WERE THEY FIRED? (Kamloops)

By DALE BASS Staff reporterJan 14 2007 http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/
Some members of the Kamloops Museum and Archives board of directors claim they were fired by the city. But the city said a new governance model is needed for the facility and that the board chose not to adopt one. Despite the difference, one thing is certain: members of the society will be asked next month to dissolve the organization, ending a decades-long relationship.

“I would love to tell you the whole story and there is quite a story,” board president Al Yelland told KTW. “The city fired us. “This is a good group and we did a lot of good work, but the city wants to go in a different direction.” That direction, said Byron McCorkell, the city’s director of parks, recreation and cultural services, is to put in place a “friends of the museum” model, which is now being developed. “We run the museum and always have,” McCorkell said. “The society basically started it and it evolved.”

With no staff-management responsibility, but having a vested interest in the museum, McCorkell said staff was “mixed on who they were reporting to.” Grayden Flanagan, a member of the volunteer museum board for about a year, said he felt the city dismissed the group and agreed the difference centred on how the facility should be run. “I got the feeling the board was in the way of what the city wanted,” Flanagan said. “There was a difference of opinion on how the museum should be run.”

Both Yelland and Flanagan said they believe the dispute began when the city chose to close the museum on Saturdays during the summer months last year. “Were they thinking of the city or the people?” Yelland asked. “Hello! Closing the museum on Saturdays? When are people supposed to be able to go there? Give your head a shake.” During a meeting with the city to discuss the impasse, Yelland said he asked Mayor Terry Lake if the goal was “to remove all ties with the association. And he said yes. That is unfortunate.”

But Lake also disputed the board members’ statements they were fired. “The board was not dismissed, but was offered the opportunity to either take on a wholly self-governing model like the [B.C.] Wildlife Park or participate in a support model such as a friends of the museum model with no governance,” he said. “We have invited and encouraged all former association board members to participate in the design of the new structure and to remain involved once it is up and running.”

McCorkell said one meeting has been held to begin development a “friends of” model, noting that participants will be asked to “be the eyes and ears of the community [and] to help with fundraising. The group, he said, “will be no different than other commissions.” Yelland said a meeting of the society’s 75 members will be held in February, when a motion will be requested to dissolve the group, formally turn over its interest in the museum and decide on what to do with its financial assets. He said it is possible a scholarship will be established.