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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-05-17, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1989. PAGE 5. 4H rift grows Leaders, OMAF staff differ over effects of proposed changes in 4H program BY LISA BOONSTOPPEL It’s here, and they’re angry. A controversial review of the 4-H program was announced last week to the fury and despair of Huron County 4-H leaders. Not only are they upset over changes they believe will weaken the 4-*H pro­ gram, but they’re displeased be­ cause they were ignored. “The report is an insult to rural communities because OMAF’s Rural Organization Services Branch (ROS) won't listen,’’ said Barry Cleave, past president of the Huron County 4-H leader’s associa­ tion. Last year, Mr. Cleave presented a paper to ROS staff, the Ontario Minister of Agriculture Jack Rid­ dell and his ministry on the position of the Huron County 4-H leaders but Mr. Cleave says their efforts were disregarded. “All the ROS did was form a committee and waste a lot of time," said Mr. Cleave. “All they did was change the sentence structure on the report.’’ The report is intended to combat a rapidly declining membership and loss of leaders in many clubs. To do this, the report outlines several changes. These include organizing a 4-H council within three years, redefining the role of 4-H leaders and ROS staff, includ­ ing 10 and 11 year olds in the program, organizing and-provincial campaign for revitalizing the image of 4-H and broadening the scope of membership in local 4-H associa­ tions. Mr. Cleave says the council will then approve all policy and all the local leader’s association will be Letter to the editor Brussels must work to keep home THE EDITOR, Last Wednesday there was a meeting concerning the future of the Callander Nursing Home. I was sorry to see that the turn out was not great. Someone commented that more turned out to the Recycling Meeting. There were a few comments made concerning the care of the residents, that to me did not seem fair. We nurses work hard to make life easier for the residents in the nursing home. One comment that was heard was “They don’t walk them enough. They put them in a wheelchair to make it easier for themselves”. That is far from the truth, we try our best to keep those 80-plus year old people mobile, because if they are in a wheelchair they soon become weak and we have to lift them to transfer them. These people are heavy. Do you really think we like lifting that much. Another comment was “He is only in it for the profit.” Mr. and Mrs. MacGowan are very nice people who care for the residents who occupy their home, they run a tight ship under the orders of the Ministry. Sure it puts b^ad and butter on their table, but I don t see other businesses in town giving needed for is to “grab the dough.” “What has made 4-H work is that there’s been a grassroots participa­ tion, now we don’t have any say anymore." Nick Gelynse, a Rural Organiza­ tion specialist at the Clinton OMAF office says the 4-H council can only be a good thing when you have leaders more involved in the policy making. He said it won’t be felt at the local level. Ken Ramsey, current leader of the Huron County 4-H Leader’s Association has another problem with changes in leadership. The report outlines the use of non-lead- er volunteers. “I don’t like using non-leader volunteers because it gets harder to find a date suitable to everyone for a meeting and I found the more volunteers the less you get done." Mr. Gelynse says that “some people will see non-leader partici­ pation as a threat but I don’t see it that way." He says they can help clubs as resource people." “I think that’s hogwash," says Mr. Ramsey who says he finds no difficulty in getting expert guest speakers in for a meeting to teach the members. Ken Ramsey also finds fault with the new role of the ROS specialists. According to the report, the ROS specialists won’t be making any more farm visits to 4-H members. “I think it’s important to have another person besides the leader in the bam to get a different perspective said Mr. Ramsey. He also wanted the ROS specialists to take the load of marking books, off the leaders as well as ease up on lesson material. “We can’t do what we want to do because there isn’t away tree groceries, bread and cars. Are they not trying to make a living too? These residents know us as their family and to most we are the only family they have. Another comment “It’s of no concern of mine if the Nursing Home closes". If the employees have to look for employment .in other towns, do you really think that we are going to do our shopping in Brussels? Not very likely! Yes, this should concern everyone whether or not you have family in this home. Some say they will take mother 1 ome. Think back three or four years, why was mother put there in the first place? Now she is older and needs more care. Think about those who have no family. It is hard on some just to move them to another room or bed let alone to send them to a different home full of strangers. Put yourself in their place. 1 would just like you to think about this and think about those seniors. Someday you will need a home away from home with people to care for you and love you. Come on Brussels, fight for your Nursing Home! A CONCERNED CALLANDER EMPLOYEE JOAN MILLER. time with all the lesson material and ROS has got to realize that more leaders will quit if they have a heavy wprkload." Mr. Cleave says the ROS have cushiony jobs with not a whole lot of work to do. “Whenever you ask them what they do, you never get a square answer.” Tensions between the ROS and 4-H leaders are getting so severe. Coins not so loony after all BY RAYMOND CANON You may or may net have noticed it but the banks and other financial institutions have been using the new one-dollar coin much more frequently than they have in the past. There is a reason for all this; they have been told by the Bank of Canada to start doing the pushing since the Bank is going to phase out the bills very shortly. In short, whether we like it or not, we are going to be stuck with the new form of currency. Frankly, it does not bother me one iota. The new coin may be large by Canadian standards but have you ever seen the monster that the Swiss use as a five-franc piece. Not only is it much bigger; it is