Printer-friendly version2009-2014 STRATEGIC PLAN
Table of Contents
1. Introduction and Background 3
2. Funding Considerations – Core Members 4
3. Funding Considerations – QAHN 5
4. Strategic Issues 6
5. Mission Statement 13
6. Charting the Course – Priority Goals 14
7. Operational Guidelines 17
Appendix A 20
1. Introduction and Background
The Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) is committed to reviewing and adjusting as needed its operational focus, to ensure that its activities continue to serve the best interests of Quebec’s history and heritage sector, in particular those institutions, groups and events associated with the province’s diverse anglophone minority. Toward this end, Core member associations, senior volunteers and staff participated in the development of a new orientation plan to identify strategic priorities for the sector and to prescribe specific measures to achieve these goals over the next five years.
The broad aims, supporting goals and activities of the heritage network over the past five years were guided by a strategic plan that was developed in 2004 by QAHN staff and volunteers with help from a private consulting firm, Grundy Marketing. A subsequent multi-year strategic review began in 2006 with progress assessments conducted by the QAHN Board of Directors’ Operations Committee. This process was repeated in 2007. In 2009 a survey of Core member needs and expectations was conducted.
The board of directors deemed it useful to begin the 2009-2014 planning process by:
• Surveying the institutional members of QAHN to obtain an accurate picture of their own organizational situations and to ascertain how well they feel that QAHN has been and could be of use to them
• Establishing a set of core planning elements, including mission, vision, goals, and benchmarks. These elements will guide the heritage network’s development over the next five years.
Operational Context
QAHN was founded in June 2000 following a conference held at Bishop’s University. The founding members, who represented museums and historical societies strongly identified with (though not exclusively) the province’s English-speaking population, organized QAHN as a non-profit, non-partisan umbrella organization. The heritage network was incorporated federally and received its Letter Patent on November 30, 2000.
Governance is provided by an elected board of directors composed of representatives nominated by Core member groups. As of March 2009, QAHN’s Core members included 51 historical societies, heritage organizations and related community-based groups, as well as more than 200 individual subscribers to Quebec Heritage News magazine, QAHN’s flagship print publication. See Appendix “A” for a complete list of Core member organizations.
The 2008-09 consultation and planning process was led by a working group composed of volunteer directors Kevin O’Donnell, president, Rod MacLeod, past president and Dwane Wilkin, executive director, with assistance from board members Heather Darch, Sandra Stock, Richard Smith, Patrick Donovan and Leonard Jordaan.
2. Funding Considerations – Core Members
The vast majority of groups who participated in the 2009 Core Member Survey depend on some form of municipal, provincial or federal government funding to support their activities. Most of the Survey respondents who receive or have applied to receive public financial support for their heritage-related activities are dissatisfied with existing government funding programmes.
The sector remains heavily dependent on volunteers. (See page 8 of 2009 Core Member Survey Report for details.) Volunteer “labour” is a half-full glass―a sign of community legitimacy and support, but a strain on those active members who are often few in number and in their senior years. With a few notable exceptions, such as the McCord Museum in Montreal and the Morrin Centre in Quebec City, these heritage organizations employ few, if any, paid staff and many are reliant on government subsidies to hire students to carry out activities over the peak summer months.
Members complain that securing adequate funding through these programmes is unduly complicated by paperwork and that the amount of money they are able to raise after going through all the administrative hoops invariably falls well short of their needs. Even though some of QAHN’s larger member institutions have considerable capacity for fundraising and appear quite successful in this regard, they too report dissatisfaction with the current system of allocating support for heritage promotion and conservation activities. In particular, there is strong criticism of the multiplicity of federal funding programmes in the Department of Canadian Heritage and what strikes members as an onerous restriction against recurrent funding for otherwise successful projects ―initiatives that the community would like to continue to pursue so that these successes can be repeated and ongoing.
