Dear Editor,
Lately there have been writeups in The News calling into question the recent takeover of The ACT by the City of Maple Ridge.
I don’t feel the City or Maple Ridge council should be deluged with criticism for this action as without doubt, there were multiple ‘layers to the onion’.
The ACT has formerly been run by the arts council as an arms-length extension of the City. It’s now coming directly under city control.
In my opinion, over the long haul the arts council has done an admirable job running affairs at The ACT. It’s hard to appreciate how many hours of meetings and volunteer activities (translation, unwaged work), are taken on by community-minded citizens to keep such organizations operating.
Let’s give credit where credit is due.
However, as publicly documented, the arts council – which is led by the executive director, came to an impasse with the city over items including future funding and hiring a consultant.
The City of Maple Ridge is a huge stakeholder in the operation of The ACT and, as the owner of both the property and building, as well as underwriting a substantial amount of ACT operations, the City opted to shift to hands-on management.
Over many years, I’ve had experience helping lead assorted not-for-profits. (I was also formerly contracted to update The ACT’s policy and procedures manual.) I’ve learned through rubber-meets-the-road experience that running an organization, particularly a large one, as a volunteer-based committee, can come with challenges.
Personal perspectives, goals, and values can differ, so group decision-making is sometimes difficult. Consistently applying governance guidelines of the association takes time and patience.
Any staff supervision adds an extra layer of complication. At times the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders overlap or become unclear, or the chain of accountability becomes too convoluted.
Whatever the contributing factors may have included in this case, the City of Maple Ridge decided that a change of management structure was in order.
Legal constraints prevent disclosure of any information about the organization’s personnel-related (human resources) function including such considerations as salaries, contracts, benefits, and job descriptions.
Therefore citizen-based demands for the City of Maple Ridge to open this change of management to public input are unrealistic. Instead, let patience be the order of the day as we see how the City operates The ACT and other arts programming during the coming months.
Giving as many staff as possible a one-year contract extension during this changeover has been an impressive start.
I’m convinced that moving forward, the city and council have every intention of dealing in good faith with employees, volunteers, and the public to actively support future programming.
Let’s hold to that same principle as arts supporters and participants, continuing to build on the great arts offerings we’ve had in the past.
Linda Nelson, Pitt Meadows