2006 Spring General Meeting 

The Iona Connection Heritage Co-operative Ltd.  

Saturday, April 29, 2006 - 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, Alexander Graham Bell Museum, Baddeck, NS

Rollcall:

Guests:

Regrets:

Welcome & Call to Order

The Chairperson called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to Baddeck. A special welcome was extended to the Glace Bay Universal Negro Association (Theresa Smith) for attending the Iona Connection's General Meeting for the first time.

Minutes of October 22/05 General Meeting

The Chairperson announced that the minutes from the October 22, 2005 meeting and all future minutes of meetings will be available online at our new website to be launched later in the day.

There were no omissions or corrections to be found in the minutes. They were adopted by a MOTION by Ida Lelievre and seconded by Eva Landry. Minutes adopted as read. 

REPORTS

Pauline MacLean reported an amount of $4707.58 in the bank. The net income was $426. One thousand dollars was received for memberships and member shares. The 2006 / 2007 membership fees are now due. Since Grand Mira Museum and the Glace Bay Universal Negro Association recently joined, their fees should be waived for the upcoming year. Everyone was in agreement. 

The SDI grant for the website was spent on hiring Ralph Dillon to revamp the website. Additional expenses in her report included travel costs to attend a conference in Cornwalis, fees to Joint Stocks, and the map project. The domain name for the website was also renewed for one year at a cost of $17. 

Pauline MacLean also put $3500 in a Royal Bank GUIC for a one-year term with an interest rate of 2%. This will grow to $70 at the end of the year. 

Pauline MacLean motioned for her report to be accepted. Seconded by Joan MacInnes. Carried. 

1.1  President's Report

Pauline Thomson began her report by asking all present to please renew their memberships as dues are the organization's only source of income. 

Three executive meetings have been held since the last AGM. The first matter of business is the sector report on the Voluntary Planning Task Force set up by the Province of Nova Scotia. Apparently the results of the report have been delayed due to problems with the Queen's Printer. Joyce Rankin, who is an executive on the Task Force project, confirmed that the results have been delayed and that they will not be released on May 8 as promised. She said that May 24 has been named as a date for meetings and presentations. Apparently the reason for the delay has to do with Communications Nova Scotia, and not with the Task Force itself. 

The request for SDI funding came through and a new website has been designed. The executive decided to hire Ralph Dillon, who has also designed the websites for Celtic Colours and St. Ann's College. Ralph Dillon has worked on his own as well as with the Board of Directors to design our new website. 

The chairperson requested that all present make an effort to sell your maps as soon as possible. They are quickly becoming outdated and it costs thousands of dollars to print new ones. 

In reference to the Iona Connection's wishlist, the chairperson drew everyone's attention to item #6 ("Promote improvement in communication and cooperation between the education - public school & university - tourism and the heritage sectors"). It is important to not leave decisions up to government. The Beaton Institute has been without a director since September, leaving no one there to accession. A letter of concern was sent to Cape Breton University's President Harker. Shortly afterwards the advertisement for an archivist was posted on CBU's website. Rodney Chaisson added that a new director would be hired by the end of the summer. President Harker invited us to meet with him to exchange ideas between heritage groups and the university. This is a good example of the privilege of membership. You have a voice that is heard when you are part of a larger organization. 

Rick McCready from the CBRM hosted a meeting on Saturday, April 1 at the Civic Center that was energized by the participation of a member of the Guysborough Heritage Society. This individual showcased the society's plan to pool resources to erect a new sign on the highway and to print new brochures. Rick McCready promised to continue meeting with groups in CBRM and the chairperson encouraged everyone to work together in smaller local groups. Another meeting will be hosted by CBRM in May. 

The brochures have been sent to Destination Cape Breton. 

Congratulations were extended to the Old Sydney Society on their 40^th anniversary. The Highland Village remains the oldest society at the age of 57 years. Congratulations were also extended to the North Sydney Historical Society on the publication of In and Out of Order by Ron MacDonald. 

Regarding the upcoming tourism season, a bicycling group organized by Jacques Cotes, Velo Cape Breton, is looking for rest stops all over Cape Breton. Richard Cloutier added that a lot of people involved with these cycling groups are from Europe and they are interested in seeing the country. There are over twenty cycling groups throughout Nova Scotia. 

