Tuesday, April 23, 2013

SaskWITT Gets Down to Business! & Celebrates International Women's Day

On March 23 SaskWITT's Annual General Meeting was held in conjunction with "Take Your Daughters to WITT Day", in celebration of International Women's Day, at SIAST's Wascana Campus in Regina.  Part business, part fun, each year SaskWITT members are invited to join the board of directors in their annual general meeting followed by lunch and a fun-activity-filled afternoon.  Attending members that qualify as WITT women take part and are eligible to vote in the organization's annual voting process, whereby important business decisions such as changes to the board of director's are discussed and collectively decided upon. 

After this year's votes SaskWITT proudly presents: 

SaskWITT's 2013 Board of Directors -

Roxanne Ecker – Provincial Coordinator
Rhealene Wagner - Secretary
Pat Fayant - Treasurer
Anna Kwasnica - SIAST WITT Facilitator
Kim Andreas - Member at Large / CCWEST & CAF Representative
Marral Thomson - Member at Large
Tanya Kuziak - Member at Large
 
Once business matters were dealt with, it was nothing but fun for the rest of the day... 

Members were invited to bring their daughters, nieces, granddaughters and/or other young women in their life to have lunch and partake in the afternoon's workshop.  What resulted was a dynamic group of women and girls, with the younger participants ranging in age from 6 to 20 years old. 

The workshop was designed with two objectives in mind, both celebrating this year's International Women's Day 'Mentoring' Theme.  These were to:
  • Train women to deliver WITT programs
  • Deliver WITT programs to girls  

'Take Your Daughters to WITT Day' Participants

The stations and activities included:

  • Plumbing - making copper rings by cutting and filing pipe
  • Electrical – making bracelets by cutting and stripping wire and crimping with various connectors
  • Sheet Metal – making charms for bracelets by cutting flashing and creating designs with punches
  • Carpentry – making forms by assembling plywood boxes with screws
  • Tilesetting / Concrete finishing – making stepping stones with mortar and tiles
  • Problem Solving – a series of written career and math activities borrowed from a number of resources that SaskWITT has developed over the years.  (These are often used as time fillers in our programs.)
  • Tool Trunk Project – 12 stations specifically designed for 5 – 7 year olds
  
It was a unique day of learning for everyone involved!  There were women familiar with delivering the activities, those who had no experience at all, and young girls ready to work with tools and participate in the activities themselves.  Women trained other women on how to set-up and deliver the activities, and then those budding trainees were given opportunities to deliver the activities to the younger participants.  Despite the potential for chaos to arise from such a layered learning approach, the afternoon flew by effortlessly! 





Special Thanks to all our participants and everyone who helped out with this event.  We also extend our gratitude to the following organizations for their generous contributions that made this event possible!


For more information about how you can get involved in events like these, send us an email at: saskwitt@myaccess.ca