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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-04-10 Minutes CLARINGTON MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES BOARD MEETING MINUTES April 10, 2013 Sarah Jane Williams Heritage Centre 62 Temperance Street, Bowmanville, Ontario Present: J. Witheridge, Chair M. Morawetz J. Cashin-Oster S. Laing M. Carleton M. Speelman-Viney G. Humes C. Morgan J. Neal Regrets: Mayor A. Foster Staff. J. Fielding, Executive Director V. Michalowsky 1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 7:OOpm. [B.Seto came in at 7:02pm] 2. Adoption of Agenda: Moved by: M. Morawetz Seconded by: M. Speelman-Viney THAT the agenda be approved. MOTION CARRIED 3. Announcements a) S. Laing introduced Gail Berry, who acts as the overseer of the garden volunteers, to make a presentation on the museum gardens. [J. Cashin-Oster came in at 7:05pm] Gail has been working on the garden since July 2010 and has developed a 5 year plan. As of right now there are 20 people working as garden volunteers. The goal for 2013 is to work on the herb garden and the vegetable garden and enlarge the flagpole garden. Currently there is about a 60 hour time commitment per week; this adds up to just short of 1000 hours each gardening season. Gail hopes to acquire a gardening student from UOIT to oversee and take over more of the heavier tasks. She would also like to encourage more in memoriam plantings and expand corporate sponsorships. Gail suggested that more garbage receptacles and signage in certain areas would be a great idea and to continue working on the windowsill plantings and hanging baskets. Eventually she would like to work up the back lane leading from the house to Sarah Jane; 80% of people walk through that area. The suggestion of letting funeral homes know that we do in memoriam plantings was brought up. Discussion about how long until the gardens would be ready to have weddings in followed. S. Laing announced that the Friends of the Museum voted on the previous Monday to donate $500 to the gardens. b) The Chair announced that G. Humes was in the Toronto Star for cleaning up King Street. c) Next exhibition (5 Women and Their Diaries) opened the following Saturday. The opening was a free event on the Saturday at Clarke. The exhibit will be open Thursdays and Saturdays until June. d) The museum now has $40 000 to plant a living wall at Clarke from Trillium Foundation. An event for cutting the sod, etc. should be planned. e) The Kirby Book Sale is now open. f) The Chair made an announcement about a course coming up. There is also an information session about"Meet the Funders" coming up. The Executive Director would like two people to go to divide and conquer. J. Cashin-Oster suggested prior research on the funders participating to know who would be best to talk to. On May 15th there is a fund development strategist for small businesses seminar in Toronto. M. Speelman-Viney says this is a great opportunity. 4. Approval of November 21st Board Meeting Minutes Moved by: C. Morgan Seconded by: J. Cashin-Oster MOTION CARRIED 5. Executive Director's Report: The Executive Director discusses the progress through the four categories from her first report: Financial, Visitors, Collections and Organizational Capacity. The Executive Director has added a new column marked "Progress" to show whether she thinks the goal will be achieved or not. Financial: Discussion on why we do not have a business or charitable number as yet and how to get one ensued. THAT we seek a business number or a CRA charitable number as soon as possible Moved by: M. Speelman-Viney Seconded by: J. Cashin-Oster MOTION CARRIED Visitors: The Sarah Jane Williams Heritage Centre has 1800 visitors in March. Everything is going well and is on its way to reaching the goals. Collections: The Executive Director would like Charles to come talk at the next meeting. The Collections teams need to meet by the end of April. Organizational Capacity: The Museum has hired two new interpreters and will be having two training days in April. THAT the Executive Director's report be accepted. Moved by: B. Seto Seconded by: M. Speelman-Viney MOTION CARRIED 6. Correspondence Ontario Street School is having a fun fair and would like a donation. The Executive Director is going to say yes to this request. The Clarington Library sent a report on its digitalization program. The first batch is almost done and will be doing a presentation in Oshawa soon. Moved by: M. Morawetz Seconded by: S. Laing MOTION CARRIED 