Life Members Honoured at January Reunion
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Volume 261 June 2014 Life Members Honoured at January Reunion Bob McKercher (left) with Marcel Mary Sonntag amd Bernie Sonntag with Dubois and Lynda Dubois SAGA editor Ewald Lammerding (right). Marcel Joseph Dubois Bernard Henry Sonntag School 1961 College 1962 Marcel was born into a farm family at Rosetown, Sas- Bernard was born in Goodsoil, Saskatchewan in 1940 katchewan and educated at Springville and Rosetown. and graduated from Goodsoil High School in 1958. He He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with completed his BSA at the U of S in 1962. After gradu- a Diploma in Agriculture in 1961 and Bachelor of Sci- ation, Bernie was employed with Agriculture Canada, ence in Agriculture in 1965. During the following win- Economics Branch from 1962 - 1966. During this time ters, he worked with both the Saskatchewan and Federal he completed an MSc in Ag Economics at the U of S Departments of Agriculture teaching agricultural man- in 1965. He worked for a consulting firm in Ottawa in agement short courses, sitting on the Farm Debt Review 1966-67. In 1968, with the support of Agriculture Can- Board, and writing for Grain News. ada, Bernie began PhD studies at Purdue University, Marcel has been an active and generous contributor Indiana, USA. Upon completion in 1971, he joined Ag- to his community. He has been a Wheat Pool Director, riculture Canada Research Centre in Lethbridge. Over local school board member and a hockey coach. He has the next several years the economics unit became an in- been involved with the church choir, Boy Scouts, and tegral part of the Research Centre. In 1979, the Research was on a fundraising committee for the new University Branch opened a western region office in Saskatoon. Agriculture Building. He was the president and driv- Bernie became the regional office’s economist. ing force with the Rosetown and District Health Care In 1980, Bernie was appointed Director of the Bran- continued on Page 8 continued on Page 12 PAGE 2 2015 SAGA Reunion Chairs 1955 School Howard Mattila [email protected] 306 - 937-2987 1965 College Lorence Peterson [email protected] 306 - 249-2162 AND Irene Ahner [email protected] P.O. Box 930 Maple Creek, SK. SON 1NO 1985 School Bob Copeland [email protected] 306 - 378-2554 Obviously, we need more Reunion Chairs. It is relatively simple - all the information will be provided to you to forward on to your classmates. You do not collect any money and you do not attend any meetings. The college handles the mailing but we hope the reunion chairs can handle the message to their classmates and some email contacts. To contact us: Trina Mortson [email protected] OR Blair Cummins [email protected] OR Ewald Lammerding [email protected] This quite short list is emblematic of the problem duties fall to others. In 2014, Grant Wood did an excep- facing SAGA the last few years: attracting volunteers tional job of doing both. to serve on the Executive. The major duty of the Vice- Beyond this, we have Executive members who have President is to assemble the Chairpersons for the up- been serving on the board for eons, in what had been coming Reunion Banquet. a customary practice of two consecutive years. And now in 2015, we have our first repeat President in Blair For the last 2 years we did not have a full time VP, Cummins. For SAGA members who live in and around and this year we again cannot persuade someone to take Saskatoon, we need you to step up. As mentioned in the on the position. Yes, it is a 3 year commitment, as that President's Pen, being a SAGA Executive member is not person goes on to President, then Past President, each time consuming, and it concludes with all the fun asso- with their own duties. But without a VP, the Reunion ciated with the Annual Banquet. PAGE 3 President's Pen Hello, fellow Ag Grads. It never ceases to amaze me Seed Hawk! Watch the website and social media for that, no matter how late the spring is on our farm, we more info. never seem ready to start seeding. But we finally got Marty Seymour, who happens to be a big cheese at started on May 14th, three days earlier than last year. Agribition, has agreed (also with great enthusiasm) to A lot is happening with SAGA these days. Your ex- partner with us at a similar event for this year's Agri- ecutive has been struggling to come up with a plan to bition. We're still working on the details, so watch the attract younger grads for several years now. We have website and social media for info as it becomes avail- started using social media to help us with this. A great able. Huge thanks to Marty and Agribition, too, for step- big thanks to Chris Unsworth for initiating this proj- ping up to the plate to help us out! ect. Our membership guy, Vern Racz, will tell you a lot Your executive is always looking for new and innova- more about this in another article in this newsletter. tive ideas to make SAGA a better and stronger organiza- We also want to connect with younger grads in per- tion. So, if you have any ideas, let us know. son. After several consultations with recent grads, we Next, some good news and some bad news. The bad learned that our big winter reunion was not a good fit news first: as many of you know, Trina Mortson was for many of them. They were more interested in meeting caught up in the U of S cutbacks, and as a result is no at trade shows or other events where their fellow grads longer our Ag-Bio Development Office Liaison. The were likely to be. With this in mind, we approached two good news: she is still at the U of S and has agreed to fellow Ag Grads, Pat Beaujot '81C and Marty Sey- remain associated with SAGA and continue to provide mour '98C. many invaluable services, such as organizing our email Pat, as many of you know, is the big kahuna at Seed and mailing lists. Trina has been a huge help to us, and Hawk. He has agreed (with great enthusiasm) to part- it's great to still have her involved. ner with us at this year's Western Canada Farm Progress We are still short of people to fill executive positions. Show. All Ag Grads, new and old, are invited to meet We have a great group of people to work with, but we at the Seed Hawk's Beer Gardens in the Brandt Centre need a few more. If you are interested in helping your at 4:00 p.m. June 18th. Construction of the new Rider organization in this way, please contact us. We meet stadium has moved the beer gardens inside. SAGA will once a month in the winter. Your help will be greatly have our banner hanging, so look for your buddies con- appreciated. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming gregating beneath it. A free beer for anyone who can events. identify themselves as an Ag Grad (i.e. Agro or Voc Ag Have a good summer! clothing, hats, etc.) Huge thanks to Pat and the gang at Blair Cummins 77S 80th Annual SAGA Reunion Banquet @ TCU Place, Saskatoon on January 10, 2015 Cocktails 4:30 pm Supper 5:30 pm Blair Cummins, SAGA President Recognition of Reunion Years 1945,1955, 1965,1975,1985,1995,2005,2010 Honourary Life Member Awards Annual General Meeting and Mixer to follow program. PAGE 4 Who We Are … and Changing The SAGA Executive and many others have been to address our membership needs. Our first steps have concerned over the lack of participation in SAGA by our been to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts for SAGA. recent graduates (last 5 to 10 years). We rationalized Chris Unsworth’12C, has been instrumental in setting this by the fact they are young and busy. It takes a while, this up, and as our new communications guru; he con- especially for us older goats, to realize that this group tinues to look after this aspect, and explains what this and others to come communicate differently and have is about in a following article. The second area the ex- different priorities. They have made the change com- ecutive has considered is tuning up our website to be pletely to Facebook and Twitter as their priority means more user-friendly, and allow access for members to get of communication for keeping up with the news as well the latest in Agro news and happenings. This will likely social interactions. Us gaffers know the world of email- take the form of posting short paragraphs on a more ing, but we still need our computer to make use of it, not frequent basis. We will continue our outreach to the col- our phone. lege and students by being supportive in their endeav- Up to this we had a mix who would reluctantly ac- ors, assisting where we can. cept the printed word, and those who would decline al- The executive sees this issue of communications and together. This also describes our current membership with still too many individuals taking printed newslet- membership as a major challenge, and are open to sug- ters, especially with postal rates going up. Therein lies gestions and comments how we can continue to build our dilemma. While we are committed to our present and plan to accommodate and change.