The Cape Breton Artisan Trail Map for the CB Center for Craft & Design has been published. 

The chairperson drew everyone's attention to the Spring Conference hosted by Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage at St. Mary's University, May 11-13. The overall theme is "Strategic Thinking," and it promises to be the professional development showcase of the year. 

Over the next six months, the Board of Governors will be working to help make the FNSH's Certificate Program in Museum Studies a reality. Rodney Chaisson asked for a charitable phone and location due to the rising cost of travel expenses. The course will help improve the level of learning of volunteers and staff in your museum. Wendy Molnar is helping FNSH organize the modules for the certificate. The emphasis with the certificate is that you are not just teaching one person; that person will be able to teach others who are involved with your museum what they have learned. It really would be a good investment to get involved. 

The number one way to attract volunteers is to extend a personal invitation. Be sure to give them something to do. 

The President's report was approved by Ida Lelievre and seconded by Joyce Rankin.

1.2  FNSH Report

Richard Cloutier provided an update on the Heritage Strategy Task Force. He emphasized how important to keep up to date with information electronically because data can change so quickly. He was not sure if the report would be released on May 8 as scheduled. The interim report was scheduled to be released on May 8 in both English and French online at www.gov.ns.ca/vp. The results of the report were supposed to be a big part of the Federation's Spring Heritage Conference to be held at St. Mary's University in Halifax. Travel bursaries are available for anyone wishing to attend the conference. Other issues to be discussed at the conference include: designing exhibits that are affordable, learning how to get youth involved, creating programs to engage community members, and inviting more organizations to become involved with the Made in Nova Scotia program. 

Richard also told us about some upcoming events that the Federation will be hosting. There will be a textiles workshop in Yarmouth. A CD-ROM entitled "Bare Essentials" has been designed to teach board members and volunteers the basics of being involved with a museum. This is a valuable teaching tool and is available from the Federation for $65 for members. In October, Margrete Kristiansen will be coming to Cape Breton to conduct an emergency preparedness workshop. CHIN's digitization workshop will be repeated in Halifax. There will be three sessions on board training in the fall, and there will be four marketing sessions, one in each region of Nova Scotia.

1.3  Council of Nova Scotia Archives

Pauline MacLean reported that the Council has been working hard over the winter to secure funding for archival projects in Nova Scotia. To date, $83,000 is available for archives: $40,000 toward Karen White, and the remaining is available from CCI to get money for individual institutions. Of the thirteen applications have been received, seven have been sent forward. The NSARM conference will be held in Halifax May 24-26.

1.4 Community Museums Update

Paul Collins spoke about the Community Museums Assistance Program (CMAP). He said that this is a year of evaluating 23 museums. Four museums have agreed to be done right away, so board members from other institutions are invited to participate in these evaluations. Paul will be speaking at a CMA conference next week in St. John, NB. He also discussed how museums are evaluated, how Nova Scotia's museums rate, and how CMAP itself has been evaluated. There is a call for a provincial list-serve; however, it was decided that we need to maintain our regional list-serve in addition to the newly proposed provincial one. He also announced that the Passage Project will be receiving a national award in information management at the CMA conference in St. John.

1.5 Passage Project Update

Richard Cloutier elaborated on the Made in Nova Scotia project. He asked that each museum identify items that have been manufactured or handmade in Nova Scotia to be used as a marketing tool next year. Please submit about 20 items per institution for the Made in Nova Scotia project. To accommodate this project, he is expanding the manufacturing fields in the Passage Project database. He also talked about CHIN and its Artefacts Canada website. Richard has hired a student to help him evaluate the computer skills and technological resources of each museum to determine whether we should proceed as a large group, or if there are regional needs that should be addressed. 

Richard then identified several potential partners. The first one he talked about was CNSA, who has been advising him on archival fields. The Council would like for 50 archives, not museums, to sign up. [For more information, please visit the CNSA website] They would also like to see the cemetery database being utilized by more groups. The second potential partner he identified was the Province of Nova Scotia. For Vital Statistics record-keeping, the province wants to make the cemetery database standard across Nova Scotia. Museum Assistance Program in Ottawa is considering hiring two skilled workers to standardize the terminology used in the Passage Project database. CHIN offers to post your institution's events on their website. You only have to post events once and they will be available in many places online.

