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Editorial Every Women ’5 Institute member can change community image cu l l t l ' is hard to believe I have been or of Home & Country for over a .7 now. I have done many different gs and visited many different ,es in that year thanks to invita- ts from organizations such as the men's Institutes, to be a guest tker or to participate in a rally. .vever, some of the opportunities 3 come directly from my employâ€" . the Ontario Ministry of iculture and Food. vne such opportunity arose in ruary and March when I took to road and participated in the RSVP ral Seminars for Vital People) Program as a speaker. I was glad to see so many of you also seized the RSVP opportunity and attended the seminars to learn about communica- tlons. My particular topic was Improving the image of Your Organization in the Community. During the session, parâ€" ticipants worked in pairs to discover their organization’s image in the com- munity at present. It was an enlight- ening exercise! I would like to share some of those discoveries with readers, particularly those who couldn’t make it to an RSVP. In most cases, Women‘s Institute members heard a general lack of knowledge about their organization from other RSVP participants. Some people would know nothing about Wl â€" which totally surprised members - but occurred in settings where an urban population was nearby and members of urban organizations were in attendance. The majority of instances involved knowledge of Women’s institutes as caterers, as 4-H club supporters, as quilters, as socializing tea~drinkers. WI members at the RSVPs soon realized that not enough accurate in» formation about their organization is reaching the community. Residents are not aware of the educational pro- grams, the myriad of opportunities and policies within Women‘s Insti- tutes. And, members realized that is the information which best reflects what Women‘s Institutes are all about today. Yes, many groups do quilt and cater, but they also initiate resoluâ€" tions which influence governmental decisions; raise money to help bring clean water to Third World countries; provide programs which teach mem- bers about the computer age, crime prevention. better eating habits and Canada‘s other cultures. At one RSVP an interesting com~ ment was made by one man. "No," he admitted, “I don't know anything about Women's Institutes, and my wife is vice-president of a branch." Perhaps there is a lesson in that state- ment. At the RSVP I talked about dif- ferent ways to promote your group in the community, but one way every Women‘s Institute member can help in this project is to start at home. Do you talk about your WI activities to your spouse? your children? your grandchildren? your neighbours? your friends? If you do. and you talk about resolutions and other special programs, that's great. If you do, and you talk about the banquet you catered on the weekend, remember to add what you learned at last month's meeting. If you don't, perhaps you could start today.