womenvoters.ca

The Canadian Women Voters Congress is transitioning from the beautiful BC summer into an action packed fall. While the federal forecast seems to be pointing towards an imminent election, we hope that the busy politicos among you will find time to help us celebrate the 80th anniversary of Persons Day this fall.

‘The Politics of Women’s Lives’ Education Event
We are excited to announce that we have partnered with The University Women’s Club of Vancouver to hold an Education Day on Saturday, October 17th from 9:00 – 3:00 at Hycroft. The theme of the day will be ‘The Politics of Women’s Lives’. We will send out detailed information and post relevant details on our website.  Save the date! 

CWVC welcomes new board members
The Congress would also like to welcome our new board members, elected at the Annual General Meeting in June:

Audrey Ackah
Audrey was an intern at the British Columbia Legislature in 2002. As an intern, she had the opportunity to work with civil servants and with Members of the Legislative Assembly.  Audrey graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto with a Juris Doctor degree in 2005. Audrey practices labour and employment law and was  called to both the Ontario and British Columbia bars.  Audrey was a member of the Canadian Women Voters Congress 2009 Women’s Campaign School Committee.

Shoni Field
Shoni Field is a communications consultant by profession, and an advocate for engaging citizens in the political process by chance. Shoni was randomly selected to the BC Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform in 2004, and was a media spokesperson for STV in the 2005 and 2009 referendums.  Shoni also sits on the board of Fair Voting BC and blogs on women and politics. She attended the Women’s Campaign School in 2008.

Megan McKinney
Megan McKinney is an advocate and community activist with a diverse résumé. She has worked with the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS as a researcher in the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study, as a Constituency Assistant for two Members of Parliament, as a mental health worker and campaign co-ordinator for the Portland Hotel Society, and on election campaigns for all levels of government.

Grace Smith
Grace has worked in IT, organizational research and strategic business planning capacities in private, public, and international non-governmental organizations. Presently, Grace is a Business Support Manager for the Department of Finance at a public agency. In her spare time, she enjoys reading about the continuous improvement of people and organizations, effective leadership, and high-performing workplaces. Grace has an interest in the empowerment of women in becoming effective leaders in the public and voluntary sectors.

Bernice Davidson appointed Honourary Member
The board of directors recently passed a motion that honourary membership be granted to Bernice Davidson in recognition of her support and devotion to the Canadian Women Voters Congress since its inception. 

 
Bernice Davidson was among the founding members of the Canadian Women Voters Congress in 1998 in the office of Vice President. For many years her office provided a meeting place for the board as well as well as clerical support, a mailing address and database services for the Congress on a pro bono basis.

She served three terms as President and was invited to Yale University to be keynote speaker at their Women’s Campaign School in 2004. Her background in association management served the Congress well in two areas. During the year we left SFU to go to UBC there was a gap in university registration facilities and Bernice handled that process at home, earning $10,000 for the Congress that year. After her years on the board she knew that many documents are lost as they pass from one person to another, and made arrangements for a submission of Congress documents to Simon Fraser’s Archives in 2008.

Bernice Davidson joins a group of distinguished women currently holding honourary membership with the Congress:  Audrey Paterson, Charlene Brisson, Penny Priddy, Linda Reid and Joanne Silver. 

 
New web address and e-mail
We have updated our web address to a shorter and easier to remember form, www.womenvoters.ca which allows us to also update our e-mail address.  For general information and support, our new e-mail address is info@womenvoters.ca.