McDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH
My experience as a member of social oriented volunteer groups began in 1955 when I started going to McDougall United Church. I was invited to join in the activities of the Young Adult Group, a group of 20 to 35 year olds which had two basic objectives. One was social activities, this is where I met my future wife, and the other was volunteer maintenance work at the United Church camp in Elk Island Park.
The work at Elk Island ended when the camp was closed and the buildings were moved to Camp Maskepetoon on Pigeon Lake. The social activities continued and the group was renamed “3M” (Mr, Mrs, Miss). In the late 1960s, the group was essentially discontinued because of declining membership.
In 1960 McDougall went through a traumatic experience. When the minister became at odds with the congregation, many of the people left and Edmonton Presbytery removed the minister and appointed another minister to serve the congregation, in addition to his work at another church. As a result of the difficult time that McDougall was experiencing, many of the members of the Elders group in the congregation resigned. I was asked to consider running for the position of Elder.
The Elders were responsible for the worship services and for visiting members of the congregation to keep them informed of the activities going on at the church. The temporary minister asked me to meet with him and it turned out that his concern was whether or not I had been baptized. I told him that I did not know. He then suggested an adult baptism in the sanctuary. When I expressed some reluctance for this, he suggested a private baptism in his office. I expressed doubts that whether or not I had been baptized as an infant had any bearing on my suitability to serve as an Elder of the congregation. He reluctantly accepted this and the idea of baptism was dropped. Several years later when my mother was moving away from the farm, I found a baptismal certificate which indicated that I had been baptized at the age of six weeks in an Anglican church. Somehow, I didn’t really feel differently about my suitability to serve as an Elder after seeing the certificate.
I continued to serve as an elder and a member of various committees until 1984 when a problem arose with the minister, causing the Presbytery to became involved again and an Interim Minister to be appointed to serve McDougall on a full time basis. At that time, I was the chair of the Official Board, which included the Elders and the Stewards of the church. In this capacity, I worked in close coordination with the Interim Minister.
One of the changes that we instituted was the formation of a Church Council to replace the Elders and Stewards. The intention was that the various Committees would continue to do their work and report to the Council on a regular basis. This is the form of governance currently in effect at McDougall. It has not been completely satisfactory, but is probably the best form of governance possible given the characteristics of the people in the congregation.
I taught the senior class in the Sunday School for a number of years. When Dale was due to join the senior class, he announced that if I continued to teach, he wasn’t going. This seemed to be an opportune time to give up this activity.
Over the years, I have served in a wide variety of rules in the previous governance system and with the Church Council. I continue to be involved as a member of the Board of Trustees and in some other minor roles.
Like many of the mainline Protestant churches, McDougall has and is having a difficult time. The congregation has decreased significantly and the availability of volunteers to carry out the work of the church continues to be a problem.
THE PRAYING MEN
The United Church held its country-wide meeting in Edmonton in 1960. As part of the event, an Edmonton author wrote a play based on the arrival of the first Christian Missionaries in what is now Alberta. The most prominent of them was George McDougall, who established the first church in Edmonton outside of the walls of the fort. I played the part of another missionary, Robert Rundle. I was not required to say anything so there wasn’t much preparation required, just ensuring that I moved around the stage in the proper places.
The production played at the Jubilee Auditorium for three nights. The final night was the night that Cindy was born so I was thinking more about that than the play. After the ending of the play, the cast had a bit of a get together, but I slipped away to try to find out how the birth was going. My “stage wife” was disappointed because she wanted to get a picture of us in our costumes.
GIRLS’ SOFTBALL TEAM
I coached a softball team for 7 & 8-year-old girls in the Holyrood community. One of them had unusual ability as a pitcher. Largely because of this we made it to the semifinals in the southeast area. We were eliminated in the first round, but I think the girls enjoyed the experience and some of them continued to play in the older age categories.
EMONTON CITY CENTER CHURCH CORPORATION
In 1986, four of the downtown churches formed an organization to carry out various social work activities in this area. I served as one of McDougall’s representatives to this organization and, in addition, was treasurer of the organization for several years. In the time since the organization was formed, it has expanded its activities significantly and has become less dependent on funding from the original churches and relies more on its role as a manager of various activities funded by the Alberta government.
EDMONTON PRESBYTERY
In 1990, I took on the position of treasurer for the Edmonton Presbytery. The Presbytery is the governing and coordinating body for the approximately 30 United Churches in Edmonton.
My time in this position gave me a better insight into the wider church as opposed to a single congregation. My duties included maintaining the financial records for the church for the Presbytery and the payroll duties related to the staff of Presbytery. I was also involved in discussions with individual churches that were having problems with their finances.
An event that I remember occurred in 1993 when the Toronto office of the United Church proposed eliminating the Presbytery. The executive group was discussing this proposal and was generally opposed to it because of the significant contribution being made to the work of the church. I made the comment, “How many of the people in the church pews would notice the difference”. There was a lengthy silence and the president suggested we moved to the next topic on the agenda. This did not do much to enhance my acceptance by the Presbytery Executive.
