Cultural Human Resources Council
NEWSLETTERS
 |
In this issue!
If you haven’t done so – please – renew your CHRC membership today! If you‘re not a member but appreciate the unique work CHRC does for and with the sector – and want to join our vibrant vital network – join today! Your voice and commitment make CHRC strong!If you renew before March 31, 2019, you will receive CHRC’s recently updated HR Management Toolkit in PDF (value: $199.99), containing the new tool on “Workplace Harassment and Violence”.
We’re closing in on the first year of Respectful Workplaces in the Arts (RWA). The sector has stood behind and with the ambitious targets of this project – tools and resources are falling into place under the guidance of the RWA Coordinating Committee and the sector working groups. Thought is beginning to shift as artists, cultural workers, employers, Boards of Directors, engagers alike are committing to the broad objective of rejecting harassment and affirming respectful arts workplaces as the norm in the sector. Here is a rundown of tools and resources now or soon to be at your fingertips.
And on a Code of Conduct…. Under discussion is a Code of Conduct. Should it be/ can it be a single document for the live performing arts that be endorsed by organizations - as the Creative Industries have done (readthecode.ca), as the Music Industry has adopted, and as the Quebec cultural sector has signed on to? Or, given the sprawling nature of the live performing arts, is a single, strong, effective Code of Conduct that is cross-disciplinary, nationwide, and applicable to all work environments even possible? And should attention be given instead to the valuable collaborative process needed to develop a Code of Conduct in the workplace, which includes employer and workers? These are the questions the RWA Coordinating Committee members are considering. However they decide, performing arts organizations will be glad to have text and wording to adopt or adapt a Code of Conduct after they meet in early April. Going forward…. In April, Phase 2 of Respectful Workplaces in the Arts is set to begin. CHRC is organizing Train-the-trainer (TTT) sessions in English and in French for selected trainers to develop workshops on harassment, with coaching and training from HR professionals. They will draw on the tools and resources available on the RWA website. With guidance on design and delivery of the workshops on harassment that they develop, the trainers will become a kind of “SWAT team” of experts on dealing with harassment in arts workplaces. Over the next year, they will deliver pilot workshops, fanning out across the country, seeding the sector with this vital information, and empowering cultural workers and employers to tackle harassment and build respectful workplaces.
To add to the rich information about the cultural labour force that we have gained from the LMI survey (with some 2000 respondents – thank you to all who sent in their responses!), the LMI team of Project Manager Grégoire Gagnon, Communications Officer Ieashia Minott and Conference Board analyst Greg Hermus, has met employers and cultural workers from across the sector in some 11 cities - hearing their stories, doing reality checks on the stats, and looking into the future with them for trends and issues. These will be further supplemented with individual interviews to round out the report on the cultural labour force. The focus groups to date have clearly identified how the current system of mining data on the cultural labour force – so many of whom are self-employed – is inadequate as a method of truly describing and understanding the reality of work in the cultural sector.
As the consultants continue to gather and analyse the information we are collecting and the stories we are hearing, we will be working closely with the Conference Board to present the report in a way that truly reflects the realities of the cultural workforce. The draft LMI report will be reviewed by the Steering and Advisory Committees in June.
While fully engaged with Talent to Lead (T2L) Cohort 3, with its focus on emerging leaders from Indigenous, culturally diverse and Official Language Minority communities, CHRC’s Project Managers Annalee Adair and Lise Labine are organizing regional gatherings of participants from Cohorts 1, 2 and 3 in Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto in March. One of the key objectives of the gatherings is to bring T2L participants together to help coalesce a peer network for these emerging leaders. We were sorry not to be able to arrange for face-to-face meetings in the first 2 years of the programme, but are grateful for the opportunity to bring participants from the three cohorts together regionally in this third year. The gatherings will also be opportunities for the T2L leaders to get important training on harassment and on establishing respectful workplaces – issues they will most certainly be dealing with in their emerging leadership roles. Also, the regional gatherings will provide forums for discussion of the pressing issues the T2L participants expect to face, particularly in relation to the broad mandate of diversity and inclusion that is fast becoming a modus operandi for arts organizations and programming across the country. Through interactive panel discussions with experienced cultural leaders from across the country, break out groups, a training video on Harassment and a webcast on Respectful Workplaces, the T2l participants will better understand the nature of and be able to prepare for, the changes and challenges ahead. CHRC will be documenting these regional gatherings and the learnings will be captured in a report on "Talent to Lead: From Mid-Career Manager to Cultural Leader", which will give a snapshot of what issues are facing our emerging leaders in 2020.
“Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute is a community of nonprofits, foundations, consultants and academic practitioners who understand the direct relationship between a nonprofit organization’s operating capacity and the ability to effectively deliver the services and programs defined in their mission.” Check out this link to read about the SaskCulture non-profit lifecycles experience.
Kris Kinsey was a YCW intern in 2015. In late February we met with him and a young intern with the Bentway Conservancy. What happened in those intervening 5 years? Kris got a job with TIFF, and as a successful graduate and strong supporter of his internship experience, he encouraged his new employer to apply to Building Careers in Heritage to give young cultural workers a similar opportunity. The TIFF team would get enthusiastic and trained extra hands to get them through TIFFs intense cycles; and young emerging cultural workers would get a taste of (and potentially be launched on) a career in the cultural sector. Kris then moved on to an exciting new career direction with the burgeoning Bentway Conservancy in TO – and once again encouraged his employer to apply to Building Careers in Heritage for internship funding support. Circle complete. Our meeting with Kris and his intern retold this story. I could tell we have a new recruit to the cultural workforce, under his careful mentoring. And I could tell that the Bentway Conservancy with its cutting edge arts programming is launched too.
Current Job Postings
CHRC members receive a 25% discount on job postings!
Executive Director: Susan Annis Project Managers: Lucie D'Aoust (Respectful Workplaces in the Arts and YCW) Communications Officer: Ieashia Minotte Finance Officer: Erma Barnett Webmaster: Michael Lechasseur A list of Board members can be found on CHRC's web site. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At our latest PATAC conference call ‘meeting’, SaskCulture shared information on their work with the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute which will be of interest to many of our members.
|
Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) |