The January 23rd meeting was held at the Sechelt Public Library at 7pm. About 12 people attended, including members of the Sunshine Coast Museum and archives.

MINUTES

Location: Sechelt Public Library, Public Use Room

Attendees: 12 people.

Meeting chaired by Cliff Quinn

Larry Westlake: was curator at the Sechelt arts centre, now is a boat builder. Larry also writes articles for boatbuilding magazines.

Rick Diesbacker represented the library. Rick pointed out that the Helen Dawe grant will run out this year (in about 5 months), and there is no contingency to continue paying for the archives. They have issues with space (only 2 people can work at a time). They continue to receive lots of stuff, not just archival, and have about 60 researchers/year.

Rosella Leslie: Has done oral histories for the Pavillioin Fundraising committee and wants to do more. She has a couple underway as a volunteer activity, but would like to be paid, to find a grant to do more. She presented a list of the Sechelt residents that she believes should be done.

Cliff talked about the Regional Heritage Planning process, the collection of information about heritage activities and resources on the coast, and then the assembly of this information into directed activities.

Barrie talked about the priorities for the museum:

1) an extension of the CURA project to continue digitizing photographs beyond the Helen Dawe collection.

2) building elementary school curriculum.

3) completing the amalgamation and expanding into new spaces to be provided this year.

4) Capital campaign to ultimately provide for a new facility or extensive renovation and expansion of existing space.

Richard talked about the Pender Harbour Maritime centre plans. Considering the centre is not realistic in the near future he wondered if it might be possible to share space with some other organization.

Cliff mentioned there had been discussion in previous meetings about satellite displays or facilities in Pender Harbour and elsewhere. Larry liked the idea of satellite displays, but wondered where they would be put. Perhaps St. Mary's chapel in Pender Harbour, now part of the Sundowner, could be rented.

Rick mentioned that the Regional focus of the museum must be seen to be reality by there being money spent on the coast other than in Gibsons.

Barry pointed out that the MAP grant that the museum got is independent of funding from the SCRD, and the museum is not making a grab for all of the SCRD heritage money. He pointed out a couple of deadlines: the SCRD finance committee meets the second week of March, and budget presentations must be ready for then. The museum will be preparing its submissions by meeting with some of the finance people before then. The grant-in-aid process has a deadline of 15 April.

Julie suggested museums in stores: many of the general stores on the coast are historic, and perhaps a mutually beneficial partnership could be developed with them (Halfmoon Bay, Egmont, Garden Bay).

Richard suggested that an (large) donkey engine that Ian McKay? has running in Pender Harbour might have a trailer built for it, and could become a highlight of fairs and events for PH.

We talked about the 12th of March as a good date for gathering the organizations who might become the Regional Heritage Council.

Coffee and Donut break

Not many donuts were eaten.

Discussion/Ideas

Much private discussion ensued.