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As Published in the Local Newspaper 2004 - 2005

April, 2005

The Canadian Federation of University Women Kincardine met April 19th 2005. The meetings are held once a month on the third Monday. The topic of this meeting was our annual resolutions and Chinese supper. We had a wonderful meal at the New Seasons Restaurant.

All CFUW clubs meet every April to look at resolutions that have been submitted by individual clubs. This year CFUW had eight resolutions to review and discuss. After the resolutions are presented, the members either approve or deny the resolution. Each group can send amendments to the proposed resolutions. Once the members have made their decisions on the resolutions they are sent to the National Office where they go to the Annual General Meeting for more discussion.

The eight Resolutions that the CFUW received and reviewed this year are:

1.United Nations Millennium Development Goals
2. The Impact of Militarism on the Environment
3. Sexual Exploitation of Girls in Polygamous Communities
4. Cross Gender Monitoring
5. Accountability in Home Care Delivery
6. Inclusion of Home Care Services under the Canada Health Act
7. Equality in Family Law
8. Fatigued Students and Health

The next meeting is May 16th 2005 at the KDSS library. We are having a film night. All are welcome.

Jan. 2005

The Canadian Federation of University Women met on January 17, 2005 at KDSS library. The meetings are held once a month on the third Monday. Our guest speaker was Dr. Art Wiebe who came out on a most blustery evening. The topic that Dr. Wiebe discussed with our group was pesticide which was most interesting and informative.

Dr. Wiebe is on the board of the Canadian Association of Physicians on the Environment, and his presentation was to show how all things are connected and how pesticides can affect our health and the environment. Dr. Wiebe explained to the group when different types of pesticides were discovered and used. In 1939 DDT was discovered, early 1940's parathion was developed in Nazi chemical research, Late 1940's 2,4,D was developed, 1950's DDT was used extensively, 1960 carbamates were developed and in 1970 pyrethroid was developed. There are different types of pesticides depending on what pest you are trying to get rid of, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fumigants and rodenticides.

The risks of pesticides for people that use them frequently can cause skin reaction, allergic reactions and cancers. It affects children more because their organs are still developing, and children are lower to the ground that we spray. Pesticides have been linked to developmental problems in children, birth defects, childhood leukemia. It also can affect our pets and disrupt our ecosystems. Dr. Wiebe's talk was greatly appreciated by all our members.

The CFUW will be meeting February 21 2005.

Nov. 2004

The Canadian Federation of University Women met on November 15th 2004. Our meetings are held at the KDSS library at 730pm. Our guest speaker this month was Fiona Wilson from Remax, and she discussed with the group Real Estate and You. She explained to the group how you go about becoming a real estate agent, and things that you should and shouldn’t do when buying and selling a house.

Fiona explained the different types of relationships you could have with a real estate agent. One type is a seller agent in which the agent is working for the seller of the house. A contract between the seller and agent called a listing agreement is set up to explain fees of the realtor and the responsibilities of the seller. Another type of relationship is a buyer agent in which the agent is working for the buyer of a property. This contract is called a buyer agency agreement which outlines fees of the realtor and responsibilities of the buyer. Sometimes an agent will take on both roles which is called a duel agent. Both the buyer and seller must agree to this arrangement and the agent must try to work in the best interest of both parties.

Selling your house without a realtor is very time consuming, and you need to have the time to devote to selling your house. By having a real estate agent they can screen people wanting to see the home. Home inspections are very important to the buyer of the house to make sure that there are no problems that the buyer cannot see. When a house goes on the market, the seller fills out a disclosure statement which outlines any improvements or damage to the house, this lets the buyer know of any potential problems and the up grades to the house.

Fiona discussion was appreciated by all our members. The CFUW next meeting is December 13th at 630pm for our Annual Christmas Dinner

Oct 2004

The Canadian Federation of University Women met October 18th in the KDSS library. The meetings are held at 7:30pm on third Monday each month. Our guest speaker this meeting was John Welwood from Citizen Coalition. John discussed with our group how factory and intensive live stock operations have implications for our environment.

John and several other concerned citizens heard that there was going to be a large hog farm to be built in their area and they were considered how this was going to affect their health and the environment. They were also concerned with the water quality and property valves with the building of this hog farm.

This local group went to the council to get more information and state their concerns. They were given the opportunity to review the Nutrient Management Plan which outlines the plan set out to start a farm. When the group reviewed the documents given to them, they found many problems that needed to be addressed. The community needed to be informed and that is what they did. They send out flyers that included the problems and recommendations and also held public meetings, the group did receive much support from the community. They also started a petition and received 2,000 signatures.

John told us about the process of trying to stop an intensive livestock operation. It was a long and expensive process. It was very interesting to hear about this topic, I am sure that not a lot of people know the impact of Factory farms and I was one of them. Johns talk was greatly appreciated by all our members.

The CFUW will be meeting November 15th at 7:30pm. Fiona Wilson from Remax will speak on Real Estate and You.