On Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 three members of Anglican Church Women (ACW) visited the Synod office to present a $750,000 cheque to Controller, Mark Beley for deposit in the Consolidated Trust Fund. The cheque represents half the proceeds from the sale of the former WA Memorial House.
As reported in Topic (Sept 2011, page 4), after much discussion the difficult decision was made at the ACW Annual Meeting in May 2011 to sell WA Memorial House on West 14th Avenue in Vancouver. In the sixty years since its purchase, the house had fulfilled its’ mandate - it had housed visiting missionaries, had served as a Board headquarters and had been the base for the outreach of the Diocesan ACW, but now needed extensive repairs. The house was listed in June and sold within a week for slightly over the asking price - with closure at the end of August to give the caretaker time to find a new home.The funds received for the sale of WA Memorial House were invested in short term investments to enable the Board to investigate the best option for the long term placement of the capital. Costs, the return on investment both short and long term, the reporting terms and the ability to access funds if necessary were investigated, and the Board finally voted to invest almost half the proceeds with the Consolidated Trust Fund and the same amount with VanCity Investments. The amount was divided on the basis that ACW did not want to put all the eggs in one basket, and this would give the ability to compare the different investments.
The outreach work continues from the new ACW Place at 7012B Merritt Avenue, Burnaby.
After the official presentation of the cheque, Sheila, Margaret and Vera took Mark out for lunch. (Sheila Puls)
Photo: Mark Beley receives the cheque: from L-R Margaret Warwick, Sheila Puls (current ACW President), Mark Beley, Vera Morgan.