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A Word from the President
by Jo-Ann Munn Gafuik
The period leading up to Alberta's Centennial celebration presents important opportunities for the heritage community both in terms of the acquisition of significant grants that will allow us to improve and develop facilities and services and a heightened awareness about our role or function in society. The Board's agenda over the next year will be to capitalize on these opportunities as much as possible.
First of all an update of the CAIN project already underway -
In late spring, the Board issued a request for proposals for the hosting of the server and the selection of database software. Over the summer, responses were analyzed by a small team comprised of two Board members, the CAIN committee chair, the Archives Advisor/Executive Director, and the CAIN project contractor. The team recommended and the Board accepted that the decision on where the server will be located be delayed until the software has been selected. Vendors for DB textworks and Cinemage have been invited to demonstrate their products on September 25th and again a small team has been established to preview and provide comments to the Board.
Geraldine Harris, the CAIN project contractor, has completed the survey of member institutions. Her analysis of hardware and software requirements as well as the status of archival description of current holdings at member institutions will be available shortly.
Finally, fonds level description projects at the Canadian Architectural Archives and the Provincial Archives of Alberta are well underway.
Next, new and continuing opportunities -
Marilyn Kimura, Manager of the Centennial Legacies Program, recently reported that the heritage community was disproportionately underrepresented and unsuccessful in securing legacies grants in the last round. Since there is a continuing opportunity to apply for project funding, Marilyn expressed an interest in doing a presentation and providing tips on preparing a successful application. She has accepted an invitation to attend the Institutional Forum on October 25 in Calgary. I hope every institution will be able to send a representative.
In the meantime, if members have any questions about the program, please contact Michael Gourlie.
Finally, future prospects -
Presidents from the Archaeological Society of Alberta, the Alberta Genealogical Society, the Historical Society of Alberta, Museums Alberta, and the Archives Society of Alberta met with the Hon. Gene Zwozdesky, Minister for Community Development, on September 14th seeking an increase of our annual AHRF budget allocation. The Minister was sympathetic to our request and expressed a keen interest in improving the funding situation. However, he repeated what two previous ministers have told us - until his budget allocation is increased, AHRF's allocation and therefore our allocation will not be increased. He did say, though, that the first real opportunity for change is coming up.
The Speech from the Throne delivered on April 10, 2001 by the Lieutenant Governor announced the government's plan to hold a 'Future Summit' to "give all Albertans a voice in crafting the vision that will carry this province forward into the future." The Minister commented that the government's agenda will be set by these discussions and that it was imperative that the heritage community participate in this public consultation process if we wanted the funding balance to change in the future. He said further that education and health care will always be priorities for this government but that since the province is moving towards a debt free future, there is a real opportunity to review spending on what he called 'quality of life' issues.
I would, therefore, encourage all of you to participate in the process to the greatest extent possible. Details will have been announced by the time this bulletin has been delivered so you should be able to find out more out how the process will be organized but I understand that there will be three levels of consultation. The first will be MLA Town Hall meetings which any member of the public will be able to attend. Contact your local MLA to find out where and when these will be held. The second will be regional forums. I expect these will be by invitation only; anyone with contacts should check to see how an invitation is secured and ensure that the heritage community is well represented. Finally, there will be a Mega Summit in Red Deer. Again, attendance will be by invitation only.
Be assured that the Minister will not have the mandate to advance our agenda, an agenda that he supports, if public opinion does not support it. It is up to members of the heritage community, all of us, to ensure that the MLAs understand how important our services are to the quality of life in Alberta.
Please forward ideas, comments, questions at any time.
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