TIABC Voice of Tourism Newsletter – November 18th, 2022

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Earlier today, TIABC held its annual general meeting at Anvil Centre in New Westminster. It was good for our board and members to be together in the same room for the AGM for the first time in three years. For me and many others who travelled from all parts of BC, it was worth the long journey from fogged-in Tofino.

Annual general meetings are not exciting at the best of times, but we nonetheless endeavoured to provide attendees with an enlightening report on our various priorities and operations over the past year for discussion and approval. Note…the financials reported were for fiscal 2021 while all else referenced the 12 months since our last AGM. At the risk of helping to cure your insomnia, allow me to provide a brief synopsis of the committee reports.

Finance and Audit Committee Chair, Ian MacPhee reported that financially, TIABC is on stable ground. Thanks to sponsorships and partnerships, we generated enough revenue to cover our costs and even managed to stay on the positive side of the leger by a little more than $8,000. As per TIABC’s financial policy, we have enough in reserve to cover 18 months of operation.

From a governance perspective, members approved the bylaw changes our committee put forward that encompass new language to reflect our goals of more equity, diversity and inclusion with our board and staff, as well as the need to evaluate candidates for directors based on skills, regional dispersion, and various tourism sectors.

Although we said goodbye to Jennifer Burton, we welcomed Joanne Burns-Millar of Pacific Destination Services to the board, as well as newly elected Miranda Ji of Destination Greater Victoria.

In his Membership and Communications Committee report, Chair Mike Retasket highlighted the strong response to our recent member survey and the positive support for TIABC. He also talked about the success of the BC Tourism & Hospitality Conference earlier this year, and how Prince George and Northern BC Tourism are pulling out all the stops for next year’s conference.

Brenda Baptiste, who stepped in for Policy Committee Chair Barrett Fisher, referenced four recent policies that TIABC submitted to the province. She also drew attention to various TIABC submissions to both the provincial and federal governments with more in the works in the coming weeks.

As part of my Chair’s report, I turned the reins over to Sandra Oldfield, Chair of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Reconciliation Committee who shared an overview of the extensive work TIABC has done in this area over the last eight months including forging a partnership with WORTH Association (Women of Recreation, Tourism & Hospitality), as well as our board and staff completing go2HR’s Safer Spaces training, among other actions.

Finally, I had an opportunity to acknowledge the incredible work of TIABC’s staff (Walt Judas, Deb Kulchiski, Fiona Wray, Pria Flanagan), as well as the guidance of our board, and the commitment by various committee members to help us in our advocacy efforts this past year.

I am grateful for the support of Fortis BC, the Fraser Valley DMOs, Anvil Centre, and WORTH Association for helping us host today’s AGM. Thank you to the members and stakeholders that attended. I look forward to seeing you at our conference next year, if not sooner.

Given it’s the weekend, I’m not in a rush to go home and will take the time to be a tourist and enjoy this part of the province (Metro Vancouver) over the next couple of days.

J.J. Belanger
Chair, TIABC