More than 200 women from across Canada and from all backgrounds will converge on Richmond next week for Canadian Federation of University Women’s (CFUW) annual general meeting and conference.
The CFUW’s Richmond branch will be the honoured hosts of the three-day event from June 22 to 24 at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel on Westminster Highway.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Gateways” with CFUW — which is a non-partisan, voluntary, self-funded organization with more than 100 clubs across the country — acknowledging Richmond’s significance as Canada’s gateway to the Pacific and to the organization’s role as a gateway to education for many girls and women through scholarships and advocacy.
And it will also be a double celebration this year, with the Richmond branch, which has around 85 members, marking its 50th anniversary.
“We’ve sort of been celebrating our 50th all this year and we’re going to have a big party in September, with past members and presidents at Quilchena Golf Club; that’s going to be a big deal,” said Deborah Track, communications chair for CFUW Richmond.
As well as the social side of the AGM and conference, there will be a series of workshops on subjects such as: Indigenous education for youth; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; the Terra Nova Nature School and social media.
The workshops, as the conference theme suggests, will all relate to “gateways” to lifelong learning.
The keynote speaker for the event is going to be Daphne Bramham, who will speak from her experience as an award-winning journalist and the work that led to her being named Champion of Child and Youth Rights by the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition in 2011.
Track also noted that nowadays, despite their club’s title, no one needs to have a degree to join the club.
“People maybe don’t realize that. We now have members from across the board,” said Track.
“It used to be 90 per cent teachers; but that has all changed, now it’s lawyers, business people and women from science and pharmacy.”
Conference attendees will also discuss and vote on two resolutions:
To urge government to ensure a safe and clean water supply on all First Nations reserves and to urge governments to work to create a universal pharmacare program.
Since its founding in 1919, CFUW has been working to improve the status of women, and to “promote human rights, public education, social justice and peace.”
CFUW Richmond holds its monthly meetings at the Kinsmen Pavilion, Richmond Nature Park, at 7:30 p.m. on the fourth Monday of the month.
More information is available online at CFUW-Richmond.org.
