Village Squire, 1979-02, Page 17i
Through years of helping rural people learn more
about themselves the Rural Learning Association has
become
A rural Ontario
institution
BY ADRIAN VOS
Several times a year one can see them converging on a
conference centre, a motel meeting room or a large farm house
somewhere in the country. They may come by car or by pick-up
truck. by train or by plane. They come from all walks of life, but
mostly from rural areas. "They" are the members of the "Rural
Learning Association". The name already tells us that they come
together to learn. To learn what? Let's examine this unique
organization a bit more closely.
Many of the older readers will still remember fondly the
defunct Farm Radio Forum. where rural people invited their
neighbours to listen to the radio and discuss topics presented
through that medium. Then there was the Ontario Leadership
Forum and the Ontario Folk school Council. They all fell victim to
the advance of our technological age and television.
In 1965 many farm leaders, among them such notables as
Herb Hannam, Dr. Donald Solandt and Agness McPhail,
recognized that the new communication system did very little to
aid communication, but rather inhibited it. They asked
themselves: "How can we oppose this trend away from our
personal and meeting place communication, that is destroying
our social structure as we know and love it?"
These concerned people got together, and out of the three
former organizations the Rural Learning Association was.
created. The stated goal of the RLA is:"Provide leadership
training to meet needs of rural organizations and initiates
programs for personal and community development."
It was early recognized that the best way to help the rural
organizations would be to provide them with leaders, or at least
with members who would not be afraid to participate in
meetings. This means of course that these participants must be
aware of the contributions they could make to the meeting. This
awareness building is one of the main purposes of the RLA. To
this end they organize folk schools all over the province of
Ontario. Half of these are on Indian reserves and the rest in
counties where organizations requests them. Every year the
organization gets 700 to 800 people actively involved in the
programs.
In addition to the folk schools, the RLA holds seminars on
request for farm marketing boards, to develop the leadership
qualities needed for possible future board members. Once a year
a provincial seminar is held on different topics. Last year it was
on "Land Use" and the interest generated there was reflected in
the press reports throughout Ontario. This year the focus was on
leadership and next year's topic has, at the time of writing, not
been decided yet.
For the last 12 years there has been a seminar on marketing of
agricultural products. Opponents as well as proponents of.
February 1979, Village Squire 1S