SIX NATIONS – On November 25, members of the Chiefswood Board of Trustees came together for the Annual General Meeting for Chiefswood Museum hosted within the Six Nations Tourism Building.
The meeting provided a blue print for developments hoped to be constructed in the future on the Chiefswood grounds, and valuable question and answer time with members of the Chiefswood Board of Trustees.
Within the Chairpersons Report, Amy Lickers wrote “it has been a challenging time of change for the Chiefswood Board of Trustees. This past year, the board of trustees witnessed a complete change in membership and with it a complete update of the Chiefswood Board of Trustee By-laws. While this was somewhat tedious, it now allows the Board to concentrate on the future of the site.”
Cultural Coordinator Heather George explained that new board members have been elected for the board.
“Thomas Ferris, and Tanis Hill are our new board members, and our current board still has Constance (Jamieson), Amy (Lickers) and Teresa (Doolittle),” she said, saying that she herself isn’t technically a part of the board.
“One of the things going forward with the board, is that we still have to do another call for more board members, because they’re from our [interim] board that was established last fall,” she said. “We’re still looking for board members to replace Teresa, Constance and Amy.”
In regards to anything new this year, she explained that the school programs were newly introduced.
“The school programs were new this past fall, so we just started really promoting them through the contacts we already had; but through the tourism department we’re developing this package that will go out to school boards in the area. So, it will help promote Chiefswood programming and all of our programming is delivered by community members,” she said. “So, we sort of service the site and then we have other people come in and do the programming because they have the knowledge,” she explained, while showing a list of future ideas for the site including lacrosse demonstrations, craft shops, overnight stays in tents and paddle trips on the Grand.
George began to explain that the programs are to help generate revenue, which is something that would greatly benefit the site.
“We’re trying to grow our programming and our tours to the site, because we do want to be able to generate more finances for the site,” she said. “Last year just through our gift shops sales and our admissions, we made about $5000. The cost, if you count staffing, it costs about $70,000 to run the site, so part of that is funds that we’ve received from council, and part of it is the community museum operating grant we get every year, and then part of that is through other grants,” she explained.
To help accumulate more revenue, a list of events planned for 2016 include Second Saturdays (on May 14, June 11, July 9, August 13, and September 10), the Seasonal Exhibit Opening in June, the Pow Wow Open House on July 23 and 24, the Fish Quill Poetry Tour on August 20, a Canning Workshop in September or October, and SNIPE Tours from May to October, which will likely lead to a very fulfilling year.
Cutline WAGM1: Members of the Board of Trustees overview the blue print for future developments, discussing the construction of an area dedicated to lacrosse.
Cutline WAGM2: (From left) Constance Jamieson, Tanis Hill, Amy Lickers, Heather George, Thomas Ferris, and Teresa Doolittle pose with a Chiefswood Historic Site banner on display at the meeting.
