We held an Executive meeting in Ottawa from Feb. 2 through Feb. 5, 2005. It was a good meeting, as we went over things and what we need to do to represent seniors in Canada. It also gave us a chance to meet our new 1st Vice President, and for him to get to know the rest of the  Executive on a more personal note. We are going to try to upgrade our Newsletter and also get a web page with more news. The 2nd Vice President is going to work with the webmaster. Joyce, our treasurer, reported that the Clubs are renewing their memberships, so if you haven't done so yet, it is a good time to get it done.

At the Executive meeting we took an afternoon off to go to Question Period at the House of Commons. It was quite interesting to see our MPs answering questions, etc. You need extra time as you have to go through two sets of security to get to the House. While we were in Ottawa. Art Kube, 1st Vice President and I visited MPs and Ministers of Government. Art outlined what we did in his article. I was impressed by the Leader of the Senate, Jack Austin from B.C. who is also a senior. We had a good meeting with him, and our meeting with the Minister of Health could be very productive. We also had a meeting with Pierre Drouin who represents retiree teachers across Canada, and we talked about his organization joining the National Pensioners and Senior Citizens.

The New Horizon grants are different this time around, and is under-funded as usual with this government. They want you to have projects, instead of fixing your building up. Maybe some of you could get computers, etc., for your clubhouse. Just one idea.

In our newsletter of years ago, clubs, chapters and provincial organizations used to have advertisements in our newsletter. We set some rates at our Executive meeting, so if you advertise in the newsletter it will help with the cost of the newsletter.

The Congress of National Seniors Organizations is holding a meeting March 23 and 24, 2005 in Ottawa. I am on the co-ordinating committee and we hold teleconferencing calls ever two weeks. We hope to meet the Minister of Social Development, Ken Dryden, to speak on the New Horizons programs for seniors, and the Federal Seniors Secretariat.
I am working on some organization of our Convention which will be held in Ontario in Burlington, which is close to the Toronto airport. We are working with the Canadian Auto Workers as a sponsor.

I had the honour of representing the National Pensioners & Senior Citizens Federation at the funeral of Past President Curtis Decoste, who passed away on Feb. 11 after a courageous fight with cancer. When Curtis was President we would go to Ottawa to represent our brief and we became good friends; we worked well together. It was a large funeral because Curtis was well known and did a lot of volunteering in the community. The family made me a Honourary Pallbearer, which gave me a seat in front of the church. Edda Ferguson, our 2nd Vice President, also was in attendance. May he rest in peace.

Closing Thought: Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.