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| INDEX Berkeley was a Blast! Pablita Velarde Award J.J. Brody Honour Award Board Elections NAASA Online into 1999 Letter from the President '99 Topic Proposals 1997-99 Board Member |
Newsletter
Volume XII, No.1 February 1998 Letter from the President A new cycle is beginning for the NAASA board with new and old board members already subjected to their orientation homework for cultural trustees and the roles, responsibilities and functions of a governing board. I have adopted A Handbook for Cultural Trustees: A Guide to the Role, Responsibilities and Functions of Boards of Trustees of Cultural Organizations in Canada by Marion A. Paquet with Rory Ralston and Donna Cardinal. The handbook was a project of the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation in cooperation with the Board Development Program of Alberta Culture and Grant Macewan Community College. The goal of the handbook is to increase the knowledge and skills of board members and to work through steps to assessing and improving our processes as a governing and working board. Ultimately this process involves you as a member communicating through and with the board to more clearly define NAASAâs goals, mission and priority functions. Currently we all respond our very open and flexible constitution and by-laws which I am sure you all do not read regularly. After all it is in the formal language which legally defines NAASA. Policy management is defined only within the two year cycle of any given board and while information regarding past practice is part of the decision making process, it is not written down in a policy manuel that could guide current or future boards and members. A NAASA policy handbook could benefit us all if we can agree together on its content. To this end the board will be developing draft definitions and descriptions of committees and decision making policies in regard to scholarships, honoris, NAASA sponsored events, conference proposals, abstracts and paper guidelines, research-in-progress guidelines etc. To help facilitate this, we will be asking you to give us direction and feedback until we can present a draft handbook to you for review. The handbook in printed form both draft and final will be an additional board expense I will seek funding for over the next two years. Your participation and response will be critical. To help us facilitate communication we will be using the Royal British Columbia Museum website to give and receive information from you to us on both conference issues and organizational development. Find their address in the 1999 conference site announcement. You will be able to directly contact committee chairpersons through email to make your views and suggestions known. The first thing the board would like to hear back on is your comments on the 1997 Berkeley conference, likes, dislikes, and what can we do better, more of, less of. An evaluation form will be posted on the website and we would like you to respond. That would give us at least a base from which to begin planning the next conference. If you do not have internet access, mail your written evaluation to me at the address below. Colleen Cutschall, Box 2, Eden, Manitoba, Canada, R0J 0M0 |