News From CALL Mid‑October 2022

Photo by Della Ho, a member of the Digital Photography Interest Group

Contribute to CALL’s Future Success: Volunteer Positions Available

What does it mean to say that CALL is a member-led volunteer organization? It means that all members of CALL have an important part to play in every aspect of the organization. It means that programs and policies are determined by members. It means that people share their experience, skills and knowledge with others. And it means that the diversity of experience, skills and knowledge creates a dynamic life-long learning community.

Yes, there is an organizational structure, a Board of Directors which develops by-laws and policies, does strategic planning and provides financial oversight. There are committees which support programs, organize and schedule events, search for venues, communicate to members, provide IT support and keep track of memberships. All done by volunteers.

Have you attended a CALL Café, a Treks and Travels or a Science and Environment speaker event? Do you participate in an Interest Group at cSpace or Marda Loop? Have you had an idea for a new Interest Group and been supported by the Program Committee to get it up and running? Behind the scenes there are volunteers who have contributed to the success of every aspect of CALL.

The Board is currently seeking to fill four positions: Chairs of Programming, Volunteers, Membership and Communications committees. As well as chairing these committees, committee chairs are Board members who attend monthly meetings and participate in Board decisions.

Brief descriptions of these positions are below, more detailed descriptions are available:

• Program
  The program Chair loves learning and nurturing the development of new courses as well as ensuring existing ones thrive. This person ensures there are Coordinators for the different Interest Group areas and special events. He or she should have good facilitation skills to lead the Program Committee meetings.
• Volunteers
  The Volunteer Chair is a matchmaker. He or she leads a committee which matches volunteers with the needs of CALL. He or she gathers information on the skills and interests of CALL members so they can be suitably placed in volunteer roles. To accomplish this goal positions are advertised by email or the newsletter.
• Membership
  The membership chair can speak the language of technology. He or she leads a committee which keeps the database of all CALL members. They help make sure waivers are kept when needed. The membership committee is present at CALL Cafes and lectures if people want to join. They plan activities which help integrate new members into the CALL culture.
• Communications
  The Communications Chair is a fun position for someone with a flair for writing.  The Chair works with a committee that crafts the CALL newsletter, emails to members and posts on social media. This position helps shape the communications policies and directions of CALL.

If you would like to explore the possibility volunteering for any of these positions, please contact by email or phone:
Andy Peters (Nominations Chair) 403-660-6662
Melvin Pasternak (Nominations member) 403-818-7993

The CALL AGM takes place via Zoom at 10:00am, Monday, October 17.

Treks and Travels: Looking for Additional Volunteers.

CALL member Judy Hoad has stepped up to become the new coordinator of the popular Treks and Travels speaker series beginning in January. Many thanks Judy for taking on this role! The T&T team is now looking for a couple of people to assist during the monthly in-person presentations at Varsity Presbyterian Church. They would occasionally introduce and thank the speaker, assist with Q&A sessions and fill in occasionally if the coordinator is absent. The current team has arranged for presentations through to September 2023 so these additional volunteers do not have to arrange for the current year’s presentations!

Contact Dorothy Whitson for more information.

Groups Accepting New Members

Indigenous Awareness

The Indigenous Awareness Group endeavours to come to terms with Canadian society’s complicity of reproducing colonial harms and to “sit” with that discomfort, using it as a springboard for individual and collective action.

Our ongoing goals are to:

• recognize the ways that settler colonialism brought and brings unearned benefits to white people at great cost to Indigenous peoples.
• discover the richness of Indigenous teachings, world views and ways of knowing.
• connect or reconnect to a relationship with the Land.
• collaborate to create a safe space where we can work to dismantle anti-Indigenous racism and work toward the development of an anti-racist, decolonial future.

The group meets on the first and third Monday afternoons of the month on Zoom. For more information and to contact facilitator Kerry White-Tucker go to the Indigenous Awareness page.

October Events

CALL Café: Economics for a Planet in Peril.

Monday, October 24, 2pm – 3:30pm Online with Zoom

The October CALL Café will feature Peter A. Victor, Professor Emeritus, York University. The first president of the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics, Peter is regarded as one of the founders of the discipline of ecological economics. His book, Escape from Overshoot: The Economics of a Planet in Peril will be published in 2023. In his presentation, he will draw on ideas such as ecological economics, degrowth, circular economy, well-being economics, and donut economics, to examine how economics can help us find a way out of the increasing and unsustainable burden on the Earth’s ecological systems.