7. Reports: a) Treasurer's Report (Grant) Pay for part-time staff was higher, especially in December, and with Jennifer's maternity leave; events needed to be covered by part-time staff There is an increase in gift shop sales: $800 last year to $1000 this year so far. Moved by: J. Cashin-Oster Seconded by: G. Humes MOTION CARRIED b) Director Signing Rights (Executive Director) THAT the Executive Director will be added as a signatory on the account. MOVED BY: M. Carleton Seconded by: G. Humes MOTION CARRIED c) Camp 30 (The Chair) The Chair had an idea and is of two minds about the future of Camp 30. He thinks that Camp 30 is very important to the community but the Government seems to think it is too expensive. The Chair's idea is to tear down most of the buildings and build a park. However, before tearing down the buildings to hold a"Paint Camp 30" event and have artists in the community paint canvases of the buildings. Then create an app to look up Camp 30 from a QR code, as an example. This will essentially make an electronic way of saving the Camp. C. Morgan wants a model of Camp 30 built. Multiple members stated there is already a model of Camp 30 at the Bowmanville Museum. M. Speelman-Viney doesn't think the buildings should be torn down, and doesn't know why that must be a part of the plan. The Chair says we could leave out the tearing down but definitely have the painting done. There is still no word about the National Designation. ACO people don't want all the buildings torn down: will want at least 5 or 6 saved. The Executive Director says staff at the museum has no more capacity to create an event that large and need to focus on the museum first. Lots of discussion ensued about the position of the municipality. 8. Business Arising: a) Task Force Reports Membership (B. Seto): The new price structure for memberships has been given out. Benefits have been increased. A new separate family pass has been added also. There are some errors in the hand-out to be corrected. B. Seto would like to add the Board Members names to certain letter heads. The Chair thinks the mission statement is more important to be included on letters. Focus on people who are receptive to membership is important. The Executive Director thinks it is all about relationship-building, especially with the corporate members. Need to get membership back on track and keep members in line for renewals, etc. A newsletter is important. May is Membership Month. Moved by: J. Neal Seconded by: M. Morawetz MOTION CARRIED Property and Projects (M. Morawetz): M. Morawetz is deferring hers until the next meeting. Kirby Church (J.Cashin-Oster): J. Cashin-Oster and The Executive Director met and say the revenues of the church pays for upkeep and creating revenues. Recommendations have been to either buy the church and continue running the book sale, or leave it and continue what we've been doing with it and look at it again down the road. The book sale is highly successful. G. Humes and M. Morawetz don't think we should shut down the book sale. Discussion about whether or not the current church volunteers will continue to volunteer if we buy the church. This is important because we do not currently have the manpower to fill their spots. Mission Statement (The Chair): Feedback from the last session impressed the Chair. The Board is ready to move on to stage 2. The next meeting will be April 17th from 5:30-7:00pm. C. Morgan talked about vision versus mission statements, versus values. He had written a vision/mission statement for the museum himself that he requested to read. The Chair overruled this as out of bounds and will need to wait until the next Mission Statement session. Collections: S. Laing was given Collections. A new deaccession policy, etc. is needed. We are in the process of doing so. Work is being started on a deaccession process. Board approval is required by mid-May, and a Collections Committee is needed. C. Morgon, The Chair and M. Morawetz volunteered. 9. New Business: No new business. 10. Date and Place of Next Board Meeting: The next meeting of the Board of Directors of the Clarington Museums and Archives will be held on May 8th, 2013 at the Sarah Jane Williams Heritage Centre at 7:00 p.m. 11. Adjournment: THAT the meeting adjourn at 9:02pm. Moved by: J. Neal Seconded by: G. Humes MOTION CARRIED Minutes for the April 10, 2013 meeting of the Clarington Museums and Archives Board have been accepted and approved on Chair,Clarington Museums and Archives Board Executive Director,Clarington Museums and Archives