Telco Community Volunteers

How many Club members know the background that led to the formation of TELCO COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS, the incorporated group under which each of the five retiree clubs in the Greater Toronto Area operates?

The five clubs (of Bell Pensioners/spouses) include; Brampton Retirees' Club, Fieldway Retirees' Club, Oakville Retirees' Club, Scarborough Retirees' Club and Toronto Retirees' Club.

From mid-1978 to approximately the end of 1998, the Telephone Pioneers of America, Maple Leaf Metro Chapter #74, exercised jurisdiction over membership of the Telephone Pioneers of America in the Toronto and Mississauga regions.

For several years, Pauline Baxter Moore, as a retired employee of Bell Canada, was a Pioneer Life Member and regularly attended meetings of the Fieldway Life Members Club.

 In return for the "much happiness provided her by the Fieldway Life Members Club" she wished, through her Will, "to provide assistance to such Club to enable it to carry on.."

Her Will was prepared and signed in 1985. At that time Maple Leaf metro Chapter #74 had the same organization as when it was created. (i.e. including five separate Life Member Clubs operating in Etobicoke, Oakville, Brampton, Scarborough and Toronto.)

Pauline Baxter Moore died in 1987. Her Will provided that, until the year 2008, the Estate is to be held in trust by the (now)   Scotia Trust, as Executor, with all of the income of the Estate to be paid to Metro Chapter #74, as directed by Fieldway Life Members Club. The Will further provided that in 2008, the capital of the Estate is to go to Metro Chapter #74. The University of Toronto was stipulated as a secondary beneficiary should Fieldway and associated clubs cease to exist during the Will period. Consistent with the intent of the Will, Fieldway Life Member Club established a sub-organization to oversee equal distribution of the income to all five Greater Toronto Area Life Member Clubs and to monitor that spending was consistent with the provision of the Will.

In late 1998 the local Telephone Pioneers of America executive, with the support of Bell, voted to sever ties with the Telephone Pioneers of America and to create a new organization. In early 1999, Bell Community Volunteers (BCV) was incorporated with the assistance of B.C.E. Bell Community Volunteers did not prove to be a successful venture and was dissolved in mid-2000

The Executor of the Will of PBM suspended further payments from the Estate subject to Court clarification of the proper recipient.

In the face of this, the five Life Member Clubs continued to meet  as usual and established a committee, made up of a representative of each Life Member Club, to re-establish suspended funding under PBM's Will and to establish a base for continuing Club activity.

This was initially done with the incorporation of TELCO COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS in September 2000. Then followed each "Metro Club" becoming a "club name" Retirees' Club of TELCO COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS. By early 2001 some 2700 TPA Life Members were included into Telco Retiree membership.

At about the same time, notification was received of The Telephone Pioneers of America's intent to seek a Court review of their stated position of ownership regarding membership/finances of TELCO COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS. This action raised legal concerns re: potential next-of-kin, University of Toronto (potential secondary beneficiary).

Discovery meetings, Mediation meetings were held until the "final" Court Hearing in September, 2002. Agreements had been reached with the University of Toronto and with (Court-appointed) lawyers representing potential next-of-kin, on their claims- leaving the Court contest between TELCO and the Telephone Pioneers of America.

A decision was rendered in favour of TELCO COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS.

Annual interest payments are to continue until April 2008, following which the Capital of the Will (Estate) becomes the sole property of TELCO. (not Maple Leaf Chapter #74)

The few sentences above barely touch upon the mountains of legal work and Court work performed by our lawyers and the periods of heart-wrenching anxiety suffered by your representatives during the two years it took for the matter to be resolved!

And so, between now and 2008, it is the task of the TELCO BOARD to pass along to the five Metro Retiree Clubs their equal share of the annual earnings on capital derived from Pauline's gift. Following that, the Board of the day will assume the role of the Executor of the Estate in managing the remaining capital. A probable scenario is that the current method of investing the capital be continued and that the resultant earnings support Club activities into the future.