also worth considerably more at today’s rate of exchange. Its value is no less than $3.75 and, when the Swiss franc was hovering in the vicinity of $1.00 Canadian it was at $5.00. Now that’s value! Canada is not, however, the only country which is grappling with the question of replacing its lowest value bill with a coin. The Ameri­ cans are going through something of the same process, only for them this is the second time around. Those readers who are acquainted with the American currency may remember that 10 years ago the U.S. Treasury issued what was known as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, named after one of the nation’s most famous suffragettes. This coin was rejected with a vengeance mainly because con­ sumers complained that the size and shape was too much like a 25 cent piece. At last count there were about half a billion dollars worth of these coins stored in the central bank. It is a good question what will become of them. The U.S. Congress is now taking another run at the matter. Some of the support for this is coming from the state of Arizona; this may come as something of a surprise until I tell you that the Arizonans want the coin to be made of copper. Quite by co-incidence three-fifths of all the copper mined in the U.S. just happens to come from Arizona. Another argument that is in favour of a new coin is that, although the initial cost of producing a coin is considerably greater than that of printing a bill, the coins last far longer. This will, it is maintained, resulting in savings of about $150 million a year. This is precisely the argument that was used by the Canadian government when it opt­ Mr. Cleave has heard rumours of club leaders who want to break with the 4-H association to form an independant agriculture club asso­ ciation. This is due in part to the stress 4-H has placed on life skill pro­ grams. “The life skill programs don’t teach agricultural values,” said Mr. Cleave and 4-H is a rural based organization. ed for the new coin; there is no doubt that the savings will be considerable. However, what we in North America are doing is catching up to the rest of the world. I have already told you about the five franc piece in Switzerland but other countries are in somewhat the same position. If you go to West Germany, you will find that their largest coin, the five-Mark piece, is currently worth about just over $3.00 although it is not as big as the Swiss franc piece. The British have learned how to cope with their pound coin which is worth $2.00 while the Japanese have now trouble with a 500 yen coin which is right up in value with the Swiss coin. We should not forget that it was not too many years ago that a quarter would buy about as much as a dollar would today. When 1 arrived in Canada, an ice-cream cone cost me about five cents while a trip to the local afternoon movie house (or revolver kitchen as we used to call them in German) set me back 15 cents. Ask yourself just how much these two items cost today! In short we are just catching For a twist on romance look at old movies Continued from page 4 where people obviously did some­ thing serious about their feelings but we were never sure what, because the camera would always pan away to waves breaking on a beach. The 1950’s seemed to have another movie cliche. It was the time of the bachelor who didn’t want to settle down, who seemed to think marriage was the end of his life. If he did weaken, his bachelor friends tried to save him from himself. The 1960’s straddled the sexual revolution. Doris Day’s movies with their themes from the 40’s and 50’s symbolized the first part of the decade while the more free love ideas of the decade started seeping into movies by the end of the decade. By the 1970’s it was easy to tell a current movie from an old one Beef calf club organizes The first Brussels Beef 4H meeting was held on April 27 at Walton United Church starting with a pot luck supper. After a delicious meal the guest speakers Mr. and Mrs. Allan Hearn talked to the members about farm safety. Since agriculture isn’t taught in the schools, 4-H-is still needed to teach kids that agriculture is impor­ tant," says Mr. Cleave. Mr. Gelynse thinks the direction that 4-H is going it can only strengthen the program but 4-H leaders are still unsatisfied and angry with a system that won’t listen to the needs of the 4-H community. up with the times. There are other benefits. One group of people which immediately comes to mind are the blind who will be able to make small purchas­ es without worrying about making a mistake in the denomination of a bill or in being cheated when receiving change. The situation is even worse in the U.S. than it is in Canada; south of the border all bills are the same colour whereas here we have at least different colours for each denomination. Given that there are few things you can buy for less than a dollar, businesses which employ coin machines are in general enthusias­ tic about the move upwards. Ad­ mittedly some prices could well be increased more than normal but that is a danger in any society. One thing you can count on. In the good old days of money, all coins used to contain their own value in metal such as silver or gold. Nobody would make that claim anymore. Money is money not because it contains its value but simply because our governments say so! because when the going got hot, you no longer got pictures of waves breaking on a beach. You didn’t have to use any imagination to know what was going on. The irony is that to beat the new cliche all you have to do is dig up one of the old cliches. The standard story line of the 1940’s and 50’s about the virtuous woman got so hackneyed something new had to be done. But today things are the other way around. In the movies you’d get the feeling no girl ever says no (or if she doesn’t you know you’re seeing one of those movies where her date is gong to rape her). Want a new plot Hollywood? Just find that unusual virtuous woman who isn’t just waiting to jump into bed. You might find her by watching one of those old movies. Members then had the election of officers. They are: Dave Johnson, presi­ dent; Darren Johnson, vice-presi­ dent; Scott Johnson, secretary; Brian Alexander, treasurer; Bar­ bara Alexander, press reporter. The next meeting is to be held at Bob Alexander’s on May 23 at 7:30.