BCMA Annual General Meeting
BCMA YEAR IN REVIEW 2024
As we prepare for the BCMAâs 2024 Annual General Meeting on October 23, this resource page will help you get caught up on everything the BC Museums Association has been up to over the past year.Â
In addition to an overview of the past year, you will also be able to see a preview of the members standing for election for the BCMA Council, messages from the BCMA President and Executive Director, and access to the BCMAâs 2023/24 financial statements and AGM materials.
If you have any questions, contact members@museum.bc.ca for assistance!Â
Register for the 2024 BCMA Annual General MeetingÂ
Members in good standing may participate in the AGM virtually. Please register for the AGM so the BCMA team can accurately plan for the number of attendees.
Message from BCMA President
Dear Members,
Even though I have served on BCMA council since 2017, I still wasnât sure what to expect during my first term as BCMA President. I was excited to work more closely with Ryan Hunt, Executive Director and find ways to support the BCMA staff in the great work they do advocating for the sector, providing relevant professional development and being brave, strong connectors. What I didnât expect was how, in many ways, this past year has been challenging both for the BCMA as an organization and for the sector, especially as the impact of decreased funding (post COVID-era), the winding down of grants, and the possible move into austerity is now being felt.
If you have not yet had a chance to read the new BCMA Strategic Plan, I strongly encourage you to set aside some time to go over it since this document will be core to our collective work for the next several years. Also, it could serve as a template for you own planning!
If you are working on updating your own organizationâs strategic plan or are working to develop new shared values to guide your work, Council and Staff would love to hear about it! We truly enjoy sharing and celebrating the great work and achievements of BCMA members. Any time you wish share, I encourage you to post to the BCMA listserv, or email us directly at bcma@museum.bc.ca.Â
Sincerely,
Lynn Adam Saffery
Message from BCMA Executive Director
Hello everyone,
In speaking with members and sector partners this past year, itâs clear that 2024 has been difficult for many – on both personal and professional levels. We have all been operating under high degrees of uncertainty during âunprecedented timesâ and it feels as if the weight weâve been carrying over the past five years is really starting to take its toll. And now, perhaps more than ever, it is so important that we have friends and colleagues who can help us and share the load, if only for a moment.
The core of professional associations like the BCMA is interpersonal connection. From our founding as a volunteer service organization, to our evolution as a professionally-staffed professional development and advocacy organization, the BCMA exists to support and connect the humans who work and volunteer in BCâs cultural sector.
We love getting out into communities, meeting our members face-to-face, and offering in-person workshops and networking opportunities. In 2024, we have had the opportunity to offer more in-person opportunities around BC and beyond through programs like the CARE workshops, BC HERN workshops, and the IBPOC Network Tea & Talks. But there are financial and logistical challenges that make it difficult to offer in-person programming that can reach every community in a given year. The BCMA relies on project grant funding in order to offer the majority of our programs and services and as our members know all too well, grant funding has become noticeably more scarce in the past year.
The fall grant season is when we apply for funding for the majority of the BCMAâs program offerings for the following year. We are working to find new and engaging ways to connect with our members in 2025 through in-person, online, and hybrid offerings. As a community we are all carrying so much and the more we can build connections between our members and partners, the more opportunities we have to collectively share this load and provide even a moment of relief for those who are struggling.
Over the past year, I have had the pleasure of working to deepen the BCMAâs connections with our colleagues in the arts sector through two collaborations that are also working to bring together the broader arts, culture, and heritage community. The pilot year of the Pathways program, a partnership between Arts BC, the BCMA, Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA), and Rural Arts Inclusion Lab (RAIL), to offer year-long guided equity and access support for any interested arts, culture, and heritage organizations in BC. This program has brought together museums and arts organizations in ways that help to break down the silos that exist within the cultural sector. During the pilot year weâve seen repeated âlight-bulb momentsâ where two individuals working with similar communities on similar projects realize that theyâve found a new potential community collaborator. Iâve even had one myself when I discovered that as the BCMA has been building a library for video and audio equipment for our members through the Heritage Online program, an arts organization just a few blocks from our office is working on a nearly identical project. Applications for the Winter intake of the second year of Pathways is currently open and closes on October 16, 2024.
