President’s Report 2003-2004

Welcome to our Annual General Meeting,

This is an opportunity for us to examine our activities of the past year and to launch ourselves into the year ahead.  Our past year has been one of "feeling out our future".  In many cases, we have been much more decisive than "feely", but many of our budding ideas are still in formation.

We have determined that "we want to be a Champion Multi-Centred Rural Model for the delivery of affordable services and programs to women and girls of all ages who live in communities in Muskoka" and that, over the next three years, we will build organization stability to achieve this vision and mission. I hope that sounds familiar!

On our way to meet our objectives in 2003-04 we have entered into and completed a Strategic Mapping Process.  We certainly couldn't have done this without the direction and support of Stuart Morley, and we are most grateful to him for his role in putting us on this path.  The sessions that the board had with Stuart not only helped us design our future, but also acquainted us with each other on a more personal level that has most certainly enhanced relationships and board productivity.

We have also worked to increase our fund raising capacity.  Our second annual Women of Distinction event matched funds raised in 2002, and we also benefited from a 2^nd year of revenue from Vagina Monologues.  In addition to our fund raising activities, a biking event is in the planning stage for later in the year, as well as another new venture that would be premature to announce at this time.

Revenue generation is under development.  The Membership Committee made several vigorous efforts to increase our membership base.  There was the January Supermarket day, when on Jan 24^th Board members made themselves available in local supermarkets to interest the public in the |YWCA and to sell memberships.  The Membership Committee also set up a table at the Women in Business event at the Holiday Inn in Huntsville to meet people and to sell memberships.  E-mails, newsletters, contests, and considerable energy drove this campaign. Many more people know about us now!

We have investigated many related programming possibilities.  We've met with HRDC to explore program delivery options, we've met with other organizations to discuss collaborative relationships, and we've attended community meetings regarding the community Superbuild project.  We've answered newspaper advertisements and applied for countless funding grants.  Appeals have been made at council meetings in the various municipalities to negotiate program space so that we could expand our programs.  We are experimenting at this time with a "Homework Club" and we have plans to expand our summer programs.  Carolyn has been tireless as she leads us in this search.

Our goal to set up a foundation that is alive and well, and you will most certainly be hearing more about this initiative in the future.

Movements towards a "multi-centered" rural model have also been made.  Our profile in Huntsville is flourishing. To date we have graduated 18 Women in Business in Huntsville.   Plans are in the works to present Women in Business as an evening program in either Port Carling or Gravenhurst in the very near future.  We are also delivering Techno Splash, and Girlz Unplugged and Kidz Biz programs in outlying communities over the summer. 

Thanks to the entire board, we've come along way this year and we've carved out a path for ourselves to purposefully lead us to meet our objectives. A huge vote of thanks to our Executive Director Carolyn Bray, whose energy, skills and creativity are a dynamic resource that keeps us moving ahead.