ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
Date: June 13, 2003
Author: K. Hasselfelt
Phone: 604-871-6045
RTS No. 03351
CC File No. 2201
Meeting Date: July 10, 2003
TO: |
Standing Committee on City Services & Budgets |
FROM: |
Directors, Office of Cultural Affairs and Finance |
SUBJECT: |
Vancouver Maritime Museum -
|
RECOMMENDATION
THAT Council approve an operating grant in the amount of $364,649 to the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society; source of funds to be the 2003 "Other" Grants budget.
GENERAL MANAGERS' COMMENTS
The General Managers of Community and Corporate Services RECOMMEND approval.
COUNCIL POLICY
Council has approved annual operating grants to the major exhibiting institutions to support their ongoing operations since their formation as independent non-profit societies in 1971. Approval of a grant requires eight affirmative votes.
The City's relationship with the Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM) (excluding the St. Roch) is outlined in an operating/lease agreement which expired May 31, 2000. The agreement between the City and the VMM with respect to the St. Roch expired on June 30, 1997. Council authorized the execution of a new comprehensive operating/lease agreement under approved terms and conditions on June 13, 2002 and this agreement is in the process of being negotiated. In the intervening period, the relationship is being continued on generally the same terms and conditions as contained in the expired agreements.
PURPOSE
This report provides a review of the Vancouver Maritime Museum's 2002 activities and recommends Council's approval of their 2003 Operating Grant request.
BACKGROUND
The Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM) has operated in its current location in Kits Point since 1958. The VMM was operated as a department of the City until 1971 when it became part of the Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association (VMPA). In 1987, the VMPA dissolved and became three separate organizations: the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society, the Vancouver Museum Association (now the Vancouver Museum Commission) and the BC Space Sciences Society (now the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre Society). The VMM is an independent not-for-profit society governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and has 5 full time staff, 5 part-time and 20 seasonal staff. 117 volunteers contribute over 5,500 hours to the Maritime Museum's programming and activities. Membership currently stands at approximately 7,500 members.
The St. Roch, which is the premiere attraction at the VMM, is also owned by the City of Vancouver and housed in a City-owned structure attached to the VMM. In 1966, the City of Vancouver, under an agreement with the Federal Government restored and housed the ship, and the Federal Government, through Parks Canada, operated the St. Roch National Historic Site until 1995. Since 1995, the City has provided operational funds through a series of supplemental grants to the VMM. The supplemental grant was incorporated into the organization's operating grant in 2002 in recognition of the on-going nature of the VMM's operational responsibilities to this vessel.
The VMM's relationship with the City is outlined in an operating/lease agreement which has expired. A new lease/operating agreement is currently under negotiation. In addition to an annual operating grant, the City currently provides occupancy of the facility at a nominal rent, property tax exemption, utilities, janitorial services, and grounds and building maintenance through the City's Facilities Design & Management department. The organization's sources of revenue and City support (43% of revenues from all sources) is illustrated in Table 1.
2002 Year In Review
Drawing from the permanent collection, the VMM featured selections from the newly donated Bill and Mary Everett Family Collection in 2002. In addition to exhibitions in the permanent galleries, two temporary exhibitions were presented:
· The Watery Kingdom: China's Mariners from Antiquity to the Ming Dynasty, with a collection of Chinese jade sculptures forming the centrepiece of the exhibit;
· Cruising the Fabled Inside Passage: The Life and Lore of the Cruise Ship focussed on the cruise ship industry in Vancouver.
A new permanent contextual exhibit which relates the story of the St. Roch and the Voyage of Rediscovery was developed in 2002 with a grant from B.C.'s Community Spirit Program. The VMM also hosted the CD launch of the RCMP country band Steele Heart, with the proceeds from its sale contributing to the St. Roch Preservation Fund. With funding from Industry Canada, the VMM digitized and prepared a new web-based tour of the museum's extensive St. Roch and Arctic photo collections which will go on-line in 2003. The St. Roch II: Voyage of Rediscovery exhibit travelled to Chilliwack, White Rock and Fort McLeod in 2002.
Public programming in 2002 continued with corporately-sponsored outreach programs such as the Waterfront Industries in Your Backyard, which teaches children about the working Port and waterfront industry. A new school program False Creek Explorers: Lost Streams & Future Dreams gives students the opportunity to participate in the process of creating a vision for sustainable communities on False Creek. The VMM has also continued its participation in community-based events including the Wooden Boat Festival, Fraser River Festival, Alcan Dragon Boat Festival and Port Day.
