2024 Provincial Convention

I attended the convention as one of the Prince George Diocesan Accredited Delegates. I thought that the Kamloops CWL did a great job with putting on the convention. I found it helpful that the hotel and convention venue were so close together. One of my favourite parts was the Rosary in 6 different languages.

2024 Provincial Convention

What an incredible opportunity it was to receive a subsidy to attend the provincial convention in Kamloops! This was the second time I was able to attend a provincial convention. The first time was in 2023 when we hosted in Prince George. Although I was able to take in much of it, I was also on duty working throughout that convention to help things run smoothly. I feel as though the convention in Kamloops was the first time I was really able to take in the full experience of a provincial convention.

There were many wonderful experiences at the convention in Kamloops! The first being the vice president’s dinner/meeting and the first bit of the pre-convention meeting. As a brand-new vice president, it was a wonderful learning opportunity to be a part of this!

Attending the resolutions dialogue was another one of those great experiences! I have not had the opportunity to be part of that process before, and I really enjoyed it and found it quite educational. I realized that resolutions, although a lot of work, are not actually as scary as I always thought them to be, and are actually quite attainable if you are willing to do the work.

I know reports aren’t for everyone, but I enjoyed hearing both the provincial president’s and all of the diocesan president’s reports. I enjoy hearing what’s happening in other dioceses. It’s a sharing of ideas, that can be quite enriching.

I also really enjoyed hearing from Shari Guinta (National president) in her presentation on the three core values. It was interesting hearing about it from the national president’s perspective. I really like the focus on working in committees and in doing so creating more opportunity to engage more members. Member engagement is an ongoing project in my parish council, and this helped me generate a few ideas in how I might try and engage a couple of our newer members.

Father John Garden’s (Provincial Spiritual Advisor) presentations are always really good, and it was no different this time! I very much enjoyed both parts of his presentation! It’s an important topic to discuss and one that I think many Christians grapple with. As someone who has had some struggles with my own mental health in years past, I always think discussion and awareness is critically important and I really appreciate that this is the national theme this time.

I also really enjoyed Dr. Gerry Turcotte’s presentation on social justice! It really showed how tangible things are that we can do as a council to promote social justice in our communities and how it often overlaps with service activities we are already doing!

I can’t remember where it was discussed, but I also appreciated hearing about league development and education. As the new VP, I hope to connect with our parish councils regarding training/educational experiences and knowing the resources available just fuels this idea. It was quite a succinct statement to hear, “We are not a fundraising body for other charitable organizations.” This really put things in perspective for me and highlights the idea of using some existing league resources to really take advantage of some educational opportunities, as I have always thought about it from the opposite perspective of saving the League money and not creating extra expenses. This could really enable us to create opportunity for higher level workshops or speakers on the odd occasion.

Other highlights included the multicultural rosary and both skits at the end of the day on Saturday! Those were incredibly entertaining! And although it probably goes without saying, I also really enjoyed the western dinner and dance and the banquet!

Another wonderful aspect of conventions is getting to know some other members in communities beyond our own and the sharing that comes with this. This in and of itself is quite inspiring! Having that space and time to connect with each other is always an awesome experience, and somehow never feels long enough!

Again, thank you so very much for the subsidy to attend the convention! It was a great few days and I thought Kamloops did a wonderful job hosting! I left there feeling energized, inspired, and enriched with some ideas to take back to both my parish and diocesan councils!

Thank you,