The Boyle Rural Crime Watch annual general meeting (AGM) will be held on April 14 and is a cry for help.
Unless the group has several members join in an active role, president Terry Jordan said the group may be forced to close.
“We have been fairly active, but we are down to five or six regular people that volunteer,” Jordan said. “Last year, we had five meetings that we couldn’t host because we couldn’t get quorum.”
Jordan expressed his disappointment with the lack of volunteers; however, he understands how busy parents are with their children’s after-school activities.
“We are at the stage now that we need to seriously start looking at getting some new people in, getting some help, or we are going to have to fold,” he stated.
The group was created in the early 1970s, and Jordan explained that each year at the AGM, a speaker presents. This year, however, that will not be the case.
“We are going to have a very basic meeting because we have to see what is going to happen,” Jordan said. “If we can get some additional help on the executive, then we will do everything we can to keep it going. If we can’t get any help, then what we may end up doing is put a special motion forward giving one year for us to dissolve the funds we have.”
The meeting will take place at the Boyle Legion at 7 p.m., and Jordan encourages anyone who wishes to be part of the group to attend.
“I’m hoping that we can generate some kind of interest,” Jordan said. “I really don’t want to see the group go by the wayside.”
The group is a non-profit organization that promotes assisting the RCMP.
“The group is based on reporting crimes as you see them to the various local authorities,” he said, explaining those crimes could include poaching or trespassing.
“It is based on community involvement and watching out for your neighbour and reporting suspicious activity,” Jordan said.
However, Jordan also realizes that in a world of technology, social media and heightened news coverage, the role of rural crime watches might not be as highly regarded as it once was.
“Some of the realities are that we get the same press releases that the newspaper and radio does,” he said. “Maybe rural crime watch is totally useless because with the media, they have so many things on the go. Everyone hears it on the radio, or they get it out on the Internet.”