ALBERTA MUNICIPAL VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT ASSICIATION
This was an Association of employees of the various municipalities in Alberta who were involved with the vehicles and equipment used by the cities. As a founding member I served in all of the executive positions of the organization. We met semiannually to exchange information and discuss problems that were being encountered in our various municipalities. Later, we became more involved with the American Public Works Association and the local group was discontinued.
CHRISTIAN YOUTH CAMPS INCORPORATED (C.Y.C.I.)
C.Y.C.I., operating under the general auspices of Edmonton Presbytery, operates the United Church Youth Camp located at Pigeon Lake. There are two camps on the site, one operated by C.Y.C.I. and the other by Canadian Girls in Training (C.G.I.T). The camp offers a one week camping experience for boys and girls during the summer and is available for other events during the rest of the year. The average attendance is from 80 to 100 campers for the one week programs that are held during July and August.
Much of the funding for the camp was obtained by selling nuts in Edmonton in the pre-Christmas season. This was largely organized by one of the other directors, Gerry, who spent a good deal of time on the phone getting volunteers to take nuts around to the houses and attempt to sell them.
As a Director on the board of C.Y.C.I., I was primarily involved in the maintenance aspects of the camp. This involved maintenance work on the cabins and general maintenance of the site, such as grass cutting and removal of dead trees.
One project that Charlie and I worked on was the tune-up of an old tractor that I had bought from a neighbor who had a John Deere dealership. The tractor needed more maintenance than he had expected. After we finished, Charlie’s son drove it down the lane on a test run. When he returned, he didn’t stop in time and the tractor ran into the garage door. This meant we had to replace the radiator on the tractor and also repair part of the door.
A couple of years later, we spent much of our spare time during the winter on the overhaul of another tractor which had been purchased from the surplus equipment sale of the City of Edmonton. The engine had been severely damaged by leaving the cooling water in the engine during the winter and it was necessary to repair the engine. During the times when the camp was not in operation, I also spent a considerable amount of time at the site performing routine maintenance. On one occasion, my friend and I did not return from the camp until 2 AM. Understandably, this caused a considerable amount of anxiety to our wives.
When I went to University in 1970, I was forced to curtail most of my activities related to the camp and I have been a relatively inactive member of C.Y.C.I. since then.
TOASTMASTERS
When it became apparent to the Chief Commissioner of the city that I was having trouble with my presentations to City Council, which were part of my responsibilities as a member of the C.P.P.O., he suggested that I join Toastmasters. With the assistance of a member of Toastmasters, I set up a club for city employees and was involved with this group until I retired in 1984.One of the essential parts of the Toastmasters program is the impromptu presentation of a three minute talk on topics suggested by the other members of the club during the meeting. I found this program to be helpful in overcoming my apprehension about public speaking. On one occasion, the Chief Commissioner came to one of our meetings and was most impressed by the impromptu three minute talks. He indicated that it usually took him longer than that to decide what he was going to say and he needed to fill in the time with trivialities.
NORTHERN ALBERTA PC USERS GROUP (NAPCUG)
After I retired from the city in 1984, I became involved with NAPCUG and attended the meetings over the next three years. The prime purpose of the discussion was explanations by various members of the ways in which they were using their personal computers. I did not become very involved in these discussions, but found them very helpful. My computer experiences at the University had been with the usage of a large central computer system and I found that my personal computer required a different type of knowledge. After three years or so, the attendance of the meetings had declined significantly, partly because more off-the-shelf programs had reduced the need for individual program development and the group decided to disband.
ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS AND GEOSCIENTISTS OF ALBERTA (APEGA)
This is the group that is responsible for the professional conduct of engineers and geoscientists in Alberta. Most of the organizations which act on behalf of their members do not have a responsibility for ensuring that the members act in the best possible public interest. This function is the responsibility of the government.
As a member of the education committee, I attended many career days at high schools. The main purposes were explaining the role of engineers in society and increasing the number of young women studying engineering. When I was a student at the U of A, there was one female student, and at the University of Saskatchewan, there were none. Now more than thirty percent of the engineering students are young women.
Since I was retired, I could take the full day to go to a career day and consequently did most of the presentations at high schools outside of Edmonton. I usually was able to take a female engineering student with me. They helped significantly in presenting the message that the engineering profession would welcome women as members.
On one occasion that I remember, a young man came to me after the presentation and said that he was intending to be a mechanic, largely because he was unaware of other available opportunities. While I have no idea what he did after he finished school, I felt that our presentation had been well received and effective.
After the presentation at another school, one of the students asked me about salary levels. I told him that generally speaking the starting salary for engineers was approximately $40,000 per year. This was 25 years ago and salaries are higher now. He commented that the speaker from NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) had indicated a higher salary for their graduates. I replied, “I have no knowledge of their starting salaries but I can assure you that there are very few NAIT graduates supervising engineers, while the reverse is very much the usual situation”.
