CHAPTER REPORTS
St. James-Assiniboia Chapter
Dorothy Young, Communications Chair
T
he St. James-Assiniboia Chapter of RTAM
held a very successful Coffee House and AGM
in McMaster House on Thursday, September
12, 2019. Thirty-nine of our members were in
attendance and three guests. The Executive elected
for 2019 - 20 at the meeting are:
Chairperson
Lynn Land
Vice Chair
Shelley Herbert
Secretary/Recorder Rudy Peters
Treasurer
Emily Williamson
Membership/
Communications Dorothy Young
Members at Large Marj Bilous, Will Peters,
Linda Scott, Carol Szuminsky
We also have three members on the Provincial
RTAM Board of Directors: Bill Cann, Alison Logan
and Linda Scott
Thanks to Provincial RTAM’s financial support,
members present enjoyed coffee/tea/water as well
as delicious apple crisp and ice cream. Thank you
to Emily Williamson, Lynn Land, Shelley Herbert,
and Mary Starodub, our wonderful bakers! The
entertainment at the Coffee House was the gift
exchange. Members present had their names
drawn from a pumpkin and they were entitled to
choose a wrapped package from the table or steal
an opened package from someone who had chosen
before them. This was a lot of fun and twenty-five
members went home with prizes. On behalf of
the Chapter, thanks to Linda Scott for getting and
wrapping the gifts for the exchange. Seven door
Coffee Break '19
prizes were also awarded. Thank you to Lynn Land,
Dorothy Young, Marj Bilous and Carol Szuminsky
for your donated prizes, so 27 people did not go
home empty handed! .
James Bedford, the President of The Manitoba
Teachers’ Society, brought greetings. He expressed
a desire to work for closer ties between active and
retired teachers, the need for a strong association,
and is looking forward to receiving advice on how
to strengthen the public education system. He
introduced Nathan Martindale, Vice-President of
the Society.
Peggy Prendergast, President of the Provincial
RTAM, brought greetings and spoke about Bill C27
and the coalition that is taking a close look at it.
She expressed satisfaction at the establishment of
a capital fund within the Winnipeg Foundation in
the amount of $50,000, the interest on which will be
used to provide awards to nominated descendents
of retired teachers. She expressed the hope to see it
grow through donations to the fund. She also drew
attention to several booklets of interest to seniors,
and announced that the RTAM website was being
redesigned to make it more user friendly.
Joyce McGinnis, DARTA President
T
he Dauphin Area Retired Teachers hosted
a Coffee Break afternoon on October 11 at
the Dauphin Market Place Mall. This was a
fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Society. With the
sale of baked goods and donations we were able to
donate $571.30 to the society.
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