WINNIPEG — Facing budget constraints, the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada (NCJWC) has closed its national headquarters here, and its Winnipeg section will be shuttering a thrift that opened more than 60 years ago.
Just a Second Shop in Winnipeg [Rhonda Spivak photo]
The national office, which was located on Main Street in the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre, a non-profit seniors centre established by council, was closed in early January after an organizational restructuring. The Just a Second Shop will cease operation on March 27.
“We had to close the national office… and cut a staff position for economic reasons… We just couldn’t keep up the costs of running a national office,” NCJWC’s national president, Dianne Glass, told The CJN.
“At our national meeting in November 2009, it was decided that we would allocate different functions that the national office was carrying out to each Canadian section, and that the national office would close,” she said. “So, for example, the Edmonton section office is now looking after donation cards, Toronto is looking after communications and website, Vancouver is in charge of advocacy and our membership roster… Everyone has part of the responsibilities that used to be run out of our national office.”
Notwithstanding that the decision was made for economic reasons, Glass said, there may be some benefits to the new structure.
“This new system gives each section more ownership of the organization. From a personal perspective, I think it’s good, because now each section in each city understands better what it takes to run a national organization… The presidents of each chapter are communicating more between each other than before,” she said.
She also noted that they “are going to evaluate how this new system is working out for each section and see if we need to make any more adjustments.”
The hard economic times have also affected council’s Winnipeg section, which ran the Just A Second shop on a for-profit basis.
“This has been very sad for us… Since 1949, we’ve had a thrift store,” said Sharon Allentuck, the Winnipeg council member in charge of supervising the closing. “It’s been sad for members of our organization and for customers in the neighbourhood.”
Allentuck said the store, located at 725 Osborne St., has been losing money in the past year.
“Our overhead was too high and rent was too high. There’s a lot of competition from other thrift stores, and we just couldn’t keep up… We had to make a business decision… About 20 years ago, we were profiting at least $50,000 from the store. Over the years, we made a lot of money with the store… But in the last few years, we were struggling.”
Winnipeg section president Rose Aziman said that without the store as a source of revenue, her organization will continue to sustain itself “by doing other fundraising and by applying for grants for specific projects, from different agencies, depending on the project.”
Allentuck said, for example, that “when we had a genetic testing educational project last year for Jewish women, we successfully applied for a grant from the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.
“We own the building where the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre operates, although the living centre pays all the expenses associated with operating the building. Because of that, we have been able to keep the building and not had to consider selling it. That’s good for everybody,” Allentuck said.