The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Pres/dam“ G o ' .u 0 Last fall was a busy one! I had the opportunity to attend the ACWW Canada Area Conference in Winnipeg hosted by the Manitoba Women's Institutes. It was a great experience to meet with ACWW President, Dato Ursula Goh from Malaysia, Margaret Yetman, Canada Area President and Sheila Needham, FWIC President. It was a time of coming together with Wl Members across Canada to hear a speaker from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and to learn about the future Canadian Human Rights Museum to be built in Winnipeg. We heard from a panel ofspeakers on international interests such as a developing orphanage in Haiti, the services of the Canada Ukraine FARM Program, a registered nurse who volunteered on a hospital medical ship in West Africa and an Executive Director ongriculture in the Classroom in Manitoba. Business was taken care of and discussions took place on resolutions that were brought forth. Area Conventions provided excellent programs, speakers and entertainment aroundvariedthemes usingtheInternationalYearofthe Potato,thelnternational Year ofLanguages, the environment and communications. Conventions provide a great opportunity to learn and grow, to renew friendships and make new friends. I traveled to 13 conventions during thefall and Cochrane ‘Terniskaming's convention which was held in the spring. Thank you to all WI Members who graciously hosted me in their homes - I really appreciate your hospitality! At the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair I had the pleasure of presenting the Woman of Excellence in Agriculture Award to Joanne Currie who lives on a farm with her husband and two daughters in the Region of Peel. This award is a wonderful chance for you to acknowledge a woman you know who is making a special contribution to the Royal Winter Fair. Spend some time with your Branch thinking about who in your community would be a good candidate and be sure to get your nomination package into the office before the deadline. Read more about this on page 10. Have you started a "green" list of changes you have made in your home or community that could make a difference to our environment? This list could consist of friendly products that you have purchased or created yourself for your home, how you select your food based on the impact it has on the environment, how you reduce waste or anything you are doing! Start with one or two actions that can easily be integrated into your daily routine - every step, no matter how small, counts. Check out www.localeating.ca or www.foodland. gov.on.ca. Marg Eberle is waiting for those lists! Her contact information is in my column of the fall newsletter. If you have any questions about this challenge, please contact me. We welcome our second new Branch, Picton Wl, into the FWIO family. We wish them every success and to all Branches as we work towards increasing our membership and forming more new Branches. Yours for Home and Country, .loy @ET NEWS There has been a change in registration process for the FWIC Convention in PEI. FWIC Convention 2009 packages will be available January 2009 by downloading them from FWIC‘s website - www.na|d.calfwic. Click on News and Views and follow the links. Theforms can also be obtained from Audrey Farquharson Mt. Herbert Charlottetown RR 5 PEl C1A 7J8 Phone: (902) 569-2612 or Email: foxrun65@hotmail.com. ‘ CALENDAR ' Upcoming Provincial Board Meetings: April 20 - 22, 2009 August 11-13, 2009