The following report was submitted by ACCSC President, Ken Duncan at the ACCSC Annual General Meeting held 29 March 2023.

“It is my pleasure to present to you our year-end report for the fiscal year 2022. As you know our organization like so many others in the cultural sector was brought to its knees by Covid. It is only through the Herculean efforts by our Past President, new Board members, and assistance from our County’s Parks, Recreation and Culture department that we survived.

Every cloud has a silver lining and it is due to Covid that we were able to take stock of who we were and what our mission was. As a result of considerable soul searching and a huge amount of research we have succeeded in redefining the organization. Over the past year, we have made significant progress towards achieving our mission and goals, and we are excited to share our accomplishments with you.

Highlights of our year include:

●     We have designed and are following our guiding statement.

●     We have designed and put in place our governance model

●     We have completely overhauled our website

●     Modernized our branding

●     Obtained the Pecha Kucha license for Strathcona County

●     Held an inaugural and successful second Pecha Kucha event

●     Have created a digital map of cultural individuals, organizations and activities in the County

●     Have created a Digital Magazine with the first issue “published” on our website in December

●     Have reconnected with a number of Cultural organizations within the County

●     Have connected with the Arts Council of Edmonton

●     Have established our presence with the Alberta Federation for the Arts thus opening the door to apply for Provincial Arts Grants

●     Have established our presence with the Canada Council for the Arts which enables us to apply for Federal grants.

●     Partnered with four other cultural organizations within the County and applied for a Provincial Multiculturalism grant which was awarded in 2023. We are the lead on the project.

●     Established a partnership with MacEwan University to provide opportunities for their students to gain experience in the cultural sector.

●     Last but certainly not least, while the attendance was small, in every other way our inaugural Cultural Conference ‘Let Sparks Fly’ was a huge success.

Financially, we were able to access three County of Strathcona cultural grants in the amount of $12,000 which enabled us to carry out our activities. We are exploring means by which we can achieve financial stability and plan to report successful progress in our next report.

Our membership base was severely damaged by Covid. We believe our activities will attract and re-attract members.

Looking ahead, we plan to continue the projects we commenced in 2022.

We are pleased to be coordinating Culture Days in the County for 2023. This will be our first year in what we hope will prove to become a major event for our County.

We also plan to begin working with MacEwan to research and design a new governance model that more accurately reflects the cultural mosaic of our County. We hope to complete this project in 2024.

We will continue building on our successes from the past year to strengthen our internal and external capacity. We will increase our membership and grow existing 

and new partnerships and collaborations within the community.

We thank you for your continued support of our organization and look forward to another successful year ahead. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or feedback, as we value your input and ideas.”