Concern was raised about the manner in which future public funding for heritage education and conservation might be allocated. One participant in the strategic planning discussions felt that any new investments in heritage should not complicate the “already Byzantine structure” of federal government programs, especially those geared towards Quebec’s English-speaking communities. It was noted that these programs do not have large enough envelopes to meet current needs. Survey respondents generally agree that the work of heritage organizations would benefit from fewer programs with broader objectives and larger funding envelopes.
We should note here one exception to the general complaint about lack of government funding. One group consulted during the Core Membership Survey, a charitable foundation devoted to the maintenance of an historic church and cemetery in the Laurentians, rejected the idea of accepting any public funds whatsoever for its operations. The Survey respondent was of the view that other members of the heritage network should do the same if they aspire to control their decision-making, free from the vagaries associated with government support. Referring to QAHN in particular, the respondent said: “You will only be effective when you prove to the community your ability to self-fund.”
3. Funding Considerations – QAHN
The Canadian government, through its Department of Canadian Heritage (PCH), has contributed financially to QAHN’s support and development since its founding, providing by far the greatest share of the umbrella group’s annual operational revenue as well as funding for specific strategic projects. Federal government investment in Quebec’s anglophone history and heritage sector helps to fulfill a central objective of Canada’s policy towards official linguistic minorities, which is to maintain the vitality of English-language minority communities in Quebec and that of French-language minority communities in other parts of Canada.
Since 2004, the Quebec government’s Ministère de la Culture, Communications et Condition Féminine (MCCCF) has also contributed financially on an annual basis to QAHN’s general operations. The following table shows the sources of QAHN revenues in 2008-09, expressed as a percentage of total budget:
Revenue Source Percentage of total budget
PCH program funding 54
MCCCF program funding 18
Project partnerships 20
Self-generated 7
Foundations 0.5
Like member groups, the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network’s current capabilities are limited by financial constraints, as well as by the socio-demographic context in which the anglophone non-profit sector operates. Although there has been an increase since 2004 in the total amount of federal and provincial government funding QAHN receives each year for its core activities and special projects, revenue remains well below what could reasonably be considered the bare minimum for an organization that is supposed to provide support to a province-wide network of historical societies, heritage associations, museums and related non-profit cultural institutions.
Nevertheless, QAHN has worked with considerable success these last nine years to enable members and supporters to turn their sense of shared purpose into concrete actions. Most recently, QAHN collaborated with the English Language Arts Network (ELAN) and the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) to develop a policy framework for future investment in the arts, culture and heritage of Quebec’s linguistic minority communities. The Cultural Development Fund, announced as part of the federal government’s 2009-2014 spending plan for official language communities, promises to furnish a new potential source for this investment.
4. Strategic Issues
The 2009 Core Member Survey builds on the 2004 Needs Assessment Survey. The findings of the 2009 member survey provide valuable insight into the complex challenges and opportunities that non-profit and largely volunteer-based community organizations face in their work to preserve and share the diverse history and heritage of English-speaking Quebec. From these findings and the results of previous operational reviews the following key strategic issues were identified:
1. Scope / Activity Creep
“Scope creep” may be defined as the gradual process by which any mission’s objectives change over time, especially with undesirable consequences.
QAHN conceives, or is called upon to deliver, a range of activities and services, and to become engaged in advocacy and policy-development work. But while needs and opportunities in the heritage field appear at times to be limitless, our human and financial resources are at all times limited. It has become apparent that priorities must be established so that QAHN can operate effectively within the practical and resource limitations of staff and volunteers.
RECOMMENDATION:
• Establish a Budget and Operations Committee of the board to hold this “scope creep” in check. This committee will consist of the executive director, the president, treasurer, secretary, past- and vice presidents, and other members of the board or staff who may be called upon to undertake a specific assignment in sub-committees. All major initiatives will be reviewed and approved by this committee before they are undertaken. (See p.18 for details.)
