Farewell From the ACEA Secretary – Sandra Froehlich

Soon after becoming Secretary of the ACEA in early 1994, I offered to host the next meeting of the ACEA at the Fort Saskatchewan Correctional Centre. I asked then-President, Lehi Heath, how long the meetings usually took. “Oh,” he said, “we start at 10 a.m. and usually finish about 3 or 4 p.m.” The look of surprise on my face was obvious to Lehi, but he wasn’t kidding about the length of the meeting. Over time, we managed to pare the length of our meetings considerably and often laughed about our early marathon sessions. The ACEA was serious business to us!

As I understand it, the origins of the ACEA occurred in the early 1980s with a group of dedicated individuals. By the time I was elected in 1994, the ACEA already had a fine tradition of hosting conferences and other initiatives that contributed to correctional education in Alberta. Throughout my tenure on the ACEA, I was fortunate to work with three fine presidents – Lehi Heath, Kevin Wahl, and Randall Wright –and a core group of committed correctional educators (sometimes we wondered if we were correctional educators who should be committed). Through our joint effort, and that of our membership, we saw the quality of our conferences increase exponentially, and the profile of the ACEA improve and grow. It really was a pleasure for me to be part of a group, the ACEA Board, who worked so well together.

Over nearly nine years as ACEA Secretary, I saw our meetings become shorter, our vision become greater, and our fun increase dramatically. It is essential to thank everyone who was part of that. We drove from Edmonton, Lethbridge, Calgary, Grande Cache, Red Deer etc. to meet; we worked late if necessary; and we perhaps wreaked havoc on the folks at the Calgary Young Offender Centre and Excalibur office where we held our meetings. Through all of that, we managed to create a Mission Statement, refine our Constitution, produce Conference Journals, guide conference planning, move our conference to Ottawa one year, and create an initiative to promote correctional education throughout Canada. There were other achievements too, particularly when we prevented Lehi from destroying the Excalibur boardroom when he attempted to flip a large container of water onto the dispensing stand. From water containers to Mission Statements, I have a load of great memories.

As I move on to a new job, I wish the ACEA every success.