Annual Report — UNPAC (Mb) 1997 - 1998

UN Platform for Action Committee (Manitoba)

The Coordinating Committee, functioned as the Executive Committee of UNPAC (MB) and was responsible for managing the affairs of the organization in accordance with the Constitution and By-laws and Policies. It consisted of 12 members, including the chairs of the strategic committees: MB Outreach, Global Outreach, Community Action, Conference, and Communication/Information Technology.

This 2nd year in the life of the newly formed organization could be described as one of “implementation” ie. concretizing the new structure and policies developed during the previous year. An important task was the development of linkages between the action- oriented committees and cohesiveness between the individual committees and the Coordinating Committee.

During the 1997-98 membership year, the Committee met 9 times. There were 5 Regular meetings, 3 Special meetings and 1 Planning session. The meetings provided a forum for Community chairs to share information, report on initiatives, either planned or implemented, and opportunities to work collaboratively on specific issues in a structured, yet open and flexible manner. All committees implemented activities related to the Conference Theme. (Please see reports)

The finances of UNPAC (MB) were managed by the finance committee chaired by Joan Butcher until her departure, then by Bunny Gurvey. The committee consisted of the treasurer Lydia Giles, the chair of Coordinating Committee and representatives from the Committee: Global Outreach: Monica Singh/Muriel Smith; Conference: Babs Friesen/Justine Kiwanuka; Community Action: Robby Simpson; Communications and Information Technology: Roberta Bishop; Manitoba Outreach: Joan Butcher.

The committee reviewed the annual budgets submitted by the committee chairs, and the Coordinating Committee, and the funding application to the Status of Women. It also reviewed and clarified policies and procedures related to: 1. Petty Cash 2. Travel 3. Budget requests ie general budget and post budget funding.

The Communications/Information Technology Committee chaired by Mary Scott used several strategies to publicize the initiatives of the action oriented committees of UNPAC (MB). They include a table display which was developed with the assistance of Robby Simpson and Audrey McClelland; a home page; an extensive exchange e-mail list; publication of the newsletter; an UNPAC (MB) brochure with the logo developed by Kady Denton and a very successful Internet workshop which educated and trained a number of participants.

In working with others to carry out the objectives of the Platform for Action, UNPAC (MB) supported the project entitled “More than just a Dozen”, an initiative of a group in Brandon. The project is a multimedia presentation focussing on the 12 Critical Areas and the key developmental themes associated with each. There will be a series of radio programs run by a network of radio stations across Canada, including the Universities of Manitoba and Winnipeg, accompanying booklets, note cards and an interactive website.

UNPAC (MB) also networked with the University of Winnipeg. The Coordinating Committee welcomed the volunteer placement of Allison Riese, with UNPAC (MB) as part of course work for credit in a “Women’s Practicuum” Studies course.

As part of growth and development the Coordinating Committee engaged in a Planning Session, facilitated by Barb McKay of North Star Facilitators. Members took an analytical look at the past, present and future of UNPAC (MB). During the last session, small groups focussed on Decision Making, Communications, Financial Processes and Liability. The summarized information will be passed on to the in-coming committee.

Recommendations

1. That the in-coming Coordinating Committee act on the Planning Session Report
2. That general membership meetings be held during the year.

As my term of office ends, I say thanks for the opportunity to have served in the role of chair of the Co-ordinating Committee. It was a pleasure and a learning experience working with members, to maximize the effectiveness of UNPAC (MB), while at the same time recognizing the individual strengths of each member. I sincerely thank the members of the Coordinating Committee who supported me, and used their time unsparingly to initiate and implement activities to support the objectives of the Platform for Action. Thanks to The Status of Women and others for their financial support.

Esme Stewart, Chair

Communications and Information Technology Committee

This is the first year that a Communications and Information Technology Committee met as a formal part of UNPAC (MB), although some of the functions had been done previously on an ad hoc basis. The Committee as a whole met three times, but a working group, consisting of Allison Riese, Irene McKenzie, Roberta Bishop, Muriel Smith and Lauren Tinley organized the Alice in Cyberland Symposium, held January 23rd in Winnipeg. This working group met an additional 6 times, plus an evaluation meeting - a total of 10 meetings. Much of the organizing work was also done using e-mail.