2. Emerging Policy Development and Advocacy Role
Projects such as the Heritage Awareness and Stewardship Training Initiative (HASTI), the Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIRI), ongoing efforts to mobilize discussion around English-speaking Quebecers’ sense of cultural identity, participation in public consultations and, most recently, QAHN’s contribution to the development of an arts, culture and heritage policy framework for English Quebec, suggest that senior volunteers and staff are willing and able to represent what they perceive to be the interests of the anglophone heritage sector.
On the pages of Quebec Heritage News magazine, QAHN’s various regional heritage websites, at conferences, before public hearings and in direct correspondence with potential supporters of members’ local initiatives, the heritage network’s directors and staff have, in fact, argued for a broader appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of Quebec’s English-speaking communities. The future vitality of these communities will depend to a large extent on how successful and adept leaders are in promoting and defending the cultural resources of these communities, which of course includes the wide array of institutions which serve to safeguard and promote this heritage. QAHN has forcefully argued that considerations of heritage value must apply as much to heritage waterways, landscapes and traditional skills, stories and knowledge as they do to historic buildings, museums and archives. This is entirely in keeping with new heritage-conservation legislation proposed by the Quebec government’s Ministry of Culture, Communications and Women’s Affairs (MCCCF) in its 2008 policy paper, Un regard neuf sur le patrimoine.
Results of the 2009 Core Member Survey show that there is strong support and appreciation for this sort of public advocacy: nearly all respondents characterized QAHN’s efforts to develop policies and to advocate on behalf of heritage conservation as having a high or medium importance; only one respondent rated this service as having low importance. One respondent representing a small natural heritage museum in the Gaspé, for instance, stated that QAHN should pursue a more vigorous lobbying stance with policy-makers whose influence is not restricted to the heritage sector, to help local and regional museums become “more competitive in the overall provincial market.”
However, QAHN’s policy and advocacy work, while endorsed by the board of directors, who represent regional and sector interests, often tends to be conducted on an ad-hoc basis, without ascertaining broad membership endorsement.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Articulate a broader organizational mandate in a modified mission statement. A modified mission statement is proposed on page 13. Any enlargement of mission will have to be carried out within the limitations detailed above.
Keep Core member presidents apprised of all important policy issues through an email bulletin directed to them, and solicit their feedback and advice. It is expected that they in turn will consult their members when they feel it appropriate.
Work cooperatively with other national agencies pursuing broad development goals, including the Quebec Community Groups Network, Community Table and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada (FCFAC), within the limits outlined above.
3. Association and Collaboration with the (QCGN)
The Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) is a not-for-profit organization bringing together 32 English language community organizations across Quebec for the purposes of supporting and assisting the development and enhancing the vitality of the English-speaking minority communities. This is undertaken principally through cooperation in the prioritization and development of projects and through the promotion of an effective coordinated approach.
– From the QCGN website, www.qcgn.ca
The QCGN is regarded as the main interlocutor between the apparatus of the federal government and Quebec’s English-speaking communities. It has a federal government mandate to assist constituent member associations, including QAHN. Like any other advocacy network, including QAHN, the QCGN earnestly devotes much effort demonstrating its usefulness. And since it must build broad-based support to do so, the QCGN has, understandably, sought closer association with the heritage network.
The heritage network has been directly involved in the governance of the QCGN since QAHN’s inception in 2000 and has contributed to the advancement of QCGN policies and initiatives. Heritage and culture have come to be regarded within English Quebec as issues of major concern that are capable of shaping public policy and future social investment, and the QCGN has recently devoted considerable energy enabling QAHN to work with the English Language Arts Network (ELAN) to ensure that Quebec anglophones get a proper share of the federal government’s new Cultural Development Fund for official language minorities. Notwithstanding this excellent and productive collaboration and other benefits that result from QAHN’s association with the QCGN, two concerns must be noted:
• The autonomy of the heritage network may be jeopardized in the long term by the QCGN’s power to concentrate finite resources for developing official-language minority communities. Large networks, including QAHN, eventually tend to operate on a level that is far removed from the community interests of member organizations. QAHN’s relationship with Core members and its role in the QCGN will both require close attention in the years to come to check this tendency and to ensure that the priorities of the heritage network and its role in the development of Quebec communities are not minimized.