Before breaking for lunch, Fred James and Syd Slaven from the Sydney Steel Museum showed us their presentation that they give in the elementary schools. 

2.0 BUSINESS ARISING 

2.1 Workshop May 5, 2006

Workshop scheduled for May 5, 2006 entitled "Meeting the Public" will be cancelled unless someone expresses interest in the next few days. The fee is only $10, but so far the organizers Pauline Thomson and Sandy MacDonald have had no registrations. Let either of them know if the workshop should be rescheduled for later in the year.

2.2 Transportation to Spring Conference, Halifax

Pauline Thomson, Peyton Chisholm and Joyce Rankin are planning to attend the Federation's conference in Halifax. If anyone else is interested, please contact Pauline to arrange for transportation. It will cost about $250 to attend the conference.

2.3 Election of New Officers

Eva Landry from Richmond County is being replaced by Bob Campbell. Also Pauline MacLean is retiring. The proposed officers for the upcoming two-year term are: Pauline Thomson, Joan MacInnes, Joyce Rankin, Marilyn Ritza (treasurer), Peyton Chisholm, Rodney Chaisson, Bob Campbell, and Tammy MacNeil (secretary). Joan MacInnis called for nominations. There being none, Eva Landry motioned to cease nominations. It was seconded by Ida Lelievre. Motion carried. The slate of officers as presented were accepted.

2.4 Census Day

Isabelle Harris announced that May 14 is Census Day in Canada. She urged everyone to please check "Yes" when asked if you would grant permission for your information to be made public in 92 years time. Please pass on the message.

2.5 Website Launch

Ralph Dillon gave the group a presentation of his newly designed website for the Iona Connection, www.capebretonisland.org. He showed us how to use the heritage directory, locator map, events calendar, and community forum posts. Overall everyone was impressed with the new website. Contact  i This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   for password and registration information. Every site will be responsible for its own information. It is your responsibility to keep your organization's information updated.

3.0 SITE REPORTS

3.1 S&L Railway Museum - Bill Bussey and Tara Barter

Visitation was down a bit. The museum is partnering with the Sydney Steel Museum. The building got a new roof and plans to look at stock. The museum plans to open for the season mid-May. 

3.2  Lake Ainslie Historical Society  - Pauline MacLean

One half of barn roof is done. We need $4000 to finish the rest of the roof. So far we have received $1500 in donations towards this goal. 

3.3  Victoria County Archives  - Joan MacInnes

Located in the Baddeck Courthouse, these are pure archives of documents for Victoria County since 1851. Joan has also been photographing old buildings as part of the built heritage database. 

3.4  Fortress of Louisbourg - Georgina Leslie

Parks Canada is willing to teach smaller museums how to do "Living History" exhibits. Also, there will be a textiles workshop held in October. 

3.5  La Society Saint-Pierre  -- Ida Lelievre

Over the winter, we continued maintaining cataloguing records for museum and archives as well as updating the Passage Project database in partnership with HRSDC. We submitted a project application to CHIN for funding to go on to the second phase of our project. We have been preparing for the upcoming tourist season by training summer students and applying for grants. We had new road signs made for Les Trois Pignons, our brochures reprinted (30,000), and working on reconstructing our website. This year we plan to reprint The History of Cheticamp Hook Rugs book in English since the French version was reprinted last year. Finally, we are preparing for our 30^th Acadian Festival de l'Escaouette which will take place July 27 - August 6, 2006. 

3.6  MacAskill House Museum  - Eva Landry

Over the winter months, we provided research materials and artifacts for several students, ranging from Heritage Fair projects in elementary schools to university papers. There has also been substantial work done on the building. We replaced one window as well as the window casings above and on both sides of the front door. We replaced the flooring in the front porch thanks to a grant from the Municipality of Richmond which helped defray the cost. There is still some exterior work to be done such as painting and replacing some shingles. The museum plans to open for the season in mid-June. Several bus-tours have already pre-booked visits to the museum. A fundraising auction is planned for the first Wednesday in August. Finally, our brochures have been distributed via tourism expos in Montreal and Boston. 