You must be a CALL member to register but the registration process allows you to bring 1 to 4 guests. If you decide to invite guests after you have registered, you will need to cancel your registration (Cancellation Tips), then register again and indicate the number of guests that you will bring.

To register and for more information, go to the CALL Café: page.

Treks and Travels

Wednesday, October 19, 7:30 – 9:00pm
In-person only, Varsity Presbyterian Church, 4612 Varsity Drive NW
All Treks and Travels presentations are now in-person – no registration required

Join Michael Taylor as he follows ‘In Franklin’s Footsteps’ on a five-week adventure cruise in 2017 through the North West Passage. In October’s presentation, he will focus on the natural beauty of Greenland and Nunavut, thus setting the scene for November’s presentation. Then Michael will focus on the waves of peoples who have occupied these apparently barren lands from pre-history to today’s Arctic generations eagerly awaiting the promises of Truth and Reconciliation as global pressures roil Canada’s third coast.

For more information, go to the Treks and Travels page.

November Events

Science and Environment
Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX)

Tuesday, November 1, 7:30 – 9:30pm. Online with Zoom
Speaker – Roger Pilkington.

Roger started studying arctic sea ice in 1973. He did research and developed methods for drilling with ships and structures in the ice infested water of the Beaufort Sea and was invited to join a team of Canadians and Russians to provide ice management assistance to the ACEX project. This presentation will cover details of the ice conditions, drilling operations, life on board the ships, a picture of the North Pole, and some of the findings of the project.

For more details and to register, go to the Science and Environment page.

Intergenerational Speaker Series – Event 2
Connecting through Film and Conversation

Wednesday, November 2, 11:00am – 1:00pm Mt. Royal University

The second event in this four-part series will focus on intergenerational communication. We will be screening a short film shown at this year’s Third ACTion Film Festival entitled I am a Unicorn. Our aim is to allow participants to share stories, reflect on intergenerational similarities and differences and connect with others through an artistic experience. You do not need to have attended the first event and all are welcome. Registration is not being done through the CALL website but by MRU.

To register for this event, go to their Events page.

CALL Greeting Cards Sale

Tuesday, November 15, 12:00 – 2:00pm Room 310 at cSpace

Reconciliation: What Does it Mean to You?

By Sally Shah

This first event in the 4-part Intergenerational Speaker Series was held on September 28.

The Lincoln Park Room at Mount Royal University was abuzz with anticipation as students and seniors found their places at tables just before the event started. MRU students from Nursing, Education and other faculties mingled with seniors from CALL and several other organizations.

The presentation began with Elder Roy Bear Chief giving a blessing. Tim Fox, a member of the Blood Tribe, representing the Calgary Foundation, followed him. He addressed the changes which are already taking place in Canadians’ understanding of Indigenous cultures and acknowledged that such changes cannot come about in 5 or 10 years but may take much longer. I was left with the impression that Indigenous people understand that systemic changes are slow and gradual. He spoke too about the diversity among Indigenous cultures, suggesting that there may not be a 'one size fits all' answer.

Next up was Naheed Nenshi via video. He spoke about the relationships he had been able to forge with Indigenous groups and joked about the name he'd been given by them which he can't pronounce. He referred to the discovery of the children's graves at the residential school in Kamloops and expressed his disbelief that people could claim not to have known that such things had happened.

Then over lunch the audience began to discuss what had impressed them. At my table there was a lively discussion about how the Holocaust was taught in Grades 2 or 3, but residential schools were not mentioned until Grade 9. There was also an appeal for openness to accepting holistic and Indigenous medicine and cultural alternatives to mental health. We also recognized that Indigenous people are over-represented in homelessness and the Child Welfare system. Canadians have been unwilling to recognize that in Indigenous society the community raises the child, even though we have accepted that in Hutterite communities.

On a purely personal level, I was impressed by the compassion and openness to new ideas of the students. I was also left with the awareness that I need to try to be more knowledgeable about and compassionate towards Indigenous communities. I'd like to invite more of you to join us at these events. Educational, stimulating and fun. The food got good reviews too!

CALL Cafe – Whither Democracy?

