West Hall, Sts Peter and Paul Church, Hamilton
13 members present- Barbara Benjamin, Judian Shardlow, Mane Arratia, Ellen Ryan, Bithika Raychaudhuri, Heather Johnston, Mary Buch, Anne Philpot, Jessie Kaye, Jan Lukas, Kay O'Sullivan, Leslie Wiens, Theresa Randles
Regrets from-Leah Campbell, Joy Warner, Martha Paynter, Kathy Clark, Rose Janson, Shelley Porteous, Shirley Routliffe, Diane Keesmaat
We had a jewelry/scarf sale for the first 10 minutes of the meeting.
The theatre group (Maggie, Lisbie, Shirley and Liz) are trying to find a suitable play for a 2007 fundraiser, have talked to the Old Pearl Factory and are now putting forward a proposal to the Dundas Little Theatre to find a venue that will carry little to no cost. Jan mentioned the Ancaster Theatre may be an option and will e-mail information to Judian. Ellen suggested that Gerontology students might get involved in fundraising or the actual production.
Kay gave a financial report. A cheque for $2,500.00 was given to the SLF at the Toronto and region Grandmothers meeting on Feb. 4. Kay and Shirley are the signing authorities for the account. The bank will issue statements every 3 months. Kay also requested that a secondary person keep records of card sales (as a back-up) Theresa will do this. Jan offered her son's services as a chartered accountant to provide a program that will help in keeping financial records.
In re. to the SLF logo on cards and correspondence, Julie Coultas of the SLF indicated that she wanted "we have chosen to support" placed above the SLF logo.
Anne attended a 60th Alumni luncheon this week at Mac. Stephen Lewis was the speaker. She spoke to him and gave him a set of our cards as a gift. She has contacted Christina Magill who arranges Stephen Lewis' speaking engagements, to set a date for him to speak at a Grandmothers of Steel fundraiser. No reply yet. If we do get a booking, Anne asks for members to get involved with the planning of the event.
Handouts with basic information about HIV/AIDS, statistics and the risk/vulnerability factors were handed out by Theresa. Information about Oomama's night with Stephen Lewis in May were handed out should any members want to buy tickets to attend.
Anne gave the highlights of the Toronto and Area Grandmothers meeting Feb. 4 (She and Theresa attended):
-handouts of the Chain-of-Love were provided and the idea explained. Anyone can copy this sheet, cut strips and sell paper links for $2.00, which are formed into chains. This nation-wide fundraiser is intended to create a link long enough to reach Africa.
-there is a Listserv that anyone can sign up on, which provides contact with Grandmother groups across Canada.
-a call for submissions- an African cookbook filled with stories and recipes. Liz Rose is the contact. Jan mentioned that there are several African women in a group that she meets with. She felt they would feel honoured to contribute recipes. The question of copyright laws came up. Jessie stated that permission is not needed for recipes.
-Grandmother groups have been invited to lead the Sept.16 AIDS Walk-for-Life in Toronto. We could do this for Hamilton's which is on the same day. Anne suggested we could each make a donation to the Hamilton AIDS Network to participate, and gather pledges for the SLF.
-there is an attempt to organize a national Lobbying group with one rep. from each area.
-there are 2 new DVD's- one to be released for International Women's Day, the other for Mother's Day. Anne has asked for copies. Mane and Shelley have been asked to launch the first video at Mac for Int. Women's Day. We need a venue for the Mother's Day DVD showing.
-there are some African grandmothers coming in May and will speak at various venues. Anne mentioned that she has received letters from 2 of the Kabwe grandmothers.
-Anne mentioned that calendars are not selling well, but 2 groups at the Toronto meeting want the card discs to produce cards for fundraising.
Barb mentioned that she works at a wellness center for gays, lesbians etc., and is on a committee that services for people 50+. She wondered if they could help. Anne said that if she could see links that would be good.
Jan raised the issue of a banner for the Walk. Anne pushed to get any work/materials for free.
Bithika talked about Basanti, who will be coming to speak to us at our April meeting. She has travelled to South Africa, Thailand and India on AIDS issues. She will have returned from a trip to Zambia. She deals with more than the medical issues-she deals with the whole picture including socio/political.
Nancy LeMay will speak at our meeting in March.
Anne suggested our June meeting be a pot-luck and that we do not meet for the summer months.
At this point we had a guest speaker, Debbie Simpson, the education co-ordinator of the Hamilton AIDS Network.
Below are some key points of her talk:
-the organization's aim is to provide support to help both the infected and affected with the disease.
-there are 58,000 HIV+ in Canada, with 3,000 new infections a year
-the main problem is that though there is information, there is not a behavioural change
-there are significant changes in statistics. Over the last 10 years, infections from man-to-man contact and drug use have dropped, while infections in heterosexual females aged 15-29 have significantly increased. This is due to unprotected sex and the fact that they don't see themselves at risk. The larger community does not understand that it is no longer a gay/drug-user disease. Sexual acts other than vaginal intercourse are not seen as sex and thus not seen as dangerous.
-the process of testing for HIV was explained
-the cost and problems of the medication regimen was discussed
Theresa has statistics if anyone should want them.
Meeting was adjourned
