The Windsor Branch, 1977–1980

No history of the Windsor Branch was written while it ran. What follows is assembled from the newsletters that announced, listed and ratified it; every claim below names the issue and page it comes from.

Forming, winter 1977

The newsletter’s Winter (January) 1978 issue tells the Society to expect a new branch: “the Executive Council is looking forward to the Annual Meeting when they can formally welcome the new Windsor Branch to C.S.C.L. Cheers and Congratulations to all of you!” — and names its whole founding executive in the same sentence: “President - Dan Ouellette, Vice-President - Alice Riddle, Secretary and Treasurer - Michelle Mailloux, General Members - Kim Hobson, Fred Burgess and Wayne MacDonald.” A branch listing later in the same issue confirms it was not yet fully organized: “Windsor--a new branch that is forming--contact President Dan Ouellette.” (Winter 1977, pages 1 and 7.)

• Formed over the winter of 1977, first announced as "a new branch that is forming" under President Dan Ouellette
• Founding executive named in full at its announcement: Dan Ouellette (President), Alice Riddle (Vice-President), Michelle Mailloux (Secretary and Treasurer), Kim Hobson, Fred Burgess and Wayne MacDonald (General Members)
• Formally welcomed and ratified at the 28th Annual Meeting, Toronto, April 1978, under its own name, Leather Artists International of Windsor
• Beula Reynolds, the Society's Vice-President in charge of branches, credited with assisting the branch's formation
• Named among the Society’s six Ontario branches at the 1979 Annual Meeting, Barrie
• No branch report, officer list or meeting notice for Windsor has been found in the newsletters after January 1980

On the Council's own list, spring 1978

By Spring 1978 Windsor has its own line in the Society's branch-contact list, alongside Barrie, Belleville, Hamilton, Toronto and Woodstock: “Windsor - Mr. Dan Ouellette, Apt. #1, 1753 Tecumseh Rd. East, Windsor.” (Spring 1978, page 2.)

Welcomed and ratified, 1978 Annual Meeting

The 28th Annual Meeting, Toronto, April 1978, made it official: “A new branch at Windsor, Ontario was officially welcomed into the Society. In the absence of the Windsor President, Dan Ouellette, the Vice-President, Alice Riddle represented the members.” A separate notice in the same issue gives the branch its own printed name: “Welcome to the Windsor Branch — At the recent 1978 Annual Meeting this new branch, Leather Artists International of Windsor, was officially ratified. Beula Reynolds introduced Miss Alice Riddle, Vice-President, Windsor Branch.” (Summer 1978, pages 2 and 8.)

Credited to Beula Reynolds

The same issue's tribute to outgoing Vice-President Beula Reynolds credits her directly with the branch's founding: she had "served as this organization's Vice-President for 6 years... She was instrumental as Vice-President in charge of branches, in assisting the formation of the New Windsor Branch." (Summer 1978, page 1.)

Among the Society's branches, 1980

The last mention found: the January 1980 newsletter, reporting the April 1979 Annual Meeting at Barrie, names Windsor among "the six Ontario branches—Belleville, Hamilton, Norland, Toronto, Woodstock and Windsor." (January 1980, page 1.)

No branch report, officer list or meeting notice for Windsor has been found in the newsletters after this, but the Society’s own minutes close the branch’s story: the minutes of the 30th Annual Meeting, 1980, record that “the Windsor Branch has recently disbanded because of the local economic problems.” A “Windsor Leathercrafters” of Windsor, Ontario, appears among the member guilds of the International Assembly of Leathercraftsmen, on an old Assembly bulletin reprinted in Summer 1993, alongside groups in Flint, Buffalo, Dearborn and Chicago. Whether this is the same body continuing under a later name, or a separate group entirely, is not settled by anything found; left as an open question rather than assumed either way.

Assembled from Winter 1977 pp1 and 7, Spring 1978 p2, Summer 1978 pp1, 2 and 8, January 1980 p1, and Summer 1993 p8.