The Sunshine Coast Museum & Archives (SCMA) is a new museum resulting from the amalgamation of the Sunshine Coast Maritime Museum and the Elphinstone Pioneer Museum. The SCMA aspires to be a regional museum for the Sunshine Coast, but currently has no policy or strategy enacting that desire. A business plan created in March of 2002 describes the museum's path to stable funding and consolidation of its physical operations. This first year of operation has been devoted to physical amalgamation.

This year (2003) the museum intends to start looking outside its walls to interact with the nine other heritage organizations on the Sunshine Coast. This Regional Heritage Strategic Plan describes the directions the SCMA can take.

External factors (the Provincial Municipal Charter, the Federal Heritage Places Initiative) indicate that there will considerable activity in the heritage field in the near future. Combined with the recent passing of a Regional District bylaw allocating a portion of the tax base to museum funding, the museum finds itself presented with more opportunities than ever before.

Four main strategies embody important areas for the SCMA to address: • establish leadership in the heritage community; • consolidate and enumerate resources; • build a stable and sustainable environment for heritage; • market the heritage resources.

As a first step to establishing leadership, the SCMA will establish a Regional Heritage Council to facilitate communications and working between heritage organizations. Through this council, the SCMA may offer training and support to other organizations on the coast and assistance with museum functions. The Regional Heritage Council has the potential to become the voice of heritage on the Sunshine Coast.

The museum must, at the same time, stabilize its internal situation by ensuring the human resources and funding are in place to handle both the demands of the museum function (curatorial and guest services) and the planning and external communications necessary to perform as a regional leader. Challenges face both board and staff. The notable lack of heritage policy within all three municipal governments (Sunshine Coast Regional District, District of Sechelt, Town of Gibsons) presents an opportunity for the museum to act as heritage advisor or planner to any or all of them. The possibility also exists to advocate and help develop an integrated policy that will fit the entire coast. These and other services could be offered as a revenue generation activity, and to establish a sustainable relationship between the museum and government. Communication with the two First Nations groups (Sechelt Indian Band and the Squamish Indian Band) on the Sunshine Coast is a critical part of this relationship. The First Nations are recognized as having one of the oldest and most widely distributed histories on the Sechelt Peninsula. Some of their planning and delivery of heritage education is more advanced than any on the coast.

In summary, the Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives is on the cusp of becoming a strong regional heritage leader. The critical part of this will be retaining the vision, and building activities that move the museum outside its walls into the community.

The web site that accompanies this plan is an integral part of it, and will be a continuing resource for the community. It is important that the site be viewed in parallel with the reading of this plan (http://fishability.biz/SCHeritage/).