• Until QAHN can engage culturally diverse English-speaking communities in Greater Montreal it will not be able to garner support and recognition as the lead heritage organization for English Quebec. The heritage network can improve its capacity to reach these communities on an ongoing basis, in part, by taking a more active role in the direction of such QCGN initiatives as the Greater Montreal Community Development Initiative (GMDCI).
Many of QAHN’s most successful initiatives, such as Montreal Mosaic and Roots Quebec, have been essentially gatherings of people from diverse cultural backgrounds―real-world networking and information-sharing activities. Yet heritage groups who belong to QAHN would also like to see public investments directed at activities that are less intangible. There is much interest in halting the deterioration of built and natural heritage, for instance; and in depopulated rural communities there is concern about the future management of historic cemeteries. To quote one participant in QAHN’s strategic-planning discussions, “We need less money going towards meta-talk, focus-group studies, expensive consultations, and partnership-building initiatives with no tangible project attached to them. In short, less talk and more action.” Finding resources to pursue all of these needs on an ongoing basis remains a challenge.
RECOMMENDATION:
Manage QAHN’s relationship with the QCGN in such a way that does not compromise the core mission, vision and goals of the heritage sector.
4. Quebec’s Diverse Heritage and Quebec Heritage News
Quebec Heritage News magazine began its existence as QAHN’s newsletter. But from the beginning the range and quality of its articles made it seem more like a magazine trapped in a newsletter format. About three years ago the butterfly emerged from the chrysalis; printed on magazine-quality paper and with a unique layout and style, Quebec Heritage News became the quality publication it is today. Canada’s only English-language magazine devoted to Quebec history and heritage is published six times a year, with individual annual subscriptions costing only $20.
It should come as no surprise that putting out such a publication is an enormous undertaking―compare the number of people working on any other magazine with the production staff of QHN. Forunately, QAHN is able to draw upon the volunteer labour of a large number of talented writers.
Publishing the print magazine is generally praised by members as one of QAHN’s most highly rated activities. However, limited distribution of Quebec Heritage News magazine and constraints on content development for QAHN’s regional heritage websites are curbing efforts to fulfill the heritage networks’ mission to advance knowledge of the history and heritage English-speaking Quebec. Three years after starting to publish Quebec Heritage News in a magazine format, QAHN has still not figured out how to get Core member groups to sell individual subscriptions to their own members. Thus circulation figures remain well below their potential.
Also, while QAHN has recently developed a marketing plan and has drawn some inspiration from funding mechanism behind another Canadian magazine (The Walrus, which relies on a separate educational foundation with a charitable status ) the heritage network has yet to implement a comprehensive sales strategy that takes advantage of tax incentives and distribution opportunities through libraries and retail newsstands..
Failure to increase subscription figures substantially would be to waste remarkable gains that QAHN has made to improve the magazine’s production values. QAHN would also miss out on a unique opportunity to nurture a province-wide community of people who are interested in learning and advancing knowledge about the history and heritage of this province
RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Put into action QAHN’s marketing strategy for becoming a self-sustaining, English-language voice for Quebec heritage and history.
• Implement a campaign led by QAHN’s regional volunteer directors to encourage Core and Affiliate members to sell subscriptions to members and local libraries
• Secure increased financial support from Quebec’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, and from larger institutions in the museum and educational sectors
• Establish an educational foundation with a mandate to publish Quebec Heritage News.
• Consider publishing options, such as moving to a quarterly publication format, that might lighten the load, both financially and in terms of staff and volunteer resources.
