website is the CFUW calendar with important dates and deadlines, which you may access on the Home page and also on the Clubs and Councils page.
 
Older Links in CFUW Email Communications:
In email communications from CFUW National Office, such as the CFUW News & Updates, the Week in Review, and other notices, there are hyperlinks (a word, phrase, or image that you can click on to jump to the location of a new document/form or webpage). With the switch over to the new website, many of the hyperlinks in older email communications (prior to the beginning of February 2012) will no longer work because the documents were hosted on our old website and subsequently moved to our new website (meaning they have a new location). In that event, you may go to our new website at www.cfuw.org and the document or form will be there. If you have difficulty finding the item you are looking for, you can use the “search” function on the website, which is described in the section above, or you can contact the National Office for assistance.
 
The Membership Site (www.cfuwmembership.org)
What is the membership site used for? You can update club contact information; enter or update names of club executives; enter or update club executive positions; enter club membership numbers; get the invoice for your club dues and enter the public email address and website address that you want to appear on the main cfuw.org website.
The membership site requires a club username and password. If you do not know or remember yours, please contact Désirée in Member Services at cfuwgen@rogers.com
The login for the membership site is on the top right hand side of the home page
Data entry instructions are found at the bottom of the Membership Site home page
What is the tricky part to remember about the membership site? In order to change the name of someone in an executive position, the first step is to ensure that the person is included in the list of club executive people.
For further instructions on how to use the Membership Site, please visit: http://www.cfuw.org/en-ca/clubsandcouncils/linkstomembershipsite.aspx

Continue reading »]]> March 19 General Meeting
Operating Engineer’s Hall
7 p.m.

There are many things happening on Monday night.

 Dinner Tickets available for CFUW Oakville Annual General Meeting, May 14, Cost $40.  Speaker is Mary Jane Lovering, landscape architect.  Topic:  Healing Garden

 Book Sale  All Proceeds to UWC of Oakville Scholarship Fund.  Clean off your shelves and buy new books for $2 each.  Bring gently used books before 7 p.m.

 Tea Party  Wear your spring bonnet and enjoy tea and sweets while listening to the Halton Youth Symphony Trio.

 Toonie for CARE’s Maternal and Child Health Programming

 International Women’s Day celebration with Lise Moras

 Resolutions Choose a resolution to study.  Resolutions available in the March newsletter and the background information available on the CFUW National website. http://www.cfuw.org/Portals/0/Proposed%20resolutions%20booklet%20for%20amendments.pdf

 Door Prize (will be drawn at end of evening)

 Budget for 2012-2013 will be presented.

 See you Monday.

 Anne Douglas
President, CFUW Oakville

Continue reading »]]> Monday, January 16 is the General Meeting for CFUW Oakville. 

The Keynote speaker will be Dr. Laurel Trainor of McMaster University’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour.  The topic is:  How Music Affect Brain Development.

Teri Shaw has volunteered to have her name stand for nomination to the position of CFUW National Vice President, Advocacy for another term.  Presently, Teri is CFUW Ontario Council Advocacy Coordinator and CFUW National Vice President, Advocacy.  Teri was CFUW Oakville President in 2001.

On Monday, members will be asked to vote on a motion to nominate Teri as Vice President, Advocacy on the CFUW National Board.  Below are highlights of Teri’s Advocacy experience.

See you at the Operating Engineers Banquet Hall at 7:00 for the social hour.

Anne Douglas

CFUW Oakville, President

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Teri Shaw CFUW Advocacy Highlights, 2010 – 2011

January 8, 2012

Administrative:

• Advocacy Strategic Plan, passed by Board, June 2011
• Policies including Partnerships, Advocacy guidelines
• Study on Board Committees, September 2011
• Established Advocacy Committee involving the Advocacy Standing Committees
• Analysis of Advocacy Communications tools

What happened at National:

Resolutions – advocacy

• Create the tool-kits for resolution advocacy
• The highlight this year is Irwin Cotler’s Private member’s bill on Non-State Torture

Working with parliament

• Briefs to Finance on the Budget
• Called to speak to the Committee on the Status of Women to speak on the long-form census;
• Called to speak to the Liberal Women’s Caucus
• Major campaign on the Gun Registry over the past two years; won the battle, but ultimately lost the war
• A number of one-on-one MP meetings, including the Minister of the Status of Women’s office
• National creates packages of template letters and information sheets for clubs on a number of topics

Working with NGOs

• Projects with a number of them, like Elizabeth Fry on the current Crime Omnibus Bill; on projects for International Women’s Day; with the Grandmothers to Grandmothers concerning Canada’s Access to Medicine Regime, for example
• Working with the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights, a roundtable of national women’s organization.  We are attempting to support it in some fashion as funding is being cut for most of the organizations

Working with clubs & club members:

• Campaigns – “Policy to Action” establish a new method to use policy rather than just create new resolutions every year
• Study groups – Aboriginal Study Group, Afghan Focus Group and the Child Care Initiative
• Issue Liaisons – reviving a project involving members monitoring issues for us.

What do I do:

• As mentioned earlier, the Strategic Plan and two studies; created and work with the Advocacy Committee; established policies and projects
• Assist and work with the advocacy Standing Committees
• Vet letters and activities
• Assist with the new website

Continue reading »]]> We are very saddened to report that one of our long time members, Mary Harvey, has passed away.

A visitation for Mary will be held at Kopriva Taylor Community Funeral Home, 64 Lakeshore Road East, this Friday, January 13 from 2 – 4 pm. and 7 – 9 pm.

A memorial service will be held at St. Jude’s this Saturday, January 14 at 2:00 pm. Reception to follow in the Victoria Hall.

Please keep the Harvey family in your thoughts and prayers.

Anne Douglas, President, CFUW Oakville

by Susan Walkinshaw, Membership Chair, CFUW Oakville susanwalkinshaw@cogeco.ca Tel: 905-338-0572