t the 68^th Annual General Meeting of the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce in Morden on May 16, 1999, delegates voted unanimously to adopt the following resolution as Chamber policy.

Preamble: Poor literacy skills increase the likelihood of unemployment and poor health, and can lead to sustained poverty.

Resolution: That the Government of Manitoba formulate a task force to oversee the development and implementation of a coordinated, long term strategy to improve literacy in Manitoba. This strategy will:

1. develop a plan to increase the number of Manitobans with functional literacy skills by 10% by the year 2010
2. include family, rural and aboriginal literacy programming targets
3. develop a campaign to increase the inter-governmental and general public understanding of the impact of literacy on the economic and social well-being of Manitoba
4. develop a process to integrate state of the art technology and Internet access in all adult literacy programs.

This task force will seek input from all stakeholders across Manitoba and will publish its strategy by December 1999.

LPM would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Lori Cook and Jamie Bradshaw of the Russell Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring this resolution and Daniel Overall, MCC -staff, for shepherding this process through the business community. LPM Past President Cheryl Campbell gave up yet another weekend for literacy promotion in her own home town to accompany Marg Rose to the MCC AGM. They were delighted to have this opportunity to speak to the resolution and showcase several slides from the Manitoba Literacy Atlas to the delegates in attendance.

In a letter to LPM, Graham S. Starmer, Executive Director of MCC, wrote: " The AGM was a success with over 100 registered delegates representing 32 Chambers and 23 corporate members. We were all provided with information about technology at the same time as having a little fun. Decisions were made on 23 new resolutions which will be lobbied on by the Chambers in the upcoming year."

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