The Cultural Human Resources Council

Build­ing Bridges and a Future

Our new fea­tured mem­ber is par­tic­u­larly close to our hearts. We are pay­ing trib­ute to an orga­ni­za­tion that got its wings from the CCA: the Cul­tural Human Resources Coun­cil (CHRC).

The 20 year his­tory of the CHRC can be traced back to the CCA, which in 1991 cre­ated the Cul­tural Sec­tor Train­ing Com­mit­tee (CSTC). In 1995 the CSTS became the CHRC, func­tion­ing inde­pen­dently from the CCA.  If you take a look at their web­site you will find it rich in resources for artists and self-employed work­ers as well as employ­ers. For the past 17 years the Coun­cil has proven itself as a leader in human resource man­age­ment in the cul­tural sector.

The mis­sion of the CHRC is to respond to the needs of the Cana­dian cul­tural work­force. They also offer impor­tant resources and stud­ies; they bring together cul­tural lead­ers, key teachers/trainers and deci­sion mak­ers to form part­ner­ships and dis­cuss HR needs. AN excel­lent exam­ple of how they play this role is their national HR forum that will be tak­ing place in Toronto the 27th-28th of Sep­tem­ber. With this in mind we met with Susan Annis, who has been the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the CHRC since 2002.

Why is the CHRC orga­niz­ing this forum?

“The forum will serve to facil­i­tate the meet­ing of peo­ple from the sec­tor and educators/trainers in order to ‘Build Bridges’. With pre­sen­ta­tions on best prac­tices, thought­ful dis­course, and even some provoca­tive dis­cus­sion, the forum will high­light exam­ples of col­lab­o­ra­tion between the indus­try and the edu­ca­tion sec­tor. These exam­ples will respond to real and imme­di­ate needs of the indus­try, under­line the impor­tance of pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment and men­tor­ing, and encour­age par­tic­i­pants to press for solu­tions to train­ing prob­lems to be put in place.”

Last year the CHRC learned, along with 29 other sec­toral coun­cils, that the Depart­ment of Human Resources and Skills Devel­op­ment (HRSDC) would be putting an end to the fund­ing of their Sec­tor Coun­cil Pro­gram as of March 31st 2013. The his­tory of the CCA and the Coun­cil are linked again: the only two national orga­ni­za­tions link­ing the cul­tural com­mu­ni­ties are los­ing their prin­ci­pal fed­eral fund­ing at the same time, and both have decided to rise to the chal­lenge of becom­ing autonomous. We asked Susan what is in the future of the CHRC.

In gen­eral terms, how will you man­age the transition?

“Our Board of Direc­tors has cho­sen to move for­ward since we have a good reserve and because we have a par­tic­u­larly strong and solid foun­da­tion on which to build.

• An exten­sive network
• Good cred­i­bil­ity and reputation
• A range of good products
• The struc­ture of the CHRC

What has changed in the last few years is that peo­ple in the cul­tural sec­tor are now pay­ing atten­tion to issues sur­round­ing human resources in cul­ture. In the past HR wasn’t on people’s radars at all.

And although our board will be smaller there will always be that depth which will allow us to be effective.”

And where are the challenges?

“Cer­tainly one of the big chal­lenges will be to find alter­nate sources of rev­enue, but we know that our base is solid. We will sell our prod­ucts now. Per­haps the biggest chal­lenge will be for the sec­tor to under­stand that they can no longer con­sider us a source of fund­ing for projects; that the rela­tion­ship has changed. It’s a chal­lenge but not an insur­mount­able one.

We are now part­ners. We will work together to develop projects and look for sources of fund­ing. The coun­cil will coor­di­nate these com­mon projects. But isn’t it excit­ing at the same time?”

So, you are opti­mistic about the future?

“I’m optomistic because I know that if the coun­cil didn’t exist it would need to be cre­ated. I think the CCA can say the same thing about them­selves. (laughs)”

We hope to see you the 27th and 28th of Sep­tem­ber in Toronto for the Forum!

 

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