The second cross-sector collaboration is the BC Coalition of Arts, Culture, and Heritage. For the past two years the BCMA has worked with 221A, Arts BC, BC Alliance for Arts + Culture, Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, and the Media Arts Alliance of the Pacific to help unite the many voices of BCâs cultural sector to speak with a shared message – our sector matters, we can help address many of the biggest challenges facing our province, and the government is missing an opportunity to strategically leverage our impact. In 2023 the Coalition pooled our resources to hire professional government relations support to help develop a sector-wide advocacy strategy, and in 2024 we continued to share resources and raise funds to launch an advocacy campaign aligned with the BC election.
We are already seeing the impact of the Coalitionâs work. We worked with local government partners to submit a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities Convention (UBCM) asking that the Government of BC raise the BC Arts Councilâs budget to $55 million annually. The BC Green Party adopted all of the Coalitionâs policy requests into their arts, culture, and heritage platform. And we have received media coverage at the provincial and national levels. No matter the outcome of the election, collective advocacy will continue to be critical in order for our sector to receive the support and attention from government that it deserves. I look forward to continuing these collaborations with our sector partners to help build a brighter future for museums, galleries, and all cultural organizations.
The past year has been challenging, but I continue to find the work of our members and the relationships we have built with peer organizations a source of inspiration, motivation, and hope.=
Sincerely,
Ryan Hunt
BCMA Executive Director
2024-25 Council Candidates
The following members have been nominated for Council positions. Council members-at-large actively participate in Council meetings and the Annual General Meeting. They vote to approve the annual budget for the Association, review and assess annual financial statements, mandates, policies, and business plans, and serve on various committees.
Please note: Members in good standing may be nominated at any point leading up to the AGM, even on the floor of the AGM itself. To be included in the following list, however, nominations need to be submitted to bcma@museum.bc.ca by October 16, 2024.
The BCMA thanks the following Council members for their time and contributions to the Association:
Sherri Kajiwara, Nikkei National Museum, has announced that after three terms on the BCMA Council, she is stepping down from her position. On behalf of the entire BCMA Council and staff we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Sherri for her dedication, thoughtful contributions, calm presence, and for her friendship.
Jane Lemke, Burnaby Village Museum, has completed two terms as Secretary and will be returning to Council as a director. The work of a board secretary, while often unglamorous, is critical to the health and good governance of a not-for-profit organization – thank you Jane for your contributions through this role and your eye for detail!
Proposed Slate of Candidates
Each year, the BCMA Nominations Working Group reviews the skills and representation of the current BCMA Council members to identify nominees and propose a slate of candidates who will support the board of directors with diverse skills and experiences. BCMA bylaws note that directors shall not serve more than six consecutive terms as director on Council.
Members of the BC Museums Association may vote for any eligible nominees, including those who put their names forward from the floor of the AGM, but after reviewing the current Council members and the nominees, the Nominations Working Group recommends the following slate (a downloadable version of the slate is available here):
The following individuals are nominated to serve as Directors:
Arthur Renwick, Kitimat Museum & Archives
Nominated for 1st year of 1st two-year term
Nina Buddhdev, The Bandish Network Society
Nominated for 1st year of 1st two-year term
The following individuals are nominated to serve as Officers:
Lynn Saffery, Museum of Surrey
Nominated for 2nd one-year term as President
cĚris Jordan Coble, Westbank First Nation
Nominated for 2nd one-year term as Vice-President
Chris Earle, Accountant
Nominated for 2nd year of a 2-year term as Treasurer
Michelle Tsin-Yi Taylor, New Westminster Museum & Archives
Nominated for 1st one-year term as Secretary
Catherine Ouellet-Martin, Beaty Biodiversity Museum
Nominated for 2nd one-year term as Past President
No Action Needed:
Carolyn Holmes, Nanaimo Art Gallery
entering 2nd year of 3rd two-year term
Dauna Kennedy, Vernon Public Art Gallery
entering 2nd year of 2nd two-year term
Gid yahkâii Sean Young, Saahlinda Naay Haida Gwaii Museum
entering 2nd year of 2nd two-year term
Alyssa Leier, The Exploration Place
entering 2nd year of 2nd two-year term
Brian Radburn, Science World
entering 2nd year of 1st two-year term
Jane Lemke, Burnaby Village Museum
entering 2nd year of 1st two-year term
AGM Materials
The Annual General Meeting of the BC Museums Association (BCMA) will take place on October 23, 2024.
