BCMA Annual General Meeting
BCMA YEAR IN REVIEW 2025
As we prepare for the BCMA’s 2025 Annual General Meeting on October 23, 2025, this resource page will help you get caught up on everything the BC Museums Association has been up to over the past year.
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 BCMA’s 2024/25 financial statements and AGM materials.
If you have any questions, contact members@museum.bc.ca for assistance!
Register for the 2025 BCMA Annual General Meeting
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 Executive Director
As I conclude my term as President of the BCMA, I want to express my deep gratitude for the opportunity to serve and support our province’s vibrant museum and cultural sector. It has been an honour to work alongside such a resilient, collaborative, and passionate community, especially in the face of ongoing challenges like an increasingly uncertain financial landscape.
Reflecting on the journey since our memorable conference in Haida Gwaii two years ago, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made. That gathering was a powerful reminder of the importance of community—both within our institutions and across the province. Since then, we’ve developed a strong strategic plan with shared values and priorities, financial sustainability and a clear path forward that reinforces our purpose.
2025 brought many changes to the BCMA, including the departure of key staff. Ryan Hunt, our former Executive Director, moved on to a new role as Director of Museum of Vancouver. I want to extend heartfelt thanks to Ryan Hunt for his exceptional dedication to the sector. His ability to foster connections across the sector and, indeed, across the country, has left a legacy for the BCMA.
Changes mean opportunity and this summer we welcomed new leadership and talent: Jules André-Brown as BCMA’s Executive Director, whose thoughtful and confident leadership promises to guide the BCMA with vision and care. We’re also fortunate to have a new Finance & Revenue leader, Tim van Wijk, who has already demonstrated his passion by helping numbers make sense to me! In addition, we have successfully secured vital grants to sustain operations and support you, the heart of the BCMA.
On Council, we have two people moving on. Carolyn Holmes joined with me in 2017 and has been an incredible support and asset for the BCMA, and myself. I also wish to acknowledge Catherine Oulette-Martin, our outgoing Past President, whose wisdom, reasoned advice, calm demeanour, and unwavering support has been instrumental to BCMA’s success. Carolyn and Catherine, thank you.
Looking ahead, I’m thrilled to support Jordan Coble’s nomination as our next President. His passion, experience, and commitment to inclusive leadership make him an outstanding choice. I look forward to serving with Jordan these next two years.
Thank you to all of you, the BCMA members, who make British Columbia’s museum and cultural sector vibrant and exciting. Serving as your President has been a true privilege.
Lynn Saffery
President, British Columbia Museums Association
Message from BCMA Executive Director
I am so honored to step into my new role as the Executive Director of the BC Museums Association. I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to our outgoing executive director, Ryan Hunt, for his leadership and dedication.
I also want to recognize the incredible work of our staff. Lorenda Calvert did a phenomenal job as interim executive director and has been instrumental in ensuring a smooth transition. Jazmin Hundal continues to lead our crucial equity and inclusion initiatives, while Leia Patterson’s work in repatriation and member services remains foundational to our mission. I’d also like to acknowledge the vital contributions of Desireé Hall in our communications department.
We are thrilled to welcome Tim van Wijk, our new Director of Finance and Revenue. His expertise will be essential as we work to strengthen our financial stability and pursue our long-term goals. I look forward to working with all of you to build a resilient and ethical future for British Columbia’s museums.
Sincerely,
Jules André-Brown
2025-26 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.
The BCMA thanks the following Council members for their time and contributions to the Association:
Catherine Ouellet-Martin has served on Council since 2014, including holding Officer roles as Vice-President, President and most recently as Past-President. We thank Catherine for her dedication to the mission of the BC Museums Association and her leadership and support over the many years.
Chris Earle stepped down early as Treasurer, being replaced by Brian Radburn. We thank Chris for his interest and contributions during his time on the BCMA Council.
Carolyn Holmes is stepping off the Council after serving on the board since 2017. A strong advocate for Art Galleries in our representation, and with an incredible range of experience in management, Carolyn’s contributions extend beyond Council and into our Professional Development and Education Committee and Conference Planning Committees over the years. We are grateful for her keen interest and strong support through the years.
Proposed Slate of Candidates
With the staffing changes in 2025, there was no robust recruitment for the board. BCMA Staff and Council will actively work to recruit new Council Members for the 2026-2027 nominations who possess the legal and financial expertise that will enhance our Council’s ability to guide the BCMA.
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. Staff and Council recommend the following slate for elections (a downloadable version of the slate is available here). BCMA bylaws note that directors shall not serve more than six consecutive terms as a director on Council.
The following individuals are nominated to serve as Directors:
Gid yahk’ii Sean Young, Haida Gwaii Museum
Nominated for 1st Year of 3rd two-year term
Alyssa Leier, The Exploration Place
Nominated for 1st Year of 3rd two-year term
Dauna Kennedy, Vernon Public Art Gallery
Nominated for 1st Year of 3rd two-year term
Jennifer Rosado, Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens/Métis Nation of B.C.
