A Profitable Year 1964
August 28, 2020
A $4000 profit greeted CEDA members at the annual meeting in 1964, as spending in the previous year fell significantly below budgeted levels. Some members favoured splitting up the surplus but instead the money was kept in hand for future expenses, such as the Jasper convention.
Another monetary concern came in the form of $30,000 in guaranteed investments that matured that year.After considerable discussion, it was decided that $20,000 of this would be reinvested, at a then high paying rate of 4¾ % interest.
A seemingly minor name change proved to be impossible in 1964. For reasons not explained in the minutes, members wished to drop “Incorporated” off the end of CEDA’s name. This motion easily passed at the annual meeting, but legal problems surfaced and eventually the Secretary of State’s Department refused to sanction the change.
An additional problem was in finding an accurate French translation of the association’s name; the Department of Culture was assisting with this problem.The idea of changing the name died subsequent to these problems, although a proper French translation was eventually arrived at and is still in use.
Interesting to note that at a director’s meeting some distributors were already recognizing the potential of electric heating to generate additional sales. One director referred to “the enormous amount of business that could be gained in this field.”
Note: CEDA is an acronym for Canadian Electrical Distributors Association. However, the “legal” name for the association on our charter is CEDA Incorporated. To most people they are just known as CEDA.
Source: CEDA: Fifty Years of Service – An Historical Review of the Canadian Electrical Distributors Association, 1934 to 1984, Kerrwil Publications. Please feel free to reach out to us any time if you have great photos, historical anecdotes or perspectives. We would love to hear from you; linegoyette@kerrwil.com.