5. Heritage Organizations and Rapidly Evolving Internet-Based Technologies
QAHN maintains its own website at www.qahn.org and also publishes the Quebec Heritage Web portal, a series of regional heritage websites, available through a link from QAHN’s main website, or directly at www.quebecheritageweb.com:
• Laurentian HeritageWeb
• Townshippers HeritageWeb
• Patrimoine des Cantons Cybermagazine
• Outaouais HeritageWeb
• Gaspesian HeritageWeb
In addition, QAHN currently offers members free subscription to two regular email bulletins, HeritageLine and the Quebec Heritage Web Newsletter.
But the above list of websites indicates that there are gaps in the heritage network’s internet presence and coverage. Where, for instance, is the Montreal HeritageWeb site?
Developing and launching such an undertaking requires a significant outlay of financial and human resources, neither of which QAHN’s current operations budget can support
A private internet services company with operations in Sherbrooke and Montreal currently provides QAHN with most of its information technology (IT) services and has been responsible in the past for all of QAHN’s website design. However, the service provider is a Microsoft shop, and may be reluctant to provide services based on “open source” (i.e. free software-programs) technology instead of the proprietary (and expensive) Microsoft products. Also, while the QAHN website designs are very attractive, they date from about 2003, a long time ago in website development terms. Experience with QAHN’s current Internet services provider has shown that it is difficult to acquire desired upgrades.
The current web publications have been made possible through the efforts of regular staff (the executive director and a webmaster working one day a week) with the occasional help of part-time and\or summer-student contract employees. Quebec HeritageWeb was originally conceived, in part, as a way to provide QAHN’s Core members with an internet presence while relieving them of the burden of providing technical expertise, but in turn it was expected that they would communicate with the webmaster or the QAHN office to make sure they would remain up-to-date.
The 2009 Core Member Survey shows that most QAHN groups know and use computers regularly for email communication and generally understand the potential value of maintaining some form of internet-based presence. Indeed a good number of them either have or are planning to create websites to promote their organizations and share information. Many, in fact, consider future website development to be a priority for their organizations, but cannot pursue this goal because of budgetary constraints and/or limited IT expertise. These participants indicated by their responses that they could benefit from expert guidance and professional assistance with website design and content management.
However, it is no longer necessary to have a high degree of expertise in computer-software programming languages to produce interesting websites. QAHN could, in fact, play a leading role in the community-based development of websites throughout the heritage network, budget permitting, of course.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Re-evaluate QAHN’s website offerings and their value to members of Quebec’s heritage sector.
• Analyse the cost and benefits of continuing QAHN’s affiliation with its current internet services provider and compare these with alternative means of maintaining the main website and the regional heritage websites, using, in part, the expertise of our own members.
• Encourage QAHN’s regional partners and supporters to help generate content for the regional heritage websites.
• Help members to become self-sufficient in their own website development.
• Encourage sharing by our members, of current best practices in web-based museum technology (e.g. putting digital collections of photographs, print documents and pictures of museum artifacts online).
6. Fragile Support for Local Community Organizations
Although QAHN has experienced strong Core membership growth since 2004, the 2009 Core Member Survey reveals that many of the heritage network’s constituent groups, especially those based outside of Montreal and Quebec City, have faced steady decline in their membership over the same period. Respondents point to factors such as the gradual depopulation of local English-speaking communities in Quebec’s regions, and the disproportionately high number of elderly people who make up the volunteer pool needed to keep these organizations running. These factors were previously identified in the 2004 Needs Assessment and in the Global Development Plan of the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN).
Attracting and training future generations of leaders who appreciate local history, who are apt to identify with and able to defend heritage in their communities, will require a sustained and focused investment in today’s youth.
A gradual weakening of local volunteer support for older traditional historical societies and small museums in particular poses a serious threat to these organizations’ long-term survival, which must in turn have consequences for the future governance and direction of the heritage sector as a whole. At the same time, the survey results show a remarkable and interesting diversity of organizational focus within the sector.