Nominated for 1st Year of 1st two-year term
Dr. Anushay Malik, Senior Lecturer at Simon Fraser University
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 1st one-year term as Past President
c̓ris Jordan Coble, Westbank First Nation
Nominated for 1st one-year term as President
Jane Lemke, Burnaby Village Museum
Nominated for 1st one-year term as Vice President
Brian Radburn, Science World
Nominated for 2nd 1-year term as Treasurer
Michelle Tsin-Yi Taylor, New Westminster Museum & Archives
Nominated for 2nd 1-year term as Secretary
No Action Needed:
Arthur Renwick, Kitimat Museum & Archives
Entering 2nd year of 1st two-year term
Nina Buddhdev, The Bandish Network Society
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, 2025.
Materials for the 2025 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 2024-25 Financial Statements
- BCMA 2024 AGM Minutes
- 2025-26 Council Candidates
BCMA in the News
Quelle place pour la culture dans le budget de la Colombie-Britannique?
Catherine Ouellet-Martin from Council was asked to speak on French-language CBC Radio about our response to the BC budget.
Creating space for equity – The IBPOC Cultural Professionals Network
The Source Forum of Diversity
Highlights
Safety, In-Person Workshops and Special Events
In 2025, the BCMA team was proud to offer safety-focused and responsive programming through our Safety+ toolkit. The BCMA team has been excited to offer more in-person workshops and special programming this year, including hosting CARE workshops across BC and the Yukon, AI listening sessions, and the IBPOC Network Tea & Talk sessions across BC the BCMA team has been busy getting out into the community and bringing programming to our members!
We look forward to offering more in-person sessions planned throughout the remainder of our 2025/26 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 help racialized workers and volunteers in the arts, culture, and heritage sector co-navigate career and workplace challenges through peer-to-peer mentorship, community-building initiatives, and professional development training. We equip folks with tools, resources, and strategies to strengthen the professional agency of everyone who makes up this network. As a space for a sector-based community support, we seek to ensure that you do not feel alone in these challenges. Our goal is to see higher employee retention, workplace wellbeing, and career stability for our members.
Tea and Talk On The Road returned this year, bringing in-person networking sessions to Victoria, Kelowna, Surrey, and Coquitlam. Online Tea and Talks continue to be held monthly over Zoom, with a few co-run with the BCMA’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Network in an effort to create intersectional spaces for our members. We have also continued to host special “Mentorship Editions” of Tea and Talk, as a low-barrier way for network members to meet potential mentors.
Our online Cultivating Careers workshop series has also continued, building upon previous sessions with deeper conversations around building connection, capacity, choice, and resilience when navigating conflict respectfully in the workplace.
This past year, we also launched our “Beyond The Margins” Book and Media Club in collaboration with the 2SLGBTQIA+ Network. These past two seasons have focused on the themes of ‘intersectional joy’ and ‘lessons from nature’, as we aim to connect over readings that help us understand what equity can look like in our work. Seeing the connection across affinity spaces has been incredible, and we have enjoyed learning with you through these deeper discussions.
Lastly, our IBPOC Network Podcast released two new episodes in the past year. Episode 4 featured the activist group Museum Liberation Force and dove into important conversations around equitable community work and the current process around the development of a South Asian Canadian Museum. Episode 5 welcomed collaborators and friends Veronica Buck and Marilyn Maychak, who shared about their varied careers in the arts and culture sector, and the intercultural solidarity they hope to see between Inuit and Black cultures.
We are so grateful for the support that all of you have shown for these spaces, especially to the folks who have offered free venues to host the in-person sessions! The stories you have shared with us over the past year of the friendships, professional collaborations, and support systems that have grown from meeting each other in these spaces mean so much to us. We hope to continue to support each of you in your career growth and work together towards reducing racism and discrimination in this sector.
2SLGBTQIA+ Network
Launched in June 2024, the 2SLGBTQIA+ Network continues to provide targeted support for members of the queer community, and offering some resources for allies who would like to improve their individual and organizational practices.
In addition to monthly peer-support and networking events, since its inception the Network has offered webinars focused on professional development and safety in the workplace for queer professionals, educational resources for allies, and more. Of particular note, this year the Network has teamed up with the Old School House Arts Centre to act as a “virtual hub” for their Creative QueerPreneurs program, and our coordinator, with the support of our seven-person advisory group, has been working hard to support the development of meaningful offerings.
The 2SLGBTQIA+ and IBPOC Networks have also successfully collaborated on programming to offer a space for folks who sit at multiple intersections of oppression, including “Beyond the Margins” book club and joint Tea & Talks. We have a very busy upcoming fall season and look forward to growing and expanding with the continued support of our members.
To learn more, please visit: https://museum.bc.ca/membership/mentorship/2slgbtqia-network/
BCMA Podcasts
Since 2019 the BCMA has been publishing podcasts, and we are thrilled to see continued engagement with this format! We have published over 200 episodes, reaching 35.4K downloads!
From our monthly MuseNews series to sharing audio of our popular webinars, exploring Live Podcasting, to the continuation of the IBPOC Network Podcast, we’ve been excited to bring you thoughtful content in audio-only format. If you would like to be on a BCMA podcast or have an idea for a topic, please contact bcma@museum.bc.ca.
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 we’d like to highlight in our advocacy work over the past year include:
- New Advocacy Resources: In collaboration with the BCMA Advocacy Committee, we continued to maintain an Election Primer resource
- Timely Responses to Announcements: Keeping up with all of the latest government news and announcements is challenging. 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 BCMA’s 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 program’s 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 organization’s equity and access goals.
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!