3.7  Whitney Pier Historical Society  - Tammy MacNeil

We spent the winter updating the cataloguing for the museum as well as setting up a small archives. We took care with conservation and we have rehoused many photographs especially. We have made good progress digitizing our collection with a scanner and a digital camera. We hosted two workshops at our museum. We are continually updating our Passage Project database. We have rearranged several exhibits and also created a few new ones. 

3.8  Sydney Steel Museum  - Syd Slaven

The Sydney Steel Museum finally has a new location. We will be moving into the building as soon as its present tenants leave. The organization has been assigned an income tax number. A fundraising concert was held in March starring the Men of the Deeps. NSCC Marconi students have been working on a new website as well as video / audio interviews with former steelworkers. A new goal has been set to establish a database of all 30,000 people who have worked at Sydney Steel Plant. 

3.9  Celtic Music Interpretive Center  - Joyce Rankin

A new building has been built to house the center. It should be ready to open in June and it has a new gift shop and tea room. The new exhibits are more interactive. As well, a new director, Kinnon Beaton, has been hired and Joyce Rankin is now solely curator. 

3.10 New Zealand  - Don Morrison

Since we are sharing space with the CAP site at the Gaelic College in St. Ann's, we've only seen the odd visitor over the winter. A group is coming the end of May. 

3.11 North Sydney Historical Society  - Marilyn Ritza

The NSHS is looking forward to another tourism year in which we are hoping to recover from a disastrous one last summer. We have applied for three summer students to help our volunteers to make this summer a good one. Recently we received news that we were awarded a grant of $100,000 for the construction of a new museum on the main street in North Sydney. We have approached ECBC and the CBRM for additional funding to help with construction and all the steps that must be taken before the building can be built. We are planning our annual dinner to be held May 27 in honor of Flora MacDonald, a native of North Sydney who has worked with the United Nations in Africa, India and Asia. Sales from the NSHS's first book, In and Out of Order, have been great. Donations exceed the purchase price and this money has been put towards the general operating costs of the museum. A second book, Our Harbour, Our Heritage, has been delayed due to the author's poor health although a good deal of research has already been completed. 

3.12 Old Sydney Society  - Marilyn Ritza (regrets from Peyton Chisholm)

On January 20, the Old Sydney Society premiered its new exhibit, "18^th/19^th Century Furniture," with a live broadcast on CBC radio. On Feb. 19 the annual Heritage Tea was held, but attendance was low due to poor weather conditions. We received federal and provincial money ($320,000 and $50,000 respectively) to restore St. Patrick's Museum. Renovations are scheduled to begin in mid-May. Cossitt House was closed for the season. We received $15,000 from Minister Judy Streatch to upgrade the site Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture and Heritage. ECBC has awarded the Old Sydney Society $2,000 for the printing of brochures and posters for our ghost walks. May 6, 2006 will mark the 40^th anniversary of the Old Sydney Society. Many members will be honored for their long time service. Finally, cruise ship season starts on May 10^th this year, and runs until October 31^st. We expect a total of 50,000 passengers to visit our museums this year.

3.13  Nicholas Denys Museum - Judy Madden.

We spent the winter renovating. We are in talks with a contractor for major renovations this fall. We held a few fundraisers. Our most exciting news is the purchase of a ledger from a store in St. Peter's from 1899 that we bought on eBay. 

3.14 Glace Bay Heritage Museum - Isabelle Harris

We are busy putting the finishing touches to the restoration of the second floor of the Old Town Hall. The new part of the museum will include the restored Council Chamber, Mayor's Office and a museum for Sport and Entertainment Heritage as well as the Labour History of Glace Bay and are. The Cape Breton Wireless Heritage Society has been meeting at our museum to plan festivities for 2007, which is the centennial of the very first transatlantic wireless service. This service officially began on October 17, 1907 between the Marconi Towers and Clifden, Ireland. We have one room designated for Marconi exhibits for the entire year 2007. We spent a great deal of time fundraising. We have applied for 8 summer students: 5 for the museum and 3 for the Historical Society for the tourist season.  

4.0 Next meeting will be October 21, 2006 at North Highlands Community Museum, Cape North