Message from the President
Tracy Calogheros
Tracy Calogheros addresses the attendees of the 2023 Hill Day Reception. Photo — Brit Fleming.
How many times a week do you think “this is a strange and wonderful job”?
Museums are complicated organisms, each uniquely tied to its community, with its own challenges and triumphs. How then do you bring on a volunteer Board of Trustees, unfamiliar with the Sector and in some cases, new to the world of non-profits? Even moving senior staff between facilities brings with it a significant learning curve as new staff must acclimatize to a new corporate culture, community expectations and ongoing relationships.
The answer, of course, is Governance. Clear, accountable policies and structures, onboarding with an eye to organizational history and goals and a strategic plan that is actionable, are all great starting points, but where does the inspiration and responsiveness come in?
True Reconciliation with Indigenous People is essential to every single sector in Canada. Museums, in particular collecting institutions, have a key role to play in some of the very first steps towards healing and yet, that work is largely unfunded, leaving it to individuals in a community that are dedicated to this work, to take it on. Writing this under a literal cloud of wildfire smoke makes it impossible to pretend that we don’t also have a role to play in climate crisis mitigation. Not only do we need to raise the level of understanding in the general public, but we need to inspire ACTION towards change. This work starts with children, often, in our summer camps and science programming.
In this issue we are examining the structure of our facilities through the lens of governance, leadership and the evolution of our practice. Museums, and indeed the entire GLAM Sector, are community places where one can explore ideas, examine opinions, learn, discover and find space to calm the mind as we consider the many possibilities of human cultures. We are the anchors of our communities not just as a treasure house of “days gone by” but as a gathering place too for healing and growth with an eye on the future. As I have watched the role of our sector deepen and grow over the last three decades, I have also watched the steep decline of government support for our core functions with little to no understanding of the changes to our work, our evolving role in our communities and the demands our visitors are putting on us.
That gap between what is actually funded, and what we are delivering, is covered by passionate, dedicated staff, but they are burnt out. It is our volunteer Boards of Trustees who can best make the case to our funders for stabilizing funding, but they can’t do that if they don’t completely understand the work that we do every day.
At the CMA we are focused on stabilizing our own governance practices and ensuring that the future of the association is secured with thoughtful, accountable and transparent policies. Next year, we will be inviting you to join in this process as we develop a new strategic plan, one that will help us support and uplift museums.
I am deeply honoured to serve as the President of the CMA and am dedicated to ensuring that the incredible work all of you do is supported and celebrated. I am excited to see you all in Niagara Falls next year for our first in person conference. There’s no business like museum business, and that’s entirely because of the people, because of you!
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