1) Who are you?
my name is virginia weiler. i’m a stay-at-home mom to a 3 year old light of my life, wife to the most patient man i know, and sort of a social entrepreneur involved in discreet rabble rousing for issues i care deeply about. i love the outdoors – and once spent 3 months in the rockies and new zealand learning to mountaineer, rock climb and kayak – as a “vacation” after working hard on three different economic development initiatives in BC.
2. What do you do for fun?
for fun, i like to go meetings:) most recently, i’ve been going to alot of election planning meetings (www.voteaction.ca). what i really like to do for fun is get my husband to help me rearrange furniture late at night, take our son to the park and chat with the incredibly cool moms in our neighbourhood – who manage to do important stuff in community and in their work, while cleaning sand from their noses and cutting up apples into very small pieces.
3. What is your favourite community and why?
my favourite community is right where we live on commercial drive, and i think its because it has such an incredible diversity and alive social fabric, where the street buildings are mostly just 2 stories high, and its full of people who care about changing the world, but are still in touch with their inner (or outer) rebel. but home is where the heart is, and i’ve loved just about every community where i’ve lived. its where you get to know the streets, the shopkeepers, the best place to get coffee, and you want to read the stuff on the notice boards. years ago i lived in the yukon, and the practise was to stop your truck in the middle of the highway when you saw
another truck you recognized, and chat for 20 minutes. it was another fabulous community except for the country and western music and even that grows on you after awhile.
4. What is your superpower?
my superpower is staying up late with the elves and getting work done after our house has gone to sleep :)… but really, i think my superpower is being able (mostly) to see someone else’s point of view. maybe it comes from growing up in a diverse family (business/labour/academic; right wing/left wing; and loads of passionate discussions and arguments), or from spending alot of time operating heavy machinery in the north after university, but i’ve been saved by my superpower a few times. its a handy tool for getting stuff done.
5. How do you use it to build community?
in my experience, sometimes amazing things happen when people with very different backgrounds and perspectives find a way to work together to make “change happen”. i use my superpower to listen and then try and help all of us around the table hear what is being said.
My three favourite things about Virginia are…
1. Her friendly personality. It’s pretty self explanatory really. Virginia is a very friendly and thoughtful person. She’s always smiling and if you’re lucky enough to meet her on the street, odds are she’ll be smiling.
2. She used to operate heavy machinery up north. It’s something not all of us can say we’ve done. And it’s certainly something that adds yet another dimension to Virginia. Unlike many Vancouverites, she’s actually been out of an urban environment, giving her a great understanding of what’s going on around the rest of the province.
3. Her service and her vision. Virginia has sat on the Vancity board in the past and is running for the board in the future. Unlike sitting on, say the board of TD Canada or HSBC, sitting on the Vancity board requires a lot of work for very little renumeration. Endless hours of paperwork, reading and sitting in sometimes tedious meetings is a key part of the job. Virginia does all of this because she has a vision of what Vancity is and is committed to making that vision a reality. Her commitment to the credit union is admirable.
As told by Kurt…