The appropriate, if difficult to achieve, response of QAHN’s leadership is to identify and implement strategies at the community level that will inspire greater participation in and support for local heritage. QAHN cannot wave a magic wand and increase the number of English Quebecers intent on celebrating their communities’ history and heritage. QAHN can, however make it easier and more enjoyable for those who wish it, to carry out their mission.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Maintain a constantly-refreshed speakers’ list to help local meeting-organizers.
• Encourage youth to participate by increasing our ties to the schools. This might take the form of oral history projects, linked through collaborative promotions to local museums and historical societies.
• Promote best practices with regard to such important activities as: fundraising; money-saving publishing techniques; archives management, practical local conservation projects.
5. Mission Statement
Following discussion among delegates attending QAHN’s annual general meeting on June 13, 2009 the following mission and vision statements for the heritage network were formally adopted, by electronic vote, as part of the strategic plan:
Mission
The Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) is a non-profit, non-partisan umbrella organization engaged with its members in promoting preservation of the built, cultural and natural heritage of Quebec.
Vision
QAHN aims to advance knowledge of the history of Quebec’s English-speaking communities by informing, inspiring and connecting people through its activities. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in Quebec history, heritage and culture.
6. Charting the Course – Priority Goals
The efforts of QAHN member groups, volunteers, employees, funding partners and other stakeholders shall be directed towards the following four (4) core goals and supporting objectives.
Core Goals
Strengthen Core members – Build a closer partnership with our Core member groups
through networking opportunities and communication, member services and project-specific
collaborations
Engage communities – Provide strategies and tools to compel more and younger
Quebecers to join, and to use and support the work of volunteer-based heritage organizations in
their local communities
Share stories – Create high-quality original content for our print and online publications
that will continue to engage new subscribers, contributors and advertisers
Increase resources – Generate new sources of revenue for heritage initiatives while
raising the level
Goal 1 Strengthen Core Members
Supporting objectives:
1. Improve communications and promote information-sharing among historical societies, museums and other heritage organizations;
2. Develop and share expertise on heritage conservation by pursuing collaborative projects such as the successful Heritage Awareness and Stewardship Training Initiative (HASTI) workshop series;
3. Assist members groups obtain assistance for such work as:
• (a) Evaluating the heritage value of historic buildings, districts and landscapes in small municipalities without adequate internal capacity for long-term community planning
• (b) Providing advocacy and research-support services to community groups seeking to protect and promote local heritage in small municipalities
• c) Helping local heritage groups to acquire and develop such skills as mounting museum exhibits, fundraising, publicity and marketing;
4. Represent the heritage network in the area of government policy by advising and consulting members
5. Support the professional development of heritage workers, including archivists and museum curators
Goal 2 Engage Communities
Supporting objectives:
1. Raise public awareness of heritage-conservation issues;
2. Develop and promote activities that will enable historical societies, museums and heritage organizations to attract potential volunteers and supporters;
3. Design and coordinate collaborative projects that directly involve youth, such as the proposed Heritage Youth Corps and school-based Oral History initiatives;
4. Support development and publication of local historical research on Quebec’s English-language communities;
5. Spearhead practical educational initiatives that generate support for local heritage among community leaders in diverse urban and rural settings, such as:
• Special training programs, developed in collaboration with artisans, school boards and CEGEPs, that teach students how to properly restore old buildings and historic artefacts, thereby helping to conserve knowledge of heritage trades and crafts;
• A province-wide coalition of historic cemeteries and genealogical societies, which would encourage volunteer trustees to share best practices in cemetery-heritage conservation and fundraising.
Goal 3 Share Stories
Supporting objectives:
1. Promote Quebec Heritage News magazine to a wider audience. This will require securing and investing the necessary resources to further improve the print publication and to develop a national network of distributors, advertisers and subscribers.
