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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-03-13 Minutes CLARINGTON MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES BOARD MEETING MINUTES March 13, 2013 Sarah Jane Williams Heritage Centre 62 Temperance Street, Bowmanville, Ontario Present: J. Witheridge, Chair Mayor A. Foster B. Seto M. Carleton C. Morgan J. Neal S. Laing G. Humes Regrets: J. Cashin-Oster M. Morawetz M. Speelman-Viney Staff. Julia Fielding, Executive Director V. Michalowsky 1. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by the Chair at 7:00pm. 2. Adoption of Agenda: Moved by: Mayor Foster Seconded by: G. Humes THAT the agenda be approved. MOTION CARRIED 3. Camp 30 Presentation—Faye Langmaid F. Langmaid gave the board a brief history of Camp 30. Camp 30 was closed as a private school due to a sewage overflow in the late 1990's; it was originally closed in 1979 but was reused after that for 30 years. In 2008 there was talk about getting demolition permits. F. Langmaid and M. Rutherford-Conrad were working together to save some of the buildings that had not been taken off the municipal register: 6 buildings are still on the register. Ryerson University wanted to use the site for a project and had a study done to find out potential uses for it. None of the potential uses suggested were for a museum and instead as a living site. However if there is no support from the province and the federal government then there is no going forward. In 2008 Council said it would support National Designation of Camp 30. Additional research on the Boys Training Camp and the architecture is wanted. F. Langmaid stated that the only one that has the ability to save the buildings is the Province. There is work being done to form a foundation, not to designate the buildings but to at least keep them on the municipal register. Designation will wait until the Province recognizes the heritage designation. The owner of the Camp 30 property sees the area as a potential subdivision. This has not been approved by Council. 4. Announcements Regrets: J. Cashin-Oster M. Morawetz M. Speelman-Viney 5. Approval of February 13 Board Meeting Minutes Moved by: G. Humes Seconded by: M. Carleton MOTION CARRIED 6. Executive Director's Report: The Executive Director introduced a new, efficient format for her reports. Her priorities for the year were listed as being: • Understanding framework • Staffing issues: more interpreters, programmer on maternity leave, etc. • Strategic plan: collection issues, etc. • Better budget analysis: a monthly and yearly analysis, evaluating events. • Improve audience relationships: there are already big improvements here— 1100 people at the March Break OPG Day. • Alternate funding streams Performance Measures ("priorities") for 2013 in four categories: financial, visitors, product, and organizational capacity Quarter 1 "priorities" virtually completed. Visitors: Working on a membership plan, need a target. The Executive Director would like a plan completed by May. Email marketing has become an option. A Meet the New the Executive Director event for board and members is being planned. Museum events will be evaluated by the end of the year. Product: The Archivist has been spoken to about looking up collection policies and guidelines, and deaccessioning. A timeline/plan is going to be put together. The Archivist will come to the May or June meeting to present. Organizational Capacity: Training of some of the board is in the works. There is a strategic planning goal for the end of the year. A new Programmer has been hired for the maternity leave and has made a big impact within her first two days. Moved by: G. Humes Seconded by: Mayor A. Foster MOTION CARRIED 7. Correspondence None. 8. Reports: a) Treasurer 1. G. Humes says that the Executive Director has a keen sense of numbers. They are in the process of going through budget lines and understand that there is a pressure on revenue. There will be enough to cover expenses but the museums needs to find alternative revenue/funding sources. By next month we will have more to show. Moved by: Mayor Foster Seconded by: C. Morgan MOTION CARRIED b) Point Person Reports None. 9. Business Arising: a) OMA webinar feedback— Task Force (J. Witheridge) 1. OMA Webinar Feedback OMA webinars have been attended last 2 Thursdays and one tomorrow. The Executive Director, The Chair, M. Morawetz, Mayor Foster, and the Archivist will be attending. OMA says an ad-hoc committee is too "wishy-washy" and suggested changing the term to "task-force," which should be comprised of board members, staff and opening it to anyone who wants to help, i.e. members. The size and composition of the task-force will depend on the task. 2. Task-Force THAT we establish a Task-Force to prepare for the Board's approval a new Vision and Mission Statement for Clarington Museums and Archives. The task-force will have three sessions starting the week of March 25th. The first session will include as many board members who can attend, full time and/or part time staff members, key volunteers, members and other people who may provide input into the process. The task-force will then break into groups to edit, refine and polish parts of the document. This will be the second series of sessions. At the last session, the groups will get together again to present, defend and edit their work in preparation for board approval. The task-force will report at the May 8th Board meeting for board consideration and approval. Moved by: Mayor Foster Seconded by: G. Humes There is a very large discussion between board members about how to facilitate the task-force motion by the Chair. Debates about whether a facilitator will be needed or not, or if it a facilitator is important enough to pay for takes up most of the discussion. Other issues brought up were discussion about the deadline and pushing it back for more time, taking out the second line in the mission statement so a facilitator would not be needed at all and focusing more on the mission statement in general. A task-force meeting for any Board Members who can make it was arranged for March, Wednesday the 27th from 5:30pm until 7:00pm to discuss the Chair's motion and ideas. MOTION CARRIED. 10. New Business: a) EHT Rate (J. Fielding) The issue is all sorted now. It was put on the agenda because the Executive Director had talked about an option but has been offered a lower rate which she accepted. The museum is now being associated with a non-profit rate rather than the municipal rate. b) Kirby Church This was also presented by F. Langmaid at the beginning of the Board Meeting. There are two buildings in the way of the Hwy 407's planned path. 1909 Bloor was a smokehouse that would go nicely with the potential Pioneer Village. We don't have a lot of space to move any buildings there; more land would need to be purchased. The MTO will accept any interesting proposals for possible funding. C. Morgan asked if the Kirby Church is still owned by the Church. F. Langmaid said it was. There may be a possible problem of purchasing the church because the United Church will never "abandon" a church. c) Alfie Shrubb Run and Ribfest THAT the Executive Director and James Campbell of the VAC work together on a joint Alfie Shrubb Project. Moved by: J. Neal Seconded by: S. Laing MOTION CARRIED d) Robbie Burns Robbie Burns figures are not definite. Almost $5000 in costs, revenue came in at about $2000. There was already a suspicion there of money being lost for the event. Discussion need to be had later on about what the mission of the Robbie Burns event is: to get the word out or to make money. 11. 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 April 10, 2013 at the Sarah Jane Williams Heritage Centre at 7:00 p.m. 12. Adjournment: THAT the meeting adjourn at 9:10 pm. Minutes for the March 13, 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