Attendees:

fishAbility Services (FSI), Cliff Quinn
Gibsons Heritage Advisory Commission (GHAC), Chris Marshall
Gibsons Landing Heritage Society (GLHS), Nest Lewis
Living Heritage Society of Pender Harbour (LHS), Richard and Jackie Haschke
Pender Harbour Women's Connection (PHWC), Dorothy Faulkner and Julie Southerst
Sechelt Community Archives (SCA), Ann Watson
Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives (SCMA), Barry Stewart, Mike Clement, Bob Nygren, and Elaine Jackson
Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), Joan Harvey
tems swiya Museum, Sechelt Nation (SN), Fran Nahanee
Town of Gibsons (ToG?), Barry Janek

Minutes

Introduction of all representatives

Chris (GHAC) talked about the Gibsons Heritage Advisory Commission. The objective of collecting information might be a coffee table book of Gibsons heritage locations. The project needs more visibility. They may be hiring a student to work on it in the summer.

Barry (ToG?) added that the Town does have an articulated heritage vision. The town does, however, have to look outside its boundaries, to think regionally in planning heritage. He has a personal interest in preserving heritage.

Elaine (SCMA) talked about the amalgamation this past year, the difficulties of putting the collections together. SCMA is just starting promotion of the new museum. She is personally interested in history and heritage management.

Bob (GHAC, SCMA) emphasized that the GHAC must focus on Gibsons first, and get that process in hand, then the process might expand.

Mike (SCMA) was president of the Maritime Heritage Society before amalgamation of the Maritime Museum with the Elphinstone Museum. They brought some money (60K) to the union for the creation of a new facility. They will be starting a capital campaign this year to get that project underway.

Barrie (SCMA) mentioned the Business plan that the SCMA had created last year to facilitate the union of the museums. They are about a year behind in implementing the plan as a result of the physical process of moving and consolidating. They are developing a school plan that will integrate learning objectives and can be used in the schools. They desperately need space, and can't do programming such as kids' stuff until they do. There are several possibilities, but things are moving slowly. “Ambassadors” on the ferry in the summer have directed tourists to the museum, and the museum would like to be able to direct them to other locations on the Sunshine Coast. Perhaps a brochure might be the medium that would best facilitate this. Cliff suggested a map.

Nest has helped the GLHS get two Gibsons buildings designated provincially as Heritage Buildings. They have helped organize Heritage Week in conjunction with the provincial event. They helped with the preservation of the log cabin. Their main focus was the rebuilding of the Womens' Institute Hall as the Heritage Playhouse, and they currently operate the hall (using volunteers) to pay off the mortgage. They are next interested in getting “Heritage Corners” named and recognized by the Town of Gibsons.

Ann (SCA) runs the archives. Helen Dawes was Ms. History in Sechelt, was involved in other community projects such as the marsh, and left a fund to run the archives. They are involved in Archives Week and Heritage Week. Ann is personally very interested in heritage conservation and would be interested in pursuing a heritage inventory project similar to Gibsons' in Sechelt.

Fran (SN) owns the Tsain-Ko Gift Shop/Gallery and is a member of the Squamish Band. The store (and museum attached to it) gets lots of visitors referred to it by the Chamber of Commerce. They hand out and tell a lot of information about aboriginal heritage. The CCA was creating cultural tours, and offered hands-on workshops. Fran has the contacts for this (Candy Campbell). The Squamish Nation is organizing a cultural centre with Lilloet. Janice George or Carol Baker are the contacts. Carol Passmore, who is on the SCMA board may have talked to Janice George about this.

Richard (LHS) Has been working with Marg Penney on the Maritime Heritage Centre. He described it as a three-component facility, with a marine biology station, partly run by the Vancouver Aquarium, a display area for the McKay? collection, and a small-boat building facility. Marg Penney has been involved from the beginning. The biggest problem so far has been getting the building.

Jacquie (LHS) They put on the April tools challenge, where people build boats with minimal resources. Pender Harbour is part of the Ecological and tourism system of BC.

Julie (PHWC) Very interested in the project. Knows that the chapel in the Sundowner was being used as a museum. Also that Hospital Bay Days are put on by John Henry's store. There is a lot of potential for heritage activity in Pender Harbour in particular, but on the coast in general.

Dorothy (PHWC) The PHWC was created originally to help new people in the Pender Harbour area. They later took on the project of interviewing people to preserve their stories. They are interviewing people born before 1935 and who had lived in Pender Harbour since the 70s. Six have been done so far, and about 20 have been identified as possible candidates. Their objective is to tell women's stories.

Joan (SCRD) talked about the service that the SCRD will establish if the counter-petition that is currently active passes. This will eliminate the need for the grant-in-aid, which was supposed to be one-time support for projects. It seems the bylaw specifically uses the word "museum". This raises some issues about the funding being used for other projects. There was discussion about ways (such as the museum administering the funding) that more universal benefit could be derived. The bylaw raises 5 cents per $1,000, representing about $162,000 per year. Some part of this (6-8%) may be taken for administration.

Coffee and Donut break

Discussion/Ideas

Nest (GLHS) believes that heritage building must find a current use to be viable. Their focus is on heritage inventory, preservation and activities that support heritage such as heritage walks, drives, signage.

The question was asked "Who is responsible for signage?" There is some provincial responsibility, but mostly heritage interpretive signs would have to be created and paid for locally. Dorothy has visited a cemetery where an interpretive kiosk provided much useful and interesting information.

Cliff talked about the fact several groups or individuals are doing oral histories and coordinating these would be a good idea. What is the end product of oral histories? A book? Tapes for sale? A web site?

Aboriginal interpretation, integration, joint promotion. Frank Kedder does tours.

How about a brochure? (Barrie) An audio tape exists already for a tour of the Sunshine Coast.

There is nothing at the Pender Harbour end to provide a focus for heritage – nowhere people can go to see heritage. Pender Harbour needs a building. While the LHS has plans for the Maritime Heritage Centre, realistically it will be a while before it gets underway. There are some possibilities for buildings at this end: school board, land at the entrance to the harbour, Sundowner Chapel, Irvines Landing home, old teacherage.

There is no web site that provides an index to heritage or good access to heritage resources for the coast. The museum has talked about expanding their site.

Mike: the SCMA tries to be regional and present stories from places like Pender Harbour.

Nest: how about dramatizations of oral histories, presented at the Heritage Playhouse. Dorothy: Caitlin Hicks has gone up to Pender Harbour to present shows up there. Caitlin has done some oral histories from the PH area and turned them into shows.

Ann: The local cable station did some shows "Coast Pioneer Videos" or something like that. Talk to Steve and Marta at Coast Cable.

Mike: wants to keep the group going. Cliff suggested getting this group together after the public meetings, probably in February. Chris suggested the SCRD might be able to coordinate and supply facilities for the meeting. Cliff mentioned possible conflict of interest if the heritage group was lobbying the SCRD.

Barry suggested we might create an independent board made up of members form each organization. This board could submit a regional budget to the SCRD.

Cliff then demonstrated the web site to those who were interested.

Ideas coming from the meeting

• Brochure
• Walking tours
• Expansion of the heritage inventory project
• Signs throughout, particularly in Pender Harbour
• A building for Pender Harbour
• A continuing regional group of some kind, perhaps to offer to the SCRD to administer funds.

Contact and web site: Cliff Quinn, fishAbility Services Web: http://fishAbility.biz/SCHeritage cquinn@fishability.biz 250-727-7879