2. Gather and distribute oral histories of English-speaking Quebec by building on the heritage network’s existing internet-based platform for showcasing digital audio documentaries and its QuebecHeritage Web suite of regional websites. This could be achieved by collaborating with Core members, local schools and with partners such as Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.
3. Improve the heritage network’s existing Internet presence by encouraging the adoption of “open-source” based website platforms and the incorporation of popular social-networking technologies.
Goal 4 Increase resources
Supporting objectives:
1. Establish a separate foundation and governing board with charitable status and the mandate to financially support projects that further the aims of the heritage network, including capital-improvement and publishing projects.
2. Develop a private-sector fundraising strategy with annual financial objectives and a plan for reaching those objectives
3. Seek Core member support for implementing a targeted subscription campaign for Quebec Heritage News magazine.
4. In collaboration with other heritage groups in Quebec, systematically petition provincial and federal government agencies and political leaders for greater recognition of and support for the work of the non-profit heritage sector
5. Participate closely in public consultations that could influence future government policy and budget decisions affecting investment in heritage
7. Operational Guidelines
The broad guidelines for achieving the goals contained in this strategic plan are reflected by values which are shared by Core members of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network. They may be summarized as follows:
The following specific benchmarks shall serve as QAHN’s performance indicators:
Internal Benchmarks ― Mission & Vision
Historical societies, museums and heritage groups who make up the heritage network turn to QAHN as a source of information, inspiration and collaboration. Thanks to QAHN:
• best practices in preservation and conservation are shared
• innovative projects (e.g. museum exhibits) are created and shared
• member operations are improved in such areas as:
o fund-raising
o membership recruitment and retention
o volunteer and staff development
o Internet-assisted communications networking
• Members contribute toward the development their local communities
While most QAHN members identify with Quebec’s English-speaking communities, membership in and support for the heritage network is not linguistically or culturally exclusive. On the contrary:
QAHN welcomes French-speaking Quebecers by striving to make available:
o Its name and logo rendered in French as well as in English
o Its stationery and telephone message rendered in French as well as in English
o Oral and written communications, including QAHN’s website content, rendered in French as well as in English
QAHN is aware of and promotes the fact that significant numbers of francophone Quebecers have English-language ancestry
QAHN appreciates that interest in the anglophone contributions to Quebec’s built, natural and cultural heritage is not limited to those whose mother tongue is English.
Internal Benchmarks ― Operations
Individual volunteers and staff strive to put the best interests of QAHN members and the heritage network before their private opinions or considerations. Annual objectives will be established each year by a Budget and Operations Committee and these will be the subject of a twice-yearly operations review. QAHN is mindful that the bulk of its funding comes from government sources, and is thus tied to legal and moral obligations.
This means:
• QAHN delivers value for money spent: on salaries, contracts and professional fees, on rent, equipment and materials, and on travel costs. Board and staff can always account for and justify all expenditures.
• Staff and volunteers carry out QAHN’s objectives in the most cost-effective manner possible.
• Whenever there is a misalignment between QAHN’s annual objectives and the human and financial resources available, the executive director shall immediately notify the Budget and Operations Committee. If necessary and if no other solution is at hand, objectives will be adjusted.
• Volunteer directors are familiar with literature on non-profit governance made available by the Centre for Community Organizations (CoCo) and are aware of the legal obligations and oversight responsibilities they assume by serving on QAHN’s board.
• Volunteer directors maintain contact with QAHN member groups in their region or sector of responsibility. Each board member must submit a report for publication and review at the Annual General Meeting.
• Acknowledging that objectives, goals and even missions may evolve over time QAHN board and staff will review the annual plan twice yearly.
