The January 24th meeting was held at the Kin Hut, (Kinsmen Hall) in Dougal Park in Lower Gibsons at 7pm. About 13 members of the public, including the Sunshine Coast Museum and archives were in attendance.

Location: Gibsons Kin Hall, Kinsmen Park

Attendees: 13 people.

Meeting chaired by Cliff Quinn

Cliff introduced himself, the RHSP project, museum people present, and everyone introduced themselves. What would the Heritage Highway project look like? Points of interest along the highway?

Not just western heritage features. How about the Moon Climb – 1,000 foot climb to a sacred site on Mount Daniel where there are strange boulders and a wonderful view.

Egmont/Skookumchuk.

Talk to the Sunshine Coast Tourism Association about doing a joint brochure. Barrie thinks it may be published already, but perhaps for next year. Talk to them anyway to establish contact.

What are peoples' priorities?

Cindy Buis does Artworks tours, 604-886-1200. She would love to have some boat heritage where she could actually take people on a boat on her tours.

Barb pointed out that moorage for heritage vessels is always the problem, and Tom agreed that it was the biggest issue for his boats.

John says oral histories are the most important, because we are losing the people who were pioneers on the coast.

Barb suggested that boats – maritime heritage- needs to be highlighted, even information about current boats. Perhaps a video of the fishing fleet – people always have questions.

Lola: Channel 11 has done some good heritage programming including interviews. Some of the interviews are in the museum

Barb suggested talking to the neighborhood associations to get a reading on what their priorities are, what oral interviews need to be done.

Lola: how about working with service clubs? Kiwanis has put an exhibit in the museum before. Perhaps we could work with them on the regional level. There are also records of these organizations that may be lost if they are not collected. e.g. the Farmer's Institute secretary has all the records of the FI, and perhaps she could be encouraged to donate them. Other organizations have records that may be disappearing (Town of Gibsons, SCRD, Sechelt).

Cindy points out that a larger space will be needed if this is going to happen. There ensued a short discussion about how some larger towns separate the archives and museum functions, even if they remain in the same building.

Lola pointed out that we must maintain contact with the First Nations.

We talked a bit about whether the museum should consider relocating to Sechelt. Since there are already many regional facilities in Sechelt, they might not need more. Gibsons is the first place people see when they arrive on the coast.

Cindy says the heritage architecture is better in Gibsons.

Barb: how about exploring more of the Spanish angle? Wilson creek actually had a Spansih settlement and mission. Exploit this.

Explore the pavilion in Sechelt (new Tourist Information Centre) as a possible location for displays. How about a joint display in the new centre put on by the museum and the Sechelt archives?

John would like to have real nodes, things to visit on the Heritage Highway.

Barry likes the General store idea for exhibits, getting collections out into the public eye, partnering with businesses. Should be a win-win project.

Cindy: have we talked to the Arts and Cultural highway? Not really – though they know of us.

Talk to Al Mulholland about a map Community Futures does of the coast. Some discussion ensued about the quality of a map – whether it should be accurate or symbolic.

T: noted that the Advisory Heritage Committee was doing the inventory. Perhaps this coud be extended to the rest of the coast. The project needs people.

Barb pointed out that all of these things are jobs to do with no people to do them, and no money to resource them. She mentioned the example of the Fraser Canyon Historical Soc. That managed to create murals for minimum money by involving the community.

Community involvement is critical.

John suggested getting Terry Barker involved in helping with oral histories.

Carol Hodgson is doing a column for the Sechelt Seniors newsletter on residents of the centre. Perhaps we could include her stories.

Lola mentioned that students have done some histories. Cliff wondered if they might be conscripted (traied-high school?) to do interviews, or just transcribe. Marg reminded us that the elementary students did histories for the cairn.

Barrie mentioned that the museum is trying to connect to kids with themes and stories by incorporating curriculum learning outcomes into programming.

Lola mentioned that when she was curator she would walk the kids to the museum for programs, and along the way would do a walking tour of the town and show them interesting features.

T: suggested that the media students at the high school might be encouraged to participate in projects other than just written or oral – how about video? Carol pointed out that the Cap College students may already be doing this.

Barb: How about a booth at the craft fair areas at the ferry? This reminded Cindy of the ambassador program and how successful that was. Also during the anniversary of the ferry they did little tour programs on the boats with people talking about Howe sound and the towns on the ferry.

There is a BC Moments video that promotes the coast – can we use that?

Perhaps talk to the Heritage Society to get them to help with setting up programs for the whoel coast, rather than just Gibsons?

Barb mentioned that the neighborhood plans should include a heritage component. The Gibsons OCP is currently under review. How do we get more heritage into that?

Cliff: Maybe the museum could be the heritage watchdog for heritage buildings outside of the town of Gibsons.

There are many links to heritage off the coast. The marble from the SC went into the building of the Legislature. Gravel from the pit is going to Hawaii for golf courses?

Coffee and Donut break

The donuts were decimated.

T: stories are the critical part, objects are the catalyst.

Barb: there is a carvel carved by the Finnish carpenters in Wilson Creek that could be a focus of interest there.

Cindy: bring people into the museum to tell stories (once again we need room in the museum).

Cliff talked about the concept of community collections.

Mary thought that perhaps renting collections, like the art galleries do, might be a good way to get stuff out in front of the public, and generate a bit of revenue.

Torval: there should be a heritage policy at all government levels. Can we encourage this, help integrate. Cliff said that he doesn't think there is anything at the SCRD or Sechelt. Gibsons has one.

John reminded us that all of these things require work, and we don't have enough volunteers. Perhaps we can organize a volunteer campaign.

The Davis Bay store agreed that a history of the community can be put on the back of their map of the community (on the big sign).

Talk to local community associations and see what can be done, what the interest is at the community level.

Cindy: how about being involved in the Heritage Festival? The problem is that Feb is not a particularly good time for a festival on the coast. May would be better – the Gibsons landing anniversary. Perhaps a May heritage festival. Bob says this has been thought about. Cindy says there are much better months when the weather is good (May, June, September, October).

Lola talked about getting involved locally with merchants, photos in stores.

John reminded us that one of the main ideas of the museum business plan was to build a new building. Cindy said it must have an educational areas that kids can be brought into.

How about development of the web site?

Contact and web site:

Cliff Quinn, fishAbility Services

Web: http://fishAbility.biz/SCHeritage

cquinn@fishability.biz, 250-727-7879