Materials for the 2024 AGM can be accessed by clicking the button below. This content is password protected. A password will be sent to the email address associated with your membership. If you have difficulty accessing the AGM member materials, please contact members@museum.bc.ca for assistance!
Included:
- AGM Agenda
- AGM Member Voting Materials
- BCMA 2023-24 Financial Statements
- BCMA 2023 AGM Minutes
- 2024-25 Council Candidates
BCMA in the News
The BCMAâs ongoing advocacy work and our efforts to support institutions to take action on repatriation have been featured in the media and press throughout the year. Here are some highlights:
Museum at Campbell River âa place of pride and community identityâ
Campbell River Mirror
Highlights
Having More Opportunities to Meet Our Members
Our biggest highlight in the past 12 months was having more opportunities to get out into communities and engage with our members. From openings, to special events, to social visits, the BCMA staff and Council had more opportunities to connect directly with members. Here are some of our favourite photos from member visits over the past year.
Return of In-Person Workshops and Special EventsÂ
In 2024 the BCMA team is excited to offer more in-person workshops and special events than ever before! From hosting CARE workshops across BC, to AI listening sessions, to the IBPOC Network Tea & Talk sessions across BC and even Alberta, the BCMA team has been busy getting out into the community and bringing programming to our members.
We have even more in-person sessions planned throughout the remainder of our 2024/25 programming year. Visit the BCMA website to learn more about upcoming programs and to register for an opportunity near you!
IBPOC Museum Professionals Network
The IBPOC Network continues to hold an accountable space for racialized staff, volunteers, and students in the sector. In addition to our monthly online sessions, we are once again taking Tea and Talk on the road as we travel throughout BC and Alberta. So far this year the network has led in person Tea and Talks in New Westminster, Surrey, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Calgary, Burnaby, Victoria, North Vancouver, and Kelowna. We thank all of our hosts for holding these affinity spaces for conversations within the IBPOC community, and we look forward to our next sessions in Prince George, Vancouver, Richmond, and Coquitlam.Â
The IBPOC Network also hosted a Cultivating Careers Workshop day at the Burnaby Village Museum in May this year. Cultivating Careers sessions focus on ways IBPOC museum, heritage, and cultural professionals can further their careers, encourage emerging IBPOC professionals, and navigate situations within their workplace all with the goal of strengthening IBPOC representation in the sector. This session was our first in-person professional development workshop. The workshop included trauma-informed practice training, a guided walk through the Indigenous learning spaces of the village and exhibition spaces, and a Tea and Talk.
In early July, the IBPOC Network launched an email campaign. The campaign was intended to increase support for IBPOC staff and volunteers in the sector, and increase sector-wide support for employees wanting to attend IBPOC Network events. Along with the campaign we sent out the âStats at a Glanceâ poster as seen here to demonstrate some of the challenges IBPOC are currently facing in the sector and highlight the need for support and change. The email campaign reached over one thousand emails throughout BC! Please feel free to download and share the âStats at a Glanceâ poster. If you would like to participate in the email campaign, please reach out to us at outreach@museum.bc.ca and we will happily forward you the email.
