Message from PSC Chair Derek Watts

Message from Derek Watts, Chair Passage Steering Committee and Passage Project Administrator , Wolfville Historical Society.

1 December 2009

Well, here we are at the end of the year for which Wolfville Historical Society successfully applied for the SDI Passage grant, and during which it administered and delivered the Passage Project to you, the partners. In the first few months of the year, your steering committee reached an agreement with the ANSM board and the story concerning that was circulated to you all at the time. The principle and most important outcome of the agreement for the partners was that Passage earnings (surplus of income over expense) accumulated during the previous years was acknowledged in its full amount by ANSM, and identified and secured in segregated accounts (Passage Support Funds), for use only for benefit of the project. Another part of the agreement was the creation of a Collections Management Advisory Committee (CMAC) by the board. The principle and most important part of this committee's work was to prepare the ground for the Passage's re-establishment as a service project of ANSM. A new committee, replacing the Passage Steering Committee, with a broader mandate was recommended by CMAC. Terms of Reference for this committee, called the Information Technology and Collections Management Advisory Committee, together with Terms of Reference for the Collections Co-ordinator, were written and adopted by the ANSM board on November 6^th and the CMAC was dissolved. Accordingly, PSC dissolved itself on 27 November. Members of the PSC will continue as members of the ITCMA (as it will be referred to), together with additional members as time goes on. I have offered to be chair of this committee for the coming year.

In August, Anita Price (who must be well known to you all), joined ANSM as Managing Director. As the original Passage visionary, she collaborated with the CMAC in their final work and that vision for Passage has now been clearly spelled out in the Terms of Reference referred to. With PSC, she collaborated in the preparation of the SDI application for 2009/2010. That application was made by ANSM this time, and it was approved by the Minister of Tourism, Culture & Heritage on November 17^th.

This year was a very busy one for the PSC, stressful for some, but one of considerable accomplishment. Karin's work and service was outstanding and produced a very good result. Altogether a great foundation has been laid down for important initiatives in 2010 which will be come clear to you when the year's work plan has been developed in detail.