Annual Report 2009

First issue of The Beaver with it's new name: Canada's History.

This has been a great year for Canada’s History Society, as the stories that follow illustrate.

I spent much of my first year as Chair of the Board silently thanking my predecessors for ensuring that the Society was ready for changes that included settling into a new home at the University of Winnipeg, announcing the new name for our magazine, expanding our presence in the digital world, and establishing new partnerships with the University of Winnipeg.

The board continues to explore different ways to achieve our mission, which is to help all Canadians learn about and enjoy our country’s unique past. I will admit to spurts of glee when I saw the magazine’s new title go viral, with mentions by Stephen Colbert and The Economist, and when I watched Canadian superstar Paul Gross, winner of the Society’s Pierre Berton medal, mingle with our other wonderful award winners at the annual history awards ceremony at Government House. Thanks to members, supporters, and staff, we continue to keep Canadian history in the present and ready for the future.

Alongside a year of solid achievements is our perennial concern with the balance sheet: We are an organization that depends on its supporters for sixty-seven percent of its funding (the government provides 28.2 percent). Our efforts to broaden our audience and reach younger Canadians are working, but they involve a substantial investment in new media. In order to fund this and other initiatives, the board has embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign, and we are all asked to make a unique one-time contribution to help the website grow.

So please, take a look at CanadasHistory.ca. And if you enjoy it, I hope you too might join the board’s campaign to become an annual donor; or if you already are one, make an additional one-time gift to support these new media investments!

— Charlotte Gray, Chair