The Communications Committee had responsibility for the following -

• produced an updated brochure on UNPAC (MB);
• arranged for letterhead with the UNPAC (MB) logo;
• produced and assembled a table top display for UNPAC, identifying the 12 Critical Areas and using pictures from the Beijing Conference;
• produced Issue Sheets on Violence, Women and the Media, Poverty, Health, The Girl Child and Education;
• produced a membership form;
• produced and distributed to UNPAC (MB) members, a newsletter "Postings from UNPAC (MB)";
• along with the Coordinating Group Chair, wrote a letter to UNPAC (MB) members to accompany the 1997 Conference Report updating members on UNPAC (MB) activities;
• recommended to the UNPAC (MB) Coordinating Committee the use of a phone line, Voice Tel for the members and the public to access information on UNPAC (MB);
• recommended a one day session to assess current and future directions for UNPAC (MB);
• produced the Annual Report;
• produced and assembled a table top display "The Girl Child" for the Conference.

The Information Technology Committee worked hard to support using information technology to advance women’s equality. This was particularly evident with the successful "Alice in Cyberland" Symposium. Over 100 women attended. The evaluations were very positive. The net cost of the Alice in Cyberland Symposium to UNPAC (MB) was approximately $4,500. Many thanks to Roberta, Irene, Allison, Lauren, Muriel and of course Esther Tran our Conference Coordinator. Also several members helped out, volunteering their time at the event - Audrey McLelland and Babs Friesen. You were fantastic! Special thanks as well to our funders and supporters of "Alice" - Status of Women Canada, The Minister Responsible for the Status of Women - The Hon. Rosemary Vodrey, The Manitoba Women’s Advisory Council, Manitoba Industry, Trade and Tourism - Business Resource Centre, The Margaret Laurence Chair in Women’s Studies, Canadian Congress of Learning Opportunities for Women, Personal Touch Computer Services, Software Express and Pro-Images Presentation Systems.

Two other major activities of the Chair and the I.T. Committee were the updating of the home page for UNPAC (MB) - (almost 1,200 visits since May 1997), and the development of an e-mail list to share messages from the net related to the Fourth World Conference on Women. The home page is currently being revised with more graphics; the e-mail list has about 30 UNPAC (MB) members from Manitoba, Europe and Africa. Future directions for this committee will depend on the thoughts and time availability of the new chair or chairs.

I definitely feel the internal communications for UNPAC (MB) is an issue, particularly the sharing of a common vision, purpose and work plan. This must be communicated effectively to all members.

Recommendations

1. That there be two committees, a Communications Committee, with responsibility for the Communication functions for UNPAC(MB), both internal and external communications, and an Information Technology Committee, to advance women’s access and use of the Internet and emerging technologies;
2. That the Communications Committee be the Coordinating Group, with a Chair who will be a Coordinating Group member;
3. That new members be sought from the community and UNPAC(MB) with a specific interest in advancing women’s equality by using the Internet and other technologies for the Information Technology Committee.

Thank you to the committee members and to the Coordinating Group. It has been great fun to work with you and to accomplish so much.

Mary Scott, Chair

Membership Committee Report

In 1997 the membership function began to be formalized with a committee chair, representatives from the four strategic committees, communications member and a member who continued to maintain and update membership lists. Decisions were made by informal exchange, on the telephone, or at other meetings of UNPAC (MB)

Activities included:

• In July, sending membership forms to 20 formerly affiliated organizations, with an accompanying letter from the chair of the Coordinating Committee;
• In August, providing the chairs of the Strategic Committees with updated lists of members who had indicated on their forms an interest in serving on their particular committee. Later, upon request, complete membership lists were provided. This was updated two more times.
• October - membership forms were revised to include membership year, more personal contact information (eg. E-mail), membership chair phone number and terar off section so UNPAC (MB) information could be retained.
• Membership forms were made available with a display at the U of W Stirring Up a Storm conference. (This occurred again at Alice in Cyberland in January and at other events where other UNPAC (MB) members were involved.)
• Ongoing - Membership forms were received by mail, fax, committee chairs and representatives, personal contact at conferences and meetings. Membership forms and brochures were sent to approximately six interested persons who called or responded to the home page. Some of those persons were contacted by telephone. One special meeting was held relating to a new affiliation with a project "More than Just a Dozen".
• Contacted members by telephone or mail to discuss their intended involvement with UNPAC (MB) if they had not already indicated this.
• Received telephone calls from members with particular issues they wished addressed (two or three times by the Chair).
• Total membership as of March 1998 - 98 including 12 organizations. There is some overlap with individual members.
• New members during the year -7 individual and 2 organizational.
• Inactive members - 4 have left the province, some are too busy with other organizations etc. at present or live too far from where meetings are currently held to attend, have withdrawn because of illness or accident and reasons unknown to us.

I am very grateful to the following persons: Lydia Giles for keeping accurate and up to date membership lists and suggesting how they should be distributed; Babs Friesen for assisting particularly with the lists of organizations to be contacted; Mary Scott for developing membership forms and recruitment activities; Sheila Betker, Liz Sarin Noelle Boughton (reps from the committees with Babs) and Esme Stewart, chair of the Coordinating Committee and the others who have supported me in this role. Thank you.

