Join us for our AGM–Sunday, October 25, 1:30 pm!

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957 Beasley Road Box 422 Mansons Landing BC V0P 1K0 cimas@twincomm.ca 250-935-6340 cortesmuseum.com

Annual General Meeting

Sunday, October 25, 1:30 pm – via Zoom

Dear <<First Name>>,

Our much-delayed Annual General Meeting (AGM) is finally scheduled for Sunday, October 25! We are disappointed that this business-only meeting will not include the presentation by David Ellingsen – Past, Present and Future Tense: A Decade in Climate Art that was planned for our postponed March AGM. But we promise we will invite David back when in-person meetings are once again allowed.

We opted to hold our AGM using Zoom to protect our members, board, staff and volunteers. Some of you are familiar with Zooming, but for those of you who aren’t we are happy to help you figure it out in advance of the meeting. NO COMPUTER? NO PROBLEM! Just call the number below and you can join the meeting by phone. Prior to the meeting please read the 2019 Annual Report and Financial Statements, available on our website – click the AGM button. We will include the whole AGM package there. Please also watch Tideline for the most up-to-date news about the AGM and the meeting coordinates.

On Sunday, October 25, at 1:30 p.m. (the meeting will be open 10 minutes before 1:30):

Join us online in your browser using the following link (the hotlink can be provided by email upon request):
AGM via Zoom

OR
Log in to the meeting using Zoom (must have downloaded Zoom prior to the meeting):
Meeting ID: 864 7594 0785
Passcode: 846796

OR
Call into the meeting from a phone:
Dial (778) 907 2071 with meeting ID: 864 7594 0785

We Love Cortes Island

These strange times have deepened our appreciation of the Cortes Island community, and our members, volunteers and partners! We are discovering together how to support each other and stay connected and are pioneering new ways of delivering meaningful programming. Stay tuned for announcements about upcoming co-sponsored activities.

COVID-19 Impact

The Museum and Archives have been open this summer since July 1 with 50 percent of our usual number of summer visitors. From mid-March through to June, the Museum was closed. We miss your visits and all that you bring when you are here!

Here’s what we are doing to make our spaces safe so you feel comfortable visiting this winter:

We have:

established a COVID-19 Safety Plan which is posted outside our door
trained staff, board members and volunteers to follow clear protocols, including questioning all visitors about their health, recent travel and possible exposure to COVID-19

We are also:

keeping track of all visitors’ contact information should tracing be necessary
requiring masks and social distancing
ensuring posted occupancy limits are followed
cleaning and sanitizing spaces regularly

Thanks to Our Funders

This year donations are down 75 percent and our usual fundraising activities were all cancelled. Fortunately, offsetting this decline, Cortes Island Museum received emergency and resiliency funding from several federal and provincial agencies.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia and our other funding partners:

Heritage Canada
BC Arts Council
Destination BC
BC Gaming

Library and Archives Canada
Employment and Social Development Canada
BC Museum Association
Strathcona Regional District

We are hopeful that these funds will continue to support us through 2021, as we re-establish safe community outreach programming and fundraising activities.

Buzzing with Excitement

We’re designing a new exhibit for the main gallery featuring wild and honey bees of Cortes Island, and you may be able to help. We want to connect with local beekeepers and others with knowledge about wild bees such as the Mason bee.

Installation is scheduled for early 2021. Contact us if you are interested in sharing information/experience and if you have any beekeeping artifacts you would be willing to loan for the exhibit.

Now or Never

We are still gathering submissions to our collecting initiative Now or Never to document this unique time living through a pandemic. If you haven’t yet done it, send us a story, drawing, poem, song, photo, video, or anything else that is helping you or your family continue to cope.

At the onset of this pandemic, we combed our Cortes Island Museum files and archives for documents and records created during the Spanish flu of 1918 and found very little information. Let’s not repeat the past.

Our stories and experiences are important and Cortes Island Museum will ensure they are preserved and available for future Islanders facing similar circumstances.

Digital content can be submitted by email to cimas@twincomm.ca using Now or Never as the subject. Original copies of photographs, written accounts and artwork can be submitted at the museum during opening hours.

Wild Cortes

Curator Laurel Bohart and the Board of Directors of the Cortes Island Museum & Archives want to shout out a loud THANK YOU to Liam Baron-Preston and Norleen Lillico for volunteering to host our Wild Cortes Natural History Centre this summer. Also, a big thank you to the Strathcona Regional District for a Grant-in-Aid to support the exhibit.

Wild Cortes will be open each Saturday this fall and early winter from noon to 3 p.m. and by appointment for private tours and functions whenever possible. Contact us to book your visit. The exhibit is located at 1255 Seaford Road at Linnaea Education Centre (next to the library).

Unlocking the Archives

Cortes Island Museum & Archives was awarded a 2020 Library and Archives Canada grant for the new project Unlocking the Archives. The intent of the project is to raise awareness about the wealth of historic photographs in our collection and make them more accessible and useful. Phase one, currently underway, will see the digitization of 3800 photographs, dating from the late 1800s to 2016.

In phase two, the Archives will be made accessible through a Discovery Interface providing online access to its database and records. Stay tuned for phase three, a social media campaign to share the Archives.

What Do You Want to Know About Cortes Island?

Maëve Leduc, our summer host/interpreter, took on the big project of creating a database to index our Information Files. These files, while not original archival documents, contain fascinating tidbits of information about families, places, and numerous other topics relating to the Cortes Island. The project will be completed this year making these files more available to you.

Butterfly Sightings

Thank you for submitting your butterfly sightings this summer!
We've had 17 butterfly species recently reported by our members and butterfly enthusiasts. Our Cortes Island naturalist, Christian Gronau, and Lunabelle Loiseau-Tremblay from Quadra Island, a butterfly enthusiast and specialist, were helping us with confirming the species.

We will continue documenting Cortes Island butterflies next year. You can check our Butterfly Sightings page on our website and the Butterfly Picture Album on Facebook.

"Chirp Chirp" – Christmas Bird Count

Each year, Cortes Island Museum sponsors the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). This year, the count will take place on Sunday, December 27, 2020, weather permitting. The alternate-day is Saturday, January 2, 2021. Participants will pre-register in December.
You will join an area leader and move from place to place in your own vehicle. Registration and count details will be circulated closer to the event.

Membership

Take a moment to become a member by donating now. Strong membership numbers encourage funding agencies. You can use the form below or renew your membership online.