IT’S CHALMERS TIME AGAIN!

Ottawa, Jan­u­ary 11, 2004 - The 2004 Chalmers Con­fer­ence is slated for Fri­day 27 Feb­ru­ary, at the National Arts Cen­tre in Ottawa.  Build­ing on infor­ma­tion from the last con­fer­ence, held in May 2003, the Feb­ru­ary event will explore in more detail the issue of advo­cacy specif­i­cally as we head into a fed­eral elec­tion period.  Posi­tion­ing arts fund­ing as an elec­tion issue is the pri­mary out­come artic­u­lated by CCA mem­bers for the conference.

Who’s on the agenda?

Key to the day’s events will be a work­shop by vet­eran lob­by­ist and polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor Sean Moore on How the Sys­tem Works and How to Work the Sys­tem.  This work­shop is par­tic­u­larly timely given that Paul Mar­tin has insti­tuted a num­ber of changes which will directly affect how orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions inter­act with MPs and bureau­crats in the future.  Chalmers par­tic­i­pants will gain first-hand infor­ma­tion on what the changes are, and how best to take advan­tage of them.

Nancy Juneau (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Fédéra­tion cul­turelle canadienne-française) will mod­er­ate a panel pro­vid­ing fur­ther impor­tant infor­ma­tion for those in the cul­tural com­mu­nity as we head into a fed­eral election:

•               Max Wyman (writer, broad­caster, Pres­i­dent of the Cana­dian Com­mis­sion for UNESCO) will elab­o­rate on the theme of his soon-to-be-released book, The Defi­ant Imag­i­na­tion — a pas­sion­ate man­i­festo attest­ing to the cen­tral impor­tance of the arts and cul­ture to mod­ern Canada;

•               Car­o­line Di Cocco (MPP and for­mer cul­ture critic for the Ontario Lib­eral party) will out­line the exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion process her party under­took with those in the cul­tural sec­tor prior to draw­ing up a com­pre­hen­sive cul­tural plat­form for the recent provin­cial election;

• Eliz­a­beth May (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of The Sierra Club) will out­line suc­cess­ful — and not so suc­cess­ful — elec­tion strate­gies under­taken by her orga­ni­za­tion.  (Fur­ther pan­el­lists to be announced in the near future.)

Chalmers par­tic­i­pants will be chal­lenged, in smaller break­out groups, to fur­ther define the key mes­sages from the cul­tural sec­tor and how best to get these mes­sages across dur­ing the elec­tion period, and in between elec­tions.  Imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the con­fer­ence, the CCA will use the intel­li­gence gleaned from these ses­sions to define its 2004 elec­tion strat­egy which will then be made avail­able, in Eng­lish and in French, on our web­site.  (An advo­cacy primer, con­tain­ing infor­ma­tion on how to develop an advo­cacy “habit”, broad strate­gies to get your mes­sage out, and other use­ful infor­ma­tion, will be avail­able on CCA’s web­site at the begin­ning of Feb­ru­ary.  Check it out and get a head start on mak­ing the case for cul­ture to your candidates!)

What’s on the menu?

The con­fer­ence begins at 8.30am with a net­work­ing break­fast, co-hosted by the National Arts Cen­tre.  CCA will be invit­ing MPs (the Speech from the Throne is now slated for 2 Feb­ru­ary) and depart­men­tal rep­re­sen­ta­tives to attend the break­fast, pro­vid­ing an excep­tional oppor­tu­nity for one-on-one net­work­ing and advo­cacy.  There will also be a guest speaker at the lunch. CCA is wait­ing for con­fir­ma­tion regard­ing these guest speak­ers; we hope to have fur­ther details shortly.

What’s the cost?

The Chalmers Con­fer­ences are intended for arts ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions.  They are free of charge for one rep­re­sen­ta­tive from CCA orga­ni­za­tional mem­bers; addi­tional rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and orga­ni­za­tions which are not mem­bers, will be charged $150 (includes break­fast and lunch, and mate­ri­als).  Simul­ta­ne­ous trans­la­tion will be pro­vided.  If you have not already received a reg­is­tra­tion form, please con­tact Philippa Bor­gal (ext.19, philippa.borgal@ccarts.ca) or James Mis­sen (ext.14, james.missen@ccarts.ca).

Again this year, the break­fast with guest speaker is open to indi­vid­u­als.  CCA mem­bers may attend free of charge; the price for non-members is $25 per per­son.  Every­one (mem­bers and non-members) must reg­is­ter in advance by con­tact­ing Philippa or James before Wednes­day 11 February.