BCAHA Kootenay Boundary Conference

The Castlegar & District Hospital Auxiliary Society had the pleasure of hosting the BCAHA KBA Conference on Friday, September 13 2013. The theme of the Conference was “Being the Best We Can Be” – “Better Together.”

There were 11 Auxiliaries that were in attendance:
Arrow Lakes – Nakusp, Christina Lake, Grand Forks, Nelson, Rossland (Trail), Salmo (Nelson), Slocan (Community Health Care Centre), South Slocan (Nelson), Trail Hospital Auxiliary, Victorian Hospital (Kaslo) and Castlegar.

Nettie Stupnikoff, President of the Castlegar & District Hospital Auxiliary Society opened the conference and thanked everyone for taking the time to attend the BCAHA Kootenay Boundary Area Conference.

The Conference began with the reciting of the “Auxiliary Prayer” and then proceeded to have the Mayor of Castlegar, Lawrence Chernoff and RDCK Area I Director Andy Davidoff welcome all guests. Both the Mayor and the Area I Director expressed their gratitude for the work that the Auxiliaries do for their communities and regionally. Area I Director made reference to the Auxiliary’s prayer and pointed how in depth and meaningful it was. He also reported that RDCK Directors approved $1000.00 towards the second floor expansion of the Hospital Auxiliary Treasure Shop. This drew a huge round of applause!

Cindy Crane, Health Service Director for Kootenay Lake Hospital and Boundary Hospital also expressed her appreciation for the work and for the equipment that each Auxiliary purchases for health care.

Maggie Haley, Manager of Castlegar Site, thanked the CDHAS for the donations of the Space Lab cardiac monitor and the ECG machine. She also thanked all the Auxiliaries for their hard work.

Pat Walker, Vice President, BCAHA presented the highlights of the Presidents report, Valarie Tribes. In Kootenay Boundary Area “with 11 Auxiliaries donated in 2012 $531,396 plus $16,300 in bursaries”.

Cindy Crane and Maggie Haley enforced the fact of how important the Auxiliaries work was to keep the updated medical equipment in each of the communities. Honora Cooper, KBA rep introduced Erika Deines, who spoke on how important communication was and some interesting information on how a negative comment can be turned into a positive.

Honora Cooper, KBA rep called the meeting to order with the reading of the minutes from the 2012 Conference that was held in Grand Forks. Presidents from the 11 Auxiliaries presented their reports. Under new business we elected a new BCAHA KBA Representative, Darryl Smolik. Darryl was congratulated on her new position. Honora Cooper, outgoing KBA rep was thanked for all her hard work. Both ladies were presented with an arrangement of flowers.

Date and location of next BCAHA KBA Conference will be held on September 18, 2014 and hosted by the Trail Auxiliary. More information will follow from the Trail Auxiliary.

A delicious luncheon was served by Kim’s Catering. Kim and her staff were thanked for the great food that the volunteers were treated too. Desert included chocolate covered strawberries! Following the luncheon, round table discussions were held which included the auxiliary members moving from table to table and addressing how best to handle communications amongst our volunteers.

Draw Prizes were distributed to the lucky winners. The volunteers went away with a sense of learning that we all can be “Being the Best We Can Be – Better Together.”

Thank you to the volunteers of the Castlegar & District Hospital Auxiliary Society, who assisted with making the conference a huge success. A lot of work and planning was involved with conference.