CCA President’s Blog – Time for Change!

Kath­leen Sharpe

As I indi­cated in my report to the June 18th Annual Gen­eral Meet­ing, the last year has been a very busy one for all of us and now, the CCA has entered what is prob­a­bly the most crit­i­cal phase of it re-birth process. We are fac­ing a period of rad­i­cal change as we rein­vent the busi­ness and gov­er­nance mod­els of the CCA to make it a strong and inde­pen­dent voice.

In our efforts to trans­form this unique instru­ment serv­ing the Cana­dian arts, cul­tural and her­itage sec­tors, we can build on an impres­sive list of strengths. We have a chal­leng­ing but real­is­tic plan, put together in response to your expressed needs and pri­or­i­ties. We have a finan­cial base to oper­ate from: we have just received $175,000 from the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage and we have projects under way to com­plete the tran­si­tion fund­ing needed to shift gears to the new busi­ness model.

The CCA is the largest net­work of cul­tural insti­tu­tions in the coun­try and its poten­tial is greater still. The CCA is an estab­lished brand and it can point to a long-list of accom­plish­ments over its 67 year his­tory. This national forum not only con­nects the vast array of stake­hold­ers in the cul­tural sec­tor, it also links them to the aca­d­e­mic com­mu­ni­ties though its part­ner­ships for research and analy­sis. Another asset is the deter­mi­na­tion and loy­alty of the Board and of the staff, both fully ded­i­cated to reshap­ing this unique col­lec­tive instru­ment to suit the new real­i­ties: some ele­ment of con­ti­nu­ity will be essen­tial in the next year or two as we set the stage for a series of major changes. In the com­ing months, we will be review­ing the Board struc­ture and com­po­si­tion; we will be set­ting up strate­gic steer­ing committee;s and prepar­ing a suc­ces­sion plan.

But the main source of strength is to be found in you the mem­bers, who sup­port and par­tic­i­pate in shap­ing CCA’s future; who tell us that the CCA is needed and who are back­ing the plan put for­ward.  When we found out, on April 11, that the gov­ern­ment would give us only a frac­tion of what had been iden­ti­fied as nec­es­sary, we checked if our mem­ber­ship was still with us in this ven­ture. Renewal date for the major­ity of our mem­bers is April 1, and I am glad to say that given what peo­ple know about the chal­lenges ahead, the response has been noth­ing short of amaz­ing: over the past six weeks, we have received over half of what was col­lected in fees last year. Not only have renewals come in at a reg­u­lar pace, but ten orga­ni­za­tions increased their con­tri­bu­tions vol­un­tar­ily. Some old mem­bers have come back, and I have every rea­son to expect that more will as the move­ment picks up steam. Mem­ber­ship sup­port is the cor­ner­stone upon which we can build this new organization.

Let me say it again: we can­not rein­vent the CCA alone. We can­not do it for you, we can only do it with you. If you believe in the need for a col­lec­tive and inde­pen­dent voice for Cana­dian cul­ture, if you believe that work­ing together makes us more effi­cient and stronger, come par­tic­i­pate actively in the re-invention of the CCA. There is a vari­ety of ways to express your sup­port, the first one being of course to renew your mem­ber­ship if you have not already done so. Help us recruit new mem­bers. Respond to invi­ta­tions that we will make to you to par­tic­i­pate in com­mit­tees and forums. This is the only way we will be able to do it:  because together, we’re stronger!

Kath­leen Sharpe

Pres­i­dent