The 2022–23 Mauricie branch board (from left), Monique Déry (director of outreach), Jacynthe Trudel (director of membership), Nicole Hébert (treasurer), Johanne Champagne (administrative assistant), Rachel Baril (president), Célyne Houde (director of communications), Lyse Gervais (vice-president), Josée Mayer (director of activities) and Lyna Bellerive (director of health benefits.)
In Mauricie, a region that stretches north from the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, branch president Rachel Baril and vice-president Lyse Gervais have known each other for decades. Not only did their careers at the Canada Revenue Agency in Shawinigan overlap, but so did their efforts to empower women.
Both were actively involved in an advisory committee formed to help women advance professionally, at a time when few reached management positions. Baril discovered there were tools available to help candidates prepare for tests and interviews that most women didn’t know about. That prompted her to spearhead a project to round up and share information. Women’s performances at the Shawinigan centre started to increase dramatically, she recalled.
“It’s natural for me to fight, to influence — but not alone,” says Baril, who grew up with nine siblings and played several team sports. “Whatever I learn, I [share with] others.”
Her inclination to spread the word is still strong. The only woman to head one of Quebec’s six branches, Baril makes a point of sharing the contents of all her provincial and national meetings with board members, occasionally taking some along for a first-hand experience, Gervais says. Baril makes sure the Facebook page is updated often. And she doesn’t shy away from asking other branches to share their best findings.
“Our strength is communication,” says Gervais, who volunteered with Federal Retirees for several years before accepting the branch vice-presidency in 2021, when Baril became president. That’s when the nine-person board turned all-female.
“We are all in sync, everyone has the same information, at the same time. If one goes on a trip, the other is up to date on everything that’s going on.”
Baril said she believes in building an institutional memory. Under her leadership, the team has been producing detailed reports on the branch’s initiatives, such as event planning and budgeting, to make organizing future events easier. When it comes to communicating with the 1,566 or so members, however, she is mindful of not flooding them with too much information.
“We get straight to the point,” she says. “I never liked chatting away to say nothing, I like being direct.”
But the nine women, who are all “super qualified” and enjoy working together, want to make sure they don’t send the wrong message to men, Gervais adds. The board may be all-female, but male volunteers have done invaluable work, too, including for the branch’s 30th anniversary celebrations last year.
“I don’t want people to think we don’t want men in our group,” she says. “The quality of volunteering has nothing to do with gender. What we look for is a commitment to offer the best of one’s capacity.”
Gervais speaks from experience. Her extensive volunteering includes sitting on the board of the regional health and social services centre, co-managing a children’s choir and dressing up as Mrs. Claus during Christmas parties at the Shawinigan tax centre (known today as National Verification and Collections Centre) where she worked for 35 years. She credits her Catholic upbringing, but also circumstances.
“I had a taste for it — it’s really life that took me there,” she says.