Audrey McCelland, Chair

Global Outreach Committee

Global Outreach Committee met 9 times. There are over 40 members but average attendance is around 12 to 15. Minutes are fairly full so absent members can still keep in touch. The format has shifted somewhat from year 1: each meeting combines business with a Round Robin update from those present and a program focus. These have included:

• reports on annual meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, New York, (child labour, mainstreaming women’s issues, trafficking of children, and how to value unwaged work, out of which grew a Women’s Peace Petition which we signed;
• the plight of women in Afghanistan and Minister Axworthy’s response to our earlier letter;
• Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons treaty Conference;
• the CRIAW post-Beijing wrap-up meeting where the priorities of a clearing-house function for CRIAW, ans political and economic literacy programs for women were adopted (MACSW has since been distributing papers on economic literacy);
• video A Balkan Journey: Fragments from the other side of the war, about how women in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia organized to help one another before, during and after the hostilities;
• a report on Breast Cancer and Environment international conference, followed up by a video on the conference and lobbying about research and women with Hon. Ron Duhamel, Minister for Science and Technology;
• Climate Change Petition;
• Visits with different religious communities: Diwali, the Hindu festival; luncheon with the Council of Christians and Jews at Shaarey Zedek synagogue, dialogue with two Muslim women;
• Video by Marjorie Beaucage on her experiences in China while attending the Beijing Conference;
• a discussion on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI);
• and we had a Christmas Party!

Monica Singh and Gisèlle Sauette-Roch have agreed to let their names stand as co-chairs for the coming year. The Committee would welcome a greater focus and coordination with other committees but has also valued its ability to be both flexible and responsive to the interests and initiatives of its members. Through the Internet, the chair has been building an extensive resource library on the many issues affecting women. Next year’s committee might think about this and how this could be made available to UNPAC (MB) members.

I had a ball!

Muriel Smith, Chair

Manitoba Outreach Committee

The Outreach Committee met formally four times in 1997 and once per speaker phone. Numbers attending varied between 8 and 15 people. Sub committees were set up for specific tasks.

The April meeting came to a consensus that the priority for educational funding remains Northern Manitoba.

1996-1997 Projects

1. Funding Assistance for Community Projects in the rural and northern Manitoba. Our sub committee in Brandon selected approximately 8 projects for funding. Each community group was given a copy of the PFA.

The completed report on the Take Action Projects is available at the UNPAC (MB) Conference. Kady Denton, Beth Sanders, Donna Everitt and Mary Annis receive our thanks for implementing this outreach project. To date we have received applications for funding from communities in Dauphin, Ste. Rose and Winnipeg.

2. Rural Tour

Jennifer Howard and Janet Smith are providing workshops to meet the project’s objectives of informing rural women about the 12 critical areas as they relate to local women’s needs and concerns. Action plans are established that could be implemented at the local level. The proposed workshop locations will include Thompson, Flin Flon, The Pas, Lynn Lake and a northern First Nation community. The tour is scheduled to take place in May 1998.

3. Information Packages on the 12 Critical Areas

Allison Riese has completed 4 packages and is committed to producing 8 more. These are planned for communities and schools. Distribution still has to be planned. Allison needs our ongoing support to develop and evaluate these packages. Thank you, Allison.

Discussions took place at several meetings with Cindy Hanson and Meegan Moon regarding “More Than Just a Dozen”. We hope to work together with this project.

Thanks to all our committee members who have helped us achieve our goals to date.

We appreciate the support of Esme Stewart, UNPAC (MB) Coordinating Group Chairperson, and the Coordinating Group.

Liz Sarin, Chair

Community Action Committee

The mandate of this committee is: To provide education, networking and monitoring related to UNPAC(MB) initiatives.

Education: furthering our own and others’ understanding of the social and political implications of issues addressed in the UN Platform for Action by analyzing issues and encouraging governments to make and keep commitments.

Networking: creating linkages and allies with other groups and individuals active within the province and withing governments in Manitoba to further implementation of the Platform for Action.

Monitoring: assessing and reporting on promises and progress made in Manitoba by governments in implementing the Platform for Action.

This committee was originally chaired by Noelle Boughton, who stepped down in November for health reasons. Since then, the committee has been co-chaired by Nancy Buchanan and Robby Simpson.

Noelle was instrumental in organizing one of this committee’s major actions this year, which was a federal election forum co-sponsored with MACSW, NAC, the Coalition Opposing Violence Against Women and the Council of Women of Winnipeg. The well attended forum was held on May 22 at Crossways in Common and chaired by Deborah Stienstra. The purpose of the forum was to have candidates in the upcoming federal election discuss the impact of their parties’ policies on women.

