President's
Platform for 2004-2005
by John Trent
The Regional Association of West Quebecers has achieved a great deal recently with Rick Henderson at the helm and a fine Board of Directors -- the largest and most representative in many years. It also has a wonderful balance of age groups. On our staff, unfortunately we have had to say goodbye to Julie Fine and Kathy Teasdale but we have warmly welcomed Gaetanne Séguin as our new Community Liaison and Communications Officer.
The New Residents Program has become one of our most successful programs with David Gillespie now running the service. We helped initiate a local chapter of Canadian Parents for French, which in turn has spun off into the creation of another chapter in Laval and so CPF now has a Quebec branch for the first time in its history. Thanks to Noel and Ilse-Marie Gates of the Board we now have a first class guide to cultural events in the region on our new eBulletin -- and our newly revamped Website is getting 3,000 hits a month. Thanks to Peggy Henderson and Francine d'Eça we have achieved one of our dreams last Christmas when we sponsored a dramatic reading of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' -- and raised $1,000 for charity to boot. We also held our first golf tournament (I was forced to play, much to everyone's amusement, except my partners) and raised money for the New Residents Program. Building on our long-standing Coulson prize for Outstanding Achievement we have decided this year to initiate an Awards Banquet for Outstanding West Quebecers. There is a new award for Community Service sponsored by the Greig family in honor of the much-regretted Graham Greig who contributed so much to West Quebec. There will also be new awards for leadership and for outstanding contributions in the fields of education, health and social services, arts and culture, youth, recreation and livable communities.
So, my first task is to work with the Board of Directors, our members and staff -- and let us not forget the Government, which maintains us financially -- to keep a good thing going. In particular it is important to keep smiles on our faces because community volunteer work should be both a learning experience and somewhat of a pleasure.
Now, let us turn to the future. Here is what I would like to help the West Quebecers achieve. After several years of sometimes-painful work, it would be nice to see some improvements in Gatineau's English-language practices and services. The world is our oyster so we should not close our eyes to events in the rest of the National Capital Region of which we are an integral part. We would like to sponsor with other partners a NCR Conference on French-English relations. Some estimates place the number of visual artists in the Outaouais at more than a thousand. WQ should be working with them to hold and an annual artists banquet and charity auction. It is hard to miss the fact that the Casino theatre continually stars American retreads. We think it would be wonderful if we could get them to showcase a first class production of our wonderful Outaouais talent. Our Vice-President, Shaun Peppy also wants us to promote smaller venues for our young artists. Our Association should also be working cooperatively with the CEDEC to promote economic development. This year it would be wonderful if our newly re-established Health and Social Services Committee could obtain the administrative support funding that would allow us to promote better access to these fundamental services.
So there you have it. With the community's help, the Regional Association of West Quebecers will be fulfilling its mandate by being active in language policies, French-English relations, community development, arts, culture, recreation, youth, education, and health and social services. By this time you may be saying he dreameth in color. If so, you would be right. These are not promises. They are projects on which we can work. Still, they are dreams. But that is part of the work of a president, to dream. Sometimes it is called leadership. I have also made one promise to my colleagues. It is to step aside as soon as we find a new champion.
John &
Colette Trent, 11 Williamson Rd., Chelsea,
Qué.,
Canada, J9B 1Z4
(819) 827-4407,
jtrent@uottawa.ca