By Mary Ndlovu

Going… Going… gone…? Or just withering? On Monday October 3 the theatre at cSpace provided a congenial venue to discuss this current issue which is of great concern to many of us. The four distinguished panelists each provided a different perspective on our current situation. Judy Johnson, a clinical psychologist and former academic gave us an outline of the characteristics of the authoritarian personality – and painted a portrait which is all too familiar to us as we glance across the border and to many places around the world. Is that the wave of the future? Susan Wright, a corporate lawyer, presented an analysis of the Sovereignty Act proposed by the likely winner of the UCP leadership. She found that it breaches all three tenets forming the foundation of democracy – the rule of law, adherence to constitutionally protected rights, and the separation of powers. If brought forward as proposed it threatens to accelerate the withering process. Gillian Steward, former editor at the Calgary Herald, and a much experienced journalist postulated that the steady deterioration of the quantity and quality of competent journalistic reporting can only weaken our democracy.

Only Dr David Swann, former Alberta Liberal Party politician, gave us much hope. He believes that if democracy is to be salvaged, it will be through the actions of civil society. And he had a concrete proposal – the formation of citizen assemblies to provide greater force to the voices who are determined to save a form of government which has served us well and is worth fighting to save. So the afternoon was engaging and challenging for us, and was not all gloom and doom. It ended with a series of questions from the audience – including the Zoom audience!

Watch for the next Café on October 24 when Dr Peter Victor will talk about Economics for a Planet in Peril. This event will be online only.

Ten Years & Counting

By Gordon Fairhead & Darlene Zdunich, Co-facilitators

In the fall of 2012, Don Smith and Gordon Fairhead began a new CALL interest group with a history-based focus. When Don stepped away the following year to complete his book, Darlene Zdunich became co-facilitator with Gordon. The group’s theme for the first season was “Canada and World War One”. It has changed a bit over the years and in 2015 we decided to broaden it to “Human Conflict & Its Impact”. This enables participants to explore various aspects of conflict from any time and at any location in the world; with the opportunity to compare facets across the ages and consider their impacts.

We always gather weekly for a fall session and after a Christmas break for another round, which is just over twenty times per year. Our meetings have been in-person at a few locations, however since early 2017 we are at cSpace. Like many other groups, we shifted to virtual meetings in the pandemic months, making good use of Zoom.

An important foundation was established for the group right from its origin: it was, and continues to be, our reflection of Peer Learning. Each participant shares a topic of their own choice, as guided by the theme. The sharing format can vary, but we generally have one or two presentations per meeting, followed by discussion. This has been a great way for us to get some depth on a particular subject.

Many of today’s events that capture the headlines have historical roots, therefore, diving into our research helps provide context to these issues. We’ve been able to learn about such a wide variety of topics over the ten years together. The mix has been remarkable, as we have explored: noteworthy individuals; major campaigns; advances in medicine, science and technology; artistic expression in literature, music and visual arts; and aspects within social, political or philosophical realms.

Members come to our meetings as much for the topics and their love of history as they do for the camaraderie that’s developed. In addition to the variety of member-presentations, we’ve also included some extras. Over the years, several guests have spoken at our meetings and we like to go as a group to pertinent movies, plays, museums and other interesting Calgary events. We enjoy gathering for monthly lunches at a park or restaurant to have more time to chat and build connections with each other.

Over our ten years, participants have shared 300 topics – needless to say, we have not yet run out of ideas to research and discuss! Our thanks to the current and prior members whose contributions have made this such a wonderful interest group.

Be Cyber Safe

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month in Canada. We know that online scams have increased during the pandemic. Little wonder as we spend so much of our daily lives online: email, visiting websites, banking, paying bills, ordering products and keeping in touch with family/friends. Are you confident that you know how to take three steps to increase your safety online? Secure your accounts, secure your devices, and secure your connections.

Read the full article, Be Cyber Safe: A Brief Overview for CALL Members, available on the website.

Your CALL Newsletter

The CALL Newsletter is our way to communicate what is going on in our community. It's a way to highlight events of interest, ‘peek behind the curtain of CALL’ and to give some general information about CALL groups and members.

You are invited to send your ideas and suggestions for future issues to newsletter@calgarylifelonglearners.ca. We reserve the right to edit submissions and to determine when submissions will be published.

CALL Newsletter dates for posting:

• October 28
• November 11/25
• December 16
• January 13/27

Meanwhile, be well, stay well in every sense of the word.