IMPORTANT REMINDER REGISTER NOW FOR CHALMERS TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!

CCA Bul­letin 7/06

Jan­u­ary 31, 2006

As the coun­try set­tles down, post-election, to the real­i­ties of a Con­ser­v­a­tive minor­ity government,the next CCA con­fer­ence pro­vides a par­tic­u­larly timely oppor­tu­nity for the cul­tural com­mu­nity tocome together for a sector-wide con­sul­ta­tion around cul­tural pol­icy: what exists, what is still­needed, and how best to get it.

As you already know, CCA’s National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence, Map­ping Canada’s Cul­tural Policy:Where do we go from here?, is sched­uled for March 3 and 4 in Ottawa.  This note is to remind youthat the Chalmers Con­fer­ence for arts ser­vice and other cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions is tak­ing pla­ceim­me­di­ately before and after the pol­icy con­fer­ence, and to reit­er­ate how impor­tant it is for the voiceof your orga­ni­za­tion to be heard at this forum.

This year’s Chalmers Con­fer­ence gives you an unpar­al­leled oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide input into thep­ri­or­i­ties and result­ing action plan of the CCA, to ensure the new gov­ern­ment knows, understands,and acts on the pri­or­i­ties of the cul­tural sec­tor.  If you are a CCA orga­ni­za­tional mem­ber, there is noad­di­tional reg­is­tra­tion fee to attend the two-part Chalmers Con­fer­ence; orga­ni­za­tions which are not­mem­bers pay $150 on top of the pol­icy con­fer­ence fee.  Any orga­ni­za­tion wish­ing to bring morethan one rep­re­sen­ta­tive is encour­aged to do so; an addi­tional fee per per­son applies.  Details can befound at www.ccarts.ca.

Besides being part of the dia­logue, we urge you to ensure your organization’s issues are on theagenda for dis­cus­sion.  CCA is ask­ing arts ser­vice and other cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions to send in their­top three cul­tural pol­icy issues; these will form part of the Chalmers forum on Thurs­day afternoon(March 2).  It is also impor­tant that your orga­ni­za­tion be part of the Sat­ur­day after­noon (March 4)discussions on strate­gies for action and how best to move the issues for­ward.  Please for­ward your­short­list of issues to the CCA by Wednes­day Feb­ru­ary 1.

It is imper­a­tive that the sec­tor speak loudly, and with one voice!  We urge you to reg­is­ter NOW for­both the Chalmers Con­fer­ence and the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence in order to avoid­dis­ap­point­ment.  Reg­is­tra­tion forms are avail­able online at www.ccarts.ca.