A Great Event

Pat Bowslaugh, Political Advocacy Committee

On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, your RTAM Board plus several RTAM Committee members hosted a "Meet and Greet" event in the Golden Boy Room at the Leg'. Just like they were reporting on time for school, a significant number of 34 MLAs accepted our invitation and arrived promptly after their regular sitting of the Leg' session. Our office staff had busily prepared name tags for both MLAs and RTAM members to smoothly enhance the "getting to know you" process. Also available was a professionally designed hand out with a "Coles' Notes" version of RTAM's history and purpose. And thus our event began . . .

Located in the centre of the room was a delicious array of food which attracted those present to move forward thus precipitating a true mix and mingle. Each of the MLAs appeared to be on a genuine mission to make meaningful connections with as many people as possible. The word "meaningful" entailed questions around topics such as "So, where did you spend your teaching career?" and "How does your membership in RTAM support you in retirement?" plus "Can you tell me about the request of having a retired teacher serving on the TRAF Board?" Many of our guests sought out members of our organization who were from their constituency or who they had known through various interactions such as "Oh, I see my old (former) teacher over there!!!"

Gentle background music by John Sushelnitsky provided ambiance prior to him transferring to the role of MC. Our President, Rosalie Bornn, welcomed our guests with an amazingly scripted presentation that delivered RTAM's current areas of focus. She peppered her presentation with quips and quotes that thoroughly entertained our guests as indicated by their smiles, chuckles and animated applause!

The first guest speaker to honour us was Minister of Education, Ian Wishart, who immediately identified John as being his former teacher! (Small world!) Leader of the NDP Party, Wab Kinew, also reflected on a teacher who had impacted him positively during his formative years. Newly appointed Liberal leader, Dougald Lamont, also brought greetings.

Our event gradually drew to a close after two great hours of interaction. On a personal note, my perception is that this was a fantastic investment in networking, the extent of which we may never thoroughly realize except that by next morning there were two great postings on Facebook! Such is the power of relationships and technology!