Another significant achievement was the external restoration of the historic submersible Ben Franklin, much of which was accomplished with volunteer labour and donated materials. In partnership with the Vancouver Film School, the VMM developed a new virtual Ben Franklin tour and interactive experience that will be Internet accessible in 2003. This will enable "virtual" touring of the vessel's interior until the exhibit can be made ready for actual guided tours and school programs.
With a grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage's Museums Assistance Program, the Museum and Squamish Nation are building on an existing partnership to integrate the story of the Squamish Nation's connections to the sea and the Museum's physical location on the site of Snauq (Kits Point). The grant funded the carving and raising of a traditional welcome figure and research for an educational outreach program. The VMM's 2002 Annual Report will be circulated under separate cover to Council and is available at the City Clerk's Office.
2003 Plans
In 2003 the VMM will feature one major in-house temporary exhibit, To Boldly Go ...The Spirit of Exploration, which will investigate the spirit and motivation behind our need to explore. Two new school programs will complement the temporary exhibition about exploration, and the Connecting Coastal Communities school program has been extended to the end of May. The VMM will continue to offer outreach programs such as Waterfront Industries in Your Backyard, and participate in community festivals and events that are held around the Lower Mainland.
Development begun in 2002 on the new St. Roch exhibit will be completed in 2003. This permanent exhibit will provide context for the vessel and her achievements according to five major themes: Arctic Place: Flora & Fauna; Arctic People: Inuit Culture & Technology; Northwest Passage-European Exploration; St. Roch in the Arctic; and St. Roch II: Voyage of Rediscovery. A "visible storage" component will display artifacts from the Museum's collection and two audio stations are also being planned to broaden visitor experience.
Perhaps the most visible aspect of the VMM's 2003 activity has been the media launch of a visioning process for a new Maritime Museum. The building that currently houses the VMM is in need of major renovation to meet current museum standards. Several studies over recent years have identified a number of options, but none have proven feasible. Staff have been advised that the current initiative is at the conceptual stage and no organizational development or fund raising plan is available at this time.
DISCUSSION
Paid attendance at the Maritime Museum has been increasing slowly but steadily since 1999, until 2002, which was a difficult year in Vanier Park due to the impact of declining attendance on operations. The VMM experienced this decline, as paid attendance dropped 28% and admission revenues by 14% over the previous year. Despite this decrease in admission revenues, the VMM's total revenues only decreased slightly (1%) over the previous year, due to modest growth in other areas of earned revenue including parking, harbour and retails services. The VMM's financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2002 are attached as Appendix "A".
The VMM successfully concluded the year with a modest surplus, with an excess of revenues over expenditures of $7,038 on a total operating budget of $965,360. Nevertheless, the VMM continues to carry a significant accumulated deficit ($212,298) or 22% of its operating budget. Much of the accumulated deficit was incurred in 1991 ($200,237). Staff continue to be concerned about the size of the deficit and the ongoing challenge for the organization to eliminate it and move towards a more positive balance sheet. While generating operational surpluses was to contribute to deficit reduction, the deficit has actually increased since 1991.
Given that operational surpluses have not been effective in reducing the debt, the VMM is now investigating other means to address deficit reduction. The VMM has developed a Deficit Reduction Plan which projects that the debt will be eliminated by 2006. To accomplish this goal, the VMM has hired a new Development Officer and intends to reduce its deficit through expanded fund raising efforts, utilizing strategies developed with the assistance of the Vancouver Foundation and through connections made through the St. Roch Voyage campaign. The Museum recently held a fund raising breakfast and reportedly raised $100,000 towards operations and reducing the deficit, as well as another $1 million pledged by marine-based companies over the next five years. In addition, in 2002 the VMM received its first major planned gift of a $1 million annuity. This successful fundraising indicates that the VMM's new approach to deficit reduction has far more impact than the previous strategy of using operational surpluses.
Staff are supportive of the VMM Board and staff's new initiatives to eliminate the deficit, which will place the organization in a better position to contemplate future opportunities and options. In addition to a sound financial footing, staff note that the VMM will also need to build organizational capacity before embarking upon a multi-million dollar capital program.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Staff are recommending a 2003 operating grant of $364,649, based on an increase of 1.75% over the 2002 operating grant as approved by Council in the 2003 Operating budget. The source of funds is the "Other" Grants category as provided for in the 2003 Budget.
CONCLUSION
The VMM has maintained its operations with a balanced budget and is now increasing efforts to address their accumulated deficit. Staff therefore are recommending operating support for the Vancouver Maritime Museum Society in the amount of $364,649.
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