Last March, we attended a meeting organized by Ginny Hasselfield, Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, at which social action groups were asked to suggest projects which the local business community could fund in order to improve the quality of life in Winnipeg. As a follow-up to this meeting, the Community action Committee wrote a lengthy letter to Ginny Hasselfield and enclosed our fact sheet on Women and Poverty, suggesting that it be used as a guideline in efforts to eradicate poverty. Other suggestions included: financial support for an economic study on the effects of public policy on women; support for on-going initiatives such as Taking Charge!; Credit Circle programs; the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition; child care programs, youth drop-in centres, wellness centres for seniors, the Social Planning Council, the Immigrant Women’s Association. A similar letter was sent to Minister Rosemary Vodrey and NDP Leader Gary Doer.

In the fall of 1997, the Community Action committee agreed to focus its efforts on outreach to young women in view of the theme for UNPAC’s annual conference: Girls Today, Women Tomorrow. Between December and March of this year, representatives of this committee met with six focus groups of young women to talk about our organization, the conference, and the PFA and to listen to the concerns of these young women from their own perspectives. The focus groups were from New Directions, Daniel MacIntyre Collegiate, Children of the Earth School, the University of Winnipeg, Dauphin and Carman. In total we spoke to approximately 43 young women ranging in age from 17 to 24 and 2 young men. A detailed report of our focus group outreach is available.

As a result of our consultations with young women, a youth space will be made available at UNPAC’s annual conference so that young women may meet together, as well as participate in the scheduled workshops.

The Community Action Committee organized a workshop for the annual conference around the issues of violence against women, including date rape, with Gladys Marquez of the Women’s Health Clinic and Ella Clark of the YWCA Youth Violence Prevention Project as co-facilitators. Also, as part of our initiative to involve young women in the conference, this committee provided a subsidy to several young women to offset the conference registration fee where it appeared there was a need to do so to ensure their participation.

At this time, the future of the Community Action Committee is uncertain due to limited human resources. It has been suggested that a more effective way to operate might be to involve the entire membership of UNPAC in identifying community action initiatives, with a working group struck for each initiative. In this way, more members of UNPAC may be encouraged to participate in community action projects as they arise, and when personal energy and time permit. Further discussions as to the future of this committee will take place after the Annual General Meeting.

Nancy Buchanan & Robby Simpson
Co-chairs

Conference Committee

Time has gone by too quickly for the Conference Committee. In this short time, the UNPAC Conference Committee was poised with a challenge of this year’s conference planning.

Although the planning of the conference was not easy, it was an interesting and educational experience. The Committee explored the 12 Critical Areas of Concern from the UN Platform for Action from the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. The Girl Child, as one of the Areas of the Critical Concerns struck the members of the committee as today’s great concern.

We explored the inequalities of the girl child from the local to the global level, her inequalities in opportunities with boys. The theme "Girls Today Women Tomorrow" gave the Conference Committee a glimpse of the girl child’s journey through life into womanhood. This resulted into this year’s conference. We noted that the United Nations

Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) at its forty-second session also included Girl Child as one of the four Critical Concerns in its follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women: Implementation of Strategic Objectives and Action in the Critical Areas of Concern.

This year’s conference planning assisted us as committee members to look back in the years and related our experiences to the present conditions that face the girl child. Together we face the challenge of sharing, listening, educating, improving and implementing what will make a life worth living for the girls who are tomorrow’s women leaders.

On behalf of the UNPAC Conference Committee, and UNPAC organization, I would like to express our appreciation to the Status of Women for Funding that made it possible for the conference to take place, U of W and U of M Women Studies’ support in collaboration and financial contribution to the conference. The committee also wish thank Esther Tran, the Conference Coordinator for her work in our monthly meetings and the work towards the conference. To all the members of UNPAC Conference Committee, I wish to thank you for your work, experience and support we have shared as a team.

Justine Kiwanuka, Chair

Coordinating Group Members, 1997 - 1998

Coordinating Group Members

Chair:	Esme Stewart
Past Chair:	Sheila Betker
Secretary:	Robby Simpson
Treasurer:	Lydia Giles
Conference Committee:	Justine Kiwanuka
Community Action:	Noelle Boughton (until November 1997) Nancy Buchanan and Robby Simpson (November - March)
Manitoba Outreach:	Liz Sarin
Global Outreach:	Muriel Smith
Membership:	Audrey McClelland
Communications and Information Technology:	Mary Scott
Members-at-Large:	Audrey Myers Rosemary Friesen