CHALMERS REGISTRATION DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING – ENSURE YOUR SPOT BY REGISTERING TODAY

CCA Bul­letin 15/05

Ottawa, 1 April 2005

MPs and Young Man­agers Pro­filed in Chalmers After­noon Sessions

Build­ing on the suc­cess of last year’s Chalmers Con­fer­ence on gov­ern­ment rela­tions, this

year’s con­fer­ence, sched­uled for 15 April at the National Arts Cen­tre in Ottawa, con­tin­ues the

all-important theme of advo­cacy.   CCA bul­letin 11/05 out­lined some of the presentations

lined up for Chalmers: Glen Milne on how gov­ern­ment makes pol­icy, and Tranquillo

Mar­rocco on mak­ing sense of the par­lia­men­tary process, with play­wright and for­mer MP

Wendy Lill as guest speaker.

The after­noon ses­sions for the Chalmers Con­fer­ence have now been announced:

1. MPs’ Panel

The gov­ern­ment policy-making pic­ture on Par­lia­ment Hill has changed in a number

of impor­tant ways over the past cou­ple of years.  Some of the changes have been

for­mally intro­duced; oth­ers are the result of the cur­rent minor­ity gov­ern­ment status.

A panel of MPs will respond to ques­tions, pri­mar­ily relat­ing to how standing

com­mit­tees func­tion and how cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions can best make an impres­sion on

them.   The MPs for the panel include

•         The Hon­ourable Sar­mite Bulte (Lib­eral MP for Parkdale-High Park, ON, and

Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary to the Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Heritage)

•         Ms Bev Oda (Con­ser­v­a­tive MP for Durham, ON and Cana­dian Heritage

critic)

•         Mr Maka Kotto (Bloq québé­cois MP for Saint-Lambert, PQ, and Canadian

Her­itage critic)

(A rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the NDP is still TBA.)

The mod­er­a­tor for the ses­sion is Ken Rock­burn, the savvy host of CPAC’s “Talk

Pol­i­tics”.

Send in your question

This is your chance to have a ques­tion addressed by this panel of MPs.  CCA invites

you to sub­mit your ques­tion before Thurs­day 7 April, in order to have it considered.

Ques­tions should be sent to info@ccarts.ca; ques­tions will not be attrib­ut­able.  It is

antic­i­pated there will be time for fur­ther ques­tions from the floor towards the end of

this panel session.

2. Young Man­agers’ Panel

The focus here is on young man­agers in the cul­tural sec­tor: what role mentorship

played in their devel­op­ment, how they address the work/life bal­ance, what advocacy

issues res­onate with them.  Pan­el­lists include

•         Shan­non Litzen­berger, an inde­pen­dent prac­tic­ing dance artist and the founder

and Artis­tic Direc­tor of the Inte­grated Dance Artists’ Col­lec­tive, who is part of

a new man­age­ment model designed by the Cana­dian Dance Assembly

•         Kris­t­ian Clarke, co-Director of CARFAC Ontario.

The panel will be mod­er­ated by James Mis­sen, cur­rently the Interim Pol­icy Advi­sor at the CCA.  (Addi­tional par­tic­i­pants will be announced shortly.)

 

In addi­tion, the Cana­dian Cul­tural Obser­va­tory of the Depart­ment of Cana­dian Heritage

will pro­vide a “mini office” facil­ity for del­e­gates through­out the entire day.

Who is Chalmers for?

The Chalmers Con­fer­ences were ini­ti­ated in 2000 and are intended only for rep­re­sen­ta­tives of

cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions. CCA orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers may send one rep­re­sen­ta­tive free of charge;

addi­tional rep­re­sen­ta­tives must pay a $150 reg­is­tra­tion fee.  Orga­ni­za­tions which are not members

of the CCA, must also pay the $150 reg­is­tra­tion fee (or become a mem­ber and take advan­tage of

the sav­ings!)

Can CCA’s indi­vid­ual mem­bers par­tic­i­pate in any way?

The net­work­ing break­fast, co-hosted by the National Arts Cen­tre and sched­uled to begin at

8.30am, is open to CCA indi­vid­ual mem­bers as well as to artists and cul­tural mem­bers who are

not mem­bers of the CCA.  The break­fast is free of charge to CCA mem­bers; non-members will be

asked to pay $25.  Every­one wish­ing to attend the break­fast MUST reg­is­ter with CCA in order that

we have cor­rect num­bers; please con­tact Annie Capor­icci at annie.caporicci@ccarts.ca, or call 238

3561, ext.18.

For details of the com­plete Chalmers Con­fer­ence sched­ule, and to down­load the reg­is­tra­tion form,

please go to CCA’s web­site at www.ccarts.ca

Is advo­cacy still needed now that cul­tural fund­ing has been renewed?

Many in the cul­tural sec­tor breathed a sigh of relief when the renewed fund­ing for Tomorrow

Starts Today was announced as part of the Bud­get in Feb­ru­ary, but this only pro­vides a temporary

hia­tus.  Not only will these funds need to be renewed again within a rel­a­tively short time frame,

but it is also impor­tant that the sec­tor lobby for increased fund­ing.  The time to start build­ing the

next cam­paign is NOW!

 

Advo­cacy work in the cul­tural sec­tor is ongo­ing and never-ending.  It is essen­tial that cultural

orga­ni­za­tions be involved in advo­cacy work at all times rather than only start­ing at times of crisis.

A clearer under­stand­ing of the work­ings of gov­ern­ment and of the par­lia­men­tary process is an

impor­tant ele­ment in ensur­ing the best use of one’s advo­cacy ener­gies and dollars.

 

If you haven’t already reg­is­tered for the Chalmers Con­fer­ence, please do so as soon as pos­si­ble as

reg­is­tra­tions are taken on a first come, first served basis.