The Story of the Alberta Women's Institute

              THE

STORY

OF

THE

ALBERTA

WOMEN'S

INSTITUTES

full. The first task was to draft a constitution which would be in conformity with the Women's Institute Act as amended. Much credit is due Mrs. Beaubier and her Board for this work. The constitution was presented to the convention in 1923 and accepted in 1924 after a year's consideration.
The 1923 Convention At the 1923 convention held in the University of Alberta, the A.W,I.. was asked by the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. George Hoadley, to request the government to discontinue the grants that they had been paying to the Women's Institutes and Girls' Clubs, ($10.00 to the former and $5.00 to the latter). This they declined to do but referred the question to the individual branches to decide. At the 1924 session of the legislature these grants were cut off. Gone was the happy. carefree spirit of the A.W.I. which had met so happily two short years before and in its place was a grim determination to make the A.W.I. a self-supporting and worthy organization. Gone was their prestige as the only medium through which short courses, demonstrations and lectures from the Department of Agriculture were available and for which they had been responsible for providing a meeting place and insuring a worthwhile audience. The 1924 Convention At the 1924 convention in the Palliser Hotel, Calgary, the spirit of the A.W.I. was graphically expressed by Mrs. Murdock MacArthur. of Harmatten, in a speech scintillating with humor. She warned against the insidious dangers of indifference. She said that there are two words in the English language that are an abomination, "indifference" and "neutrality" and if she ever wrote a dictionary she would leave them out. The treasurer's report in that year showed how loyally W.I. women were rallying to the support of their organization but that the utmost care must be observed in order that the good work might be maintained. Lack of funds to permit the president or other officers to visit branches while constituency conveners were still inexperienced in organization, was a serious handicap at this time as practically all ne\\' branches were organized by mail, necessitating a voluminous correspondence on the part of provincial officers. So heavy was the work of the Secretary-Treasurer's office that the convention passed a resolt,tIon authorizing an honorarium of one hundred dollars a year to that officer. This was gratefully but firmly declined for the reason that the funds did not warrant such an expenditure during her term of office which concluded in 1927. During these years the community work of the Women's Institutes conbnued to flourish and generous contributions were still made to other organizations. In 1924 Mrs. Beaubier visited the Peace River country and gave and received much inspiration. -- 15 -