External Benchmarks ― Mission & Vision
QAHN is highly regarded by institutions and other community-sector organizations in Quebec and the rest of Canada, such as
La Fédération des sociétés d'histoire du Québec, Héritage Montréal, the Heritage Canada Foundation, Canadian Heritage of Quebec, Ontario Heritage Trust, and other history and museum organizations;
• Schools and universities;
• Associations and organizations with overlapping community interests, such as la Fédération Québécoise des Municipalités (FQM), the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN) and Community Table;
• Funding partners at all levels of government and private foundations
Respect for QAHN promotes positive synergies in the form of partnerships and collaborative ventures.
External Benchmarks - Operations
• QAHN will strive to make sure that our funding agencies recognize that the organization has delivered on commitments, and has rendered value for money.
• By carrying out all commitments on time and with care, QAHN will make sure that project partners and outside observers will feel that the organization has measured up to expectations.
APPENDIX A
CORE MEMBERS SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS
Ascott Heritage Patrimoine/Little Forks
Archives of the Pontiac
Arundel Historical Society
Aylmer Heritage Association
Bristol Village Heritage Team
Brome County Historical Society
Bury Historical and Heritage Society
Canadian Jewish Congress Charities Committee National Archive
Canadian Railway Museum, Exporail
Cascapedia River Museum
Centre Historique de St-Armand
Châteauguay Valley Historical Society
Clan McLean Quebec
Compton County Historical and Museum Society
Compton Historical Society
Comité du Patrimoine de Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts / St-Agathe Heritage Committee
Council of Anglophone of Magdalen Islanders
Cowansville Historical Society, the Bruck House
Coasters Association Inc.
Christ Church Rawdon, The Cooporation
Dorval Historical Society
Fédération des Sociétés des d'histoire du Québec
Fédération Québécoise des Sociétés de Généalogie
Gaspé-Jersey -Guernsey Association
Gaspesian British Heritage Village
Gatineau Valley Historical Society
Genealogical Society of The Eastern Townships
Greenwood Center For Living History
Harrington Harbour Tourism Association
Heritage Huntingville
Heritage Kinnear's Mills
Heritage Lower St-Lawrence
Heritage New Carlisle
Hudson Historical Society
Irish Heritage Quebec
Irish Protestant Benevolent Society
Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal
Jones Cemetery Association
Knox Church Crystal Falls Memorial Fund
Lake Massawippi Area Historical Society
La Société d'historie et de Génealogie des Pays d'en Haut
La Societe d'Histoire de Sherbrooke
Lennoxville-Ascot Historical and Museum Society
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec / Morrin Centre
Malvern Cemetery Co.
Maple Grove Heritage Foundation
Missisquoi Historical Society
Montreal Genweb
Morin Heights Historical Association
Mount Royal Cemetery Company
Musée de la Civilisation Patrimoine à Domicile
North Hatley Historical Society
North Shore Community Association
Norway Bay Historical Society
Old North Church Cemetery Association
Potton Heritage Association
Price-Patterson Ltd.
Quebec Community Groups Network
Synod of the Diocese of Quebec Quebec Diocesan Archives
Theatre Wakefield
Quebec Family History Society
Quebec Historical Corps
Quebec Protestant Education Research Project
Quebec Protestant Education Research Project, McGill University Dept. of History
Quebec Thistle Council
Rawdon Historical Society
Regional Association of West Quebecers
Richmond County Historical Society
Royal Commonwealth Society of Canada, Montreal Branch
Sainte-Anne-du-Bout-de-l'Ile Historical Society
Scotch Road Cemetery Association
Sir John Johnson Centennial Branch United Empire Loyalists, (UELAC)
Société d'histoire de Pointe-Saint-Charles
St. David's Society
Stanstead Historical Society, Colby-Curtis Museaum
Uplands Cultural & Heritage Center
Viking Ski Club
Westmount Historical Association
St. Patrick's Society of Montreal
Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society
Exposition Shalom Québec
Les Productions Traces & Souvenances
Download QAHN's 2009-2014 Strategic Plan (264kb PDF).