TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – December 13, 2024

On the last Saturday of each month I get together with seven buddies I’ve known for decades for an afternoon of laughs, food, beverages and cigars as part of a group known as the Baptist Cigar Club (BCC). The name originated from the fact that almost everyone was raised by German immigrants who started Baptist churches in East Vancouver in the fifties and sixties. The only outlier in the group married into a German-Baptist family so by vote of the BCC founders he was extended an associate membership, largely because he loves schnapps and bratwurst.

BCC officially started during COVID in January 2021 on a beach next to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal causeway. At the time the only permitted opportunity to meet with friends was in an outdoor setting at a minimum six feet distance from each other. On that cold and blustery afternoon trying to stay warm around a campfire, the original five BCC members drafted the bylaws, secured meeting dates and venues (i.e. backyards) for the year, set a budget, determined the criteria for adding new members, and similarly outlined measures (e.g. giving up cigars) for suspending a club member.

As is custom, every January we brave the elements for our annual general meeting. The agenda typically covers finances, food, new member applications and other business. This year our big decision was to limit the food to two categories (e.g. chips & cookies, cheese & crackers) since respective tapas bars and charcuterie boards, not to mention clean-up, was getting out of hand. We also decided to increase our annual budget by 100%, which for the record still amounts to zero.

Much to the satisfaction of the members, the BCC AGM takes all of five minutes. Contrast that with the recent TIABC virtual AGM which took one hour and 21 minutes to review finances, elect new board members and report out via various committees on TIABC’s activities over the past year. To be sure, we take the responsibilities of our organization’s AGM much more seriously and spend weeks to prepare. Suffice it to say, there was much to discuss and approve so the time allotted was well spent.

The 60+ TIABC members that attended Tuesday’s AGM learned that the organization is in a relatively solid financial position even though our expenses were marginally higher than total revenues last year. That said, our balance sheet looks healthy with increasing membership and conference revenues for 2024/25 that will hopefully make us even stronger in the year ahead.

While we bid farewell to directors Joanne Burns-Miller, Miranda Ji and Jamie Cox, who served us so well, we enthusiastically welcomed back directors Dennis Innes, Sandra van Steijn, and Mike Retasket, and elected three new members to the board – Meghan Tabor of Tourism Revelstoke in the DMO category, Erin Cassels (Huntingdon Hotel & Suites), representing the BC Hotel Association in the sector category, and Heather MacDonald of Gibbons Whistler in the business category.

At the AGM, TIABC’s Governance Committee also proposed a number of bylaw changes, some to reflect alignment with current vernacular while others to deal with length of terms a director can serve on TIABC’s board, as mentioned in this space a few weeks ago.

In the area of diversity, equity, inclusion and reconciliation, we informed members that we’re working hard to ensure that DEIR is represented in the programming for the upcoming BC Tourism Industry Conference.

The Policy Committee report focussed on the files we’ve been overseeing all year, while the membership and communications report spoke to the impending changes to our membership structure, new partnerships, and other exciting initiatives to be announced within the next few weeks.

Finally, the Chair’s report highlighted TIABC’s revised mission (i.e. what we do) which reads: TIABC works to influence government policy and regulation on behalf of its business, education, sector association and destination management organization members to empower British Columbia’s tourism industry to reach its full potential economically, socially, culturally, and through the lens of sustainability. Our revised vision (what we aspire to) reads: Establish BC’s tourism sector as the most recognized and valued industry for residents of British Columbia through consistent, focused and strategic advocacy.

The practical application of the mission and vision will be further detailed in our new strategic plan which we’ll formally introduce once we launch the members-only portal on TIABC’s website.

While this year’s TIABC annual general meeting is now formally behind me, I’m gearing up to attend my next AGM to be held at Crescent Beach in South Surrey at the end of January. So far I’m still part of the BCC even though I try to avoid cigars and drink zero percent beer instead of schnapps. I suspect it’s because a quorum of at least five is needed at our AGM to pass any motions…which is hard to achieve on a windy, cold, dark and dreary beach in the dead of winter.

Walt Judas
CEO, TIABC