CraftViewer

The View From My Studio

Eureka! I think I have learned how to add pictures to my Blog.

This is the real view from my studio. I look out over the Assiniboine River and as you all know, it's in flood, so there's a lot of water in my view.

Manitoba Crafts Council Meeting, April 23, 2006

This afternoon, I attended an historic meeting of the Manitoba Crafts Council. It was a meeting called to address the current situation of the Council and to decide if it is possible to continue the life of this organization, and to find a group of people who would take on the responsibility of finding a direction.

By my count, 22 people attended. In addition, an observer, Damyele Arbez-Chaput, from Cultural Affairs attended.

I hope to publish the minutes taken at the meeting shortly. But in the meantime, I am sending along my impressions of what took place.

Since there was no longer an official board in place, and no formal agenda, it was necessary to find someone to conduct the meeting. Christine Loff agreed to do so. Ann Tyre agreed to take minutes.

To begin with, Ann Tyre ( a former board member, and the volunteer finance person) was asked to explain the purpose of the meeting. She spoke to the request of the funders that members make the decision to either wind up the affairs of the organization or to continue functioning as the present organization and to elect a new board to set in place some forward planning. It was made clear that any new generation of MCC would carry with it the responsibilty of the debt load. Questions were asked to clarify the situation.

Re membership. What is the status of membership records? answer: the list of current membership is incomplete and not up to date, because of missing and incompete records. This being the case, it was the will of the meeting that all present persons had a legitimate voice for speaking and voting at this meeting.

What is the current financial status of the organization?

The best guess at this point in time is a debt of $50,000.00 or more.

There are no past grant moneys to come in.

The Department of Manitoba Cultural Affairs and Tourism may commit to about $53,000 in the next period if the organization shows itself to be vital and committed to the future. (this will depend on a board being struck and a viable business plan put in place).

Continue MCC

It was clear that the will of those present was to continue the organization. It was pointed out that any new organization as a different legal entity would lose the precious charitable tax status that MCC presently

possesses, and that it would be next to impossible to get another such designation under a new name. In addition, there was close to 30 years of history and profile to keep alive - years of hard work and significant achievements in the cultural community of this province.

At the same time there were concerns expressed that past mistakes not be repeated, and some calls for investigation into what created the present crisis.

The rep from cultural affairs mentioned that there would have to be an audit in order to continue support for the organization, which would help establish some indication of poor management.

Finally there was a consensus expressed that it was worth trying to keep the organization alive and functioning in some form. To this end it was agreed that an interim board be struck to develop a course of action for the organization's future.

Six people agreed to form an interim board: They are: Gaetanne Sylvester, Ron Mark, Dave Krindle, Ingrid Lincoln, Ann Tyre and Herman de Vries.

These people agreed to work to develop a course of action in determining the future of the organization. The time-line for this was indicated as being quite finite: 30-60 days.

I have agreed to publish on this blog any information that the interim board wishes to send to the community, and am hoping to be able to soon send out a report back from the board.

Two Days of Fibre Art

As a consequence of the closing of MCC's exhibition gallery, the exhibition of Alison Norberg's work was sadly curtailed.

Thus a reprise of Alison's art quilts together with the threadwork and machine embroidery of Ingrid Lincoln will be shown as an exhibition and sale of work at

Crossways in Common, 222 Furby St. at Broadway

on Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. (both days).