Edmund Gary Maidlow

Gary came to Scottish Country Dancing after seeing the exuberance of the dancers and the dancing one summery evening at Dancing in the Park. He continues to dance with many of the social groups around Toronto and in cottage country, supporting them and their teachers not only with his enthusiastic participation dancing and chauffeuring, but also by providing services often as treasurer when required.

As a semi-retired Certified General Accountant, Gary has provided continued support and expertise to the Toronto Association as a member of the Finance Committee since 2005, often travelling great distances to attend the financial committee meetings. His knowledge of budgeting, reporting and accounting processes has proved invaluable in assisting with and implementing the changes required by the incorporation of the Association under the terms of the Trillium Grant. He provided the product support expertise when the accounting records were originally converted to the QuickBooks software application. He has been the extra set of eyes for the Treasurer in the proofreading and reasonability tests of annual budgets and financial reports. Gary’s professional knowledge has been invaluable for the internal audit function of the Finance Committee.

Marian White and Judy Williams

Marian White and Judy Williams are people who go quietly but reliably and diligently about their work as part of the team helping make Set & Link happen month by month.

They have both been important players on the newsletter team for 5 years. Set & Link, with its informative content and pleasing appearance, is widely appreciated within our Toronto Association and beyond. The Association has already recognized some of our members in part for their work with the newsletter team: Barry Pipes (2006); Rob Lockhart (2009); Donald Holmes (2010). Marian and Judy are also an important part of the success of the newsletter and deserve a share of the credit for its success.

Marian deals with the terror of the empty page. She shapes all the articles and images supplied into pages with a coherent logical presentation. She gathers needed information from the internet and by emailing people who have not sent enough. It's demanding and time-consuming. These proposed pages and the editorial content are discussed in committee and edited.

Judy is an editor by profession. She is the central proofreader on the team and injects insightful opinions into discussions. She also serves as one of two secretaries for the newsletter committee, taking notes on the meetings.

The newsletter committee meetings themselves are more work. Except for the summer, the newsletter team meets monthly to review content, to edit, and to finalize each issue. The reviewed and edited pages are then sent to Rob for tidy up, addition of photos, refinement of typography and design, and preparation for publishing. In addition to this central work for the newsletter, Marion was membership secretary for Glenview Scottish Country Dancers for 3 years. Judy served as chair of Trinity Scottish Country Dance Group for 2 years.

These two steady hardworking members deserve a volunteer award for their contributions to the health of the Toronto Association through the newsletter team and at their social groups.