SOUTH EAST EDMONTON SENIOR’S ASSOCIATION (SEESA)
This is an organization primarily for seniors, with a membership of over 800 people. It is located a few blocks from where we lived in Holyrood. There is a wide variety of programs and activities offered, including light meals and catered events by arrangement.
As a Director of the organization for six years, I was responsible for the maintenance of the building. The building was originally a school, so there is a variety of rooms available and additions have been put on to increase the size. Generally speaking, the maintenance problems were not major issues. One of the minor problems that I found was that the upper surfaces of the ceiling fans had a thick layer of oily dust that had accumulated over the years. This was easily rectified by taking the blades off and cleaning them.
Nora and I held our 80th birthday party at SEESA. It was well attended by family members who came from out of town and by friends from Edmonton. The catering service worked out well. When we moved to the Churchill we lost contact with SEESA, but I understand that things are going well there.
EDMONTON POWER HISTORICAL FOUNDATION (EPHF)
In 1986, the Director of Public Relations for EPCOR, the electric utility in Edmonton, organized a meeting of retired employees. She was trying to set up an organization to conduct tours of the power plants by student groups from schools in the vicinity. As a result of this, the Edmonton Power Historical Foundation was established with a membership of over 100 retired and current employees of Edmonton Power. The main activity was to be the presentation of tours for school groups studying energy in their curriculum.
Usually two retired employees would meet with the group of students and teachers and take them through the power plants. Because of the noise level in the plants, we made a presentation in a quiet room prior to outfitting the group with earplugs and taking them through the plants. A typical tour would take about two hours and, including their traveling time, a full day away from school was required. We averaged about 50 tours per year. EPCO paid the EPHF about $250 for each tour plus a traveling allowance for the EPHF members acting as tour guides.
I found it very interesting being involved with the students and the different attitudes of the different age groups and I have many pleasant memories of this program. For example, on one occasion I was explaining to a group of Grade 5 students that the gas fuel used in the plan had evolved from a luxurious plant growth in the area approximately 75,000,000 years ago. One of the boys held up his hand and said, “You are wrong about that”. I responded that I had been mistaken before and probably would be again. He continued, “The earth was formed 4,812 years ago”. I said, “I understand where your information comes from, but as a scientifically oriented person I find it very difficult to believe”. Another boy asked, “Are you up a Christian?” I replied, “I am an active member of a church but I probably wouldn’t qualify for your definition of a Christian”. The teacher became involved about this time and said, “We will talk about this when we get back to school”. Incidents like this helped to make the presentations more interesting for me.
After the 2011 incident in the United States, it was decided that the public would no longer be encouraged visit power plants and our school tour activity was stopped. About this time, a building became available at the Leduc West Antique Society (L.W.A.S.) west of the city of Leduc. We arranged to use the building for a museum related to the electric power industry in Alberta. The development of a museum is still underway in the building. To obtain funds, we became involved with the casino program operating under the auspices of the Alberta Liquor Control Board. This is, to date, the source of revenue that enables us to develop museum exhibits at the building on the L.W.A.S. site. Although we are still adding exhibits, the building is essentially fully occupied. The exhibit items have been obtained from various sources in the industry. For a number of years, we employed students through participation the summer employment program for students. They were particularly helpful in setting up the computer based exhibits at the museum.
After 24 years as a Director and the Treasurer of EPHF, I declined to be a candidate for reelection as a Director at the Annual Meeting in 2012. I occasionally go to the site on the days when there is an official open house taking place. I enjoy talking with the visitors and explaining the exhibits to them.
THE CANADIAN CLUB OF EDMONTON
The Canadian Club consists of approximately 100 people who meet for lunch once a month. There are clubs in most of the major cities in Canada. A speaker on a topic of general interest is a feature of the meetings. The members tend to be older people who are retired and thus do not have to leave the meeting to get back to work.
During my six year term as a Director, I was primarily responsible for preparing the name tags for the members and the menu bulletins for the luncheons. After completing the maximum term as a Director, I continued to take care of these jobs until I developed a serious problem with my eye sight in December of 2012 and could no longer carry them out.
RETIRED CITY MANAGERS GROUP
The members of this group are retired city managers who meet for lunch four times per year. There is no formal agenda and people come primarily to keep in touch with their former colleagues. My involvement has been limited to phoning a group of people to advise them of the upcoming meeting and determining if they plan to attend.
RETIRED CITY EMPLOYEES
This is a larger group of former employees who worked at a variety of positions within the city. The luncheons meetings are held once per month. There is usually no formal program or a speaker. I do not attend regularly as I do not know most of the people involved.
THE CHURCHILL
I have been involved with some of the recreational type activities at the Churchill. Most notably, I have been taking Spanish lessons; I thought this would be way to get to know some people. The Creative Writing course offers an incentive to write this biography. I have also served as the president of the Resident’s Committee and am currently the Treasurer of the organization. The Committee acts as liaison between the residents and the management of the Churchill.