2SLGBTQIA+ Network
Building on the success of the BCMAâs Gender & Sexuality Inclusion Toolkit and responding to community needs, the 2SLGBTQIA+ Network aims to provide a safer, accountable space where 2SLGBTQIA+ students, volunteers, and professionals in the arts and culture sector can connect. The Network, guided by an eight person advisory group, will provide targeted support for members of the queer community, and offer some resources for allies who would like to improve their individual and organizational practices.
The Network held its launch event in June of this year, and is holding monthly online peer-support gatherings. At our annual gathering on Lheidli Tâenneh territory, the 2SLGBTQIA+ Network and the IBPOC Network collaborated to host a joint Tea & Talk, intended as a way to celebrate and hold space for intersectional identities and fill gaps in this type of programming. We look forward to future collaborations and solidarity building between our Networks, including our planned book & media club over the winter of 2024/2025. Â
To learn more, please visit: https://museum.bc.ca/membership/mentorship/2slgbtqia-network/Â
BCMA Podcasts
In our 2023 Year in Review post, we noted that more people have listened to BCMA podcasts in 2023 than in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined – we are excited to share that 2024 is projected to have even more downloads than 2023!
From our monthly MuseNews series, to special interviews with BCMA members, to the BC Museums Portraits series, BCMA podcasts highlight innovative ideas that celebrate the arts, culture, and heritage sector while challenging us to continue growing and learning. If you would like to be on a BCMA podcast or have an idea for a topic, please contact bcma@museum.bc.ca.Â
Advocacy
Advocacy is a key priority of the BCMA, but it can often be the most difficult aspect of our work to share with our members because so much of it happens behind the scenes or involves building and sustaining relationships slowly over a long period of time. Three areas of success weâd like to highlight in our advocacy work over the past year include:
- Sustaining Collaborative Relations: The core of our mission as an organization is: âThrough bold advocacy and collaborative leadership, the BC Museums Association supports the arts, culture, and heritage sector to thrive.â In the past year we have worked with partners like First Peoplesâ Cultural Council to co-publish a position paper about the critical need to centre Indigenous voices in the new National Museum Policy; we have worked with the Canadian Museums Association to co-publish a resource exploring international policy ideas to support the cultural sector; and we came together with Provincial and Territorial Museum Association counterparts at the CMA Conference in Niagara Falls this past April.
- New Advocacy Resources: In collaboration with the BCMA Advocacy Committee, we have published two new resources in the past year:
- Timely Responses to Announcements: Keeping up with all of the latest government news and announcements is challenging, so over the past year the BCMA has worked to offer our members timely updates and responses about the changing political landscape. Some of these responses include the following:
Updates on BCMAâs Commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
The BC Museums Association is committed to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the museum and cultural sector and in our own organizational practices. A key component of this commitment is being open and transparent with our community. Every few months, we share an update about the steps we are taking to support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Pathways Program
Arts BC, the BCMA, the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance (GVPTA), and the Rural Arts Inclusion Lab (RAIL) are partnering again to launch the second year of the Pathways program.
For the past year, 70 organizations and nearly 140 individuals have devoted hundreds of hours to learning, reflecting, and integrating strategies for making their work and organizations more equitable and accessible in the Pathways programâs pilot year. Pathways supports organizations as they tackle the challenges of implementing specific equity practices into their work regardless of scale, geographic or historical context. It is an individualized process that focuses on turning learning into action.
Pathways Year 2 will offer two intakes: Applications opened on June 25th to start the program in September 2024 and intake for the Fall cohort is now closed. Intake for the Winter cohort of Pathways is now open and expressions of interest are due by October 16, 2024. Participants will be supported with individualized learning pathways, by peer networks, one-on-one guidance, and access to professional development and learning experiences relevant to their organizationâs equity and access goals.Â
Pathways is developed by a collaborative community of organizations and our networks that include Arts BC, BCMA, GVPTA and RAIL. The Pathways project is a partnership between this community and the BC Arts Council.
Thank you for another great year!
