Millennium Place Society re-structured
There’s a new club coming to town and it offers its members the chance to impact Whistler in the arts, culture, child and youth care and activities, music, health, and numerous other ventures.
It will be open to everyone – long term residents, newcomers, young adults and the seasoned senior.
"We want people to join," said Stephen Milstein, chair of the Maurice Young Millennium Place Society.
Creating a membership base for Millennium Place is all part of a re-organization of the governing structure of the facility.
By creating members it is hoped that even more enthusiasm will be brought to the activities of the centre, which grew 35 per cent in bookings last year, and new sources of money, such as lottery funds, will also become available.
Last year Millennium Place applied for a lottery grant of $152,000 but because of the organizational structure of the governing body it did not qualify for the money.
Now the board of directors will be expanded from 11 to 13 members, seven of whom will be elected by the new membership.
The other six members will be nominated by various sectors of the community.
This new structure will make Millennium Place eligible for among other things, lottery grants.
The role of the nominated board members, said Milstein, will be to reflect the needs and concerns of a segment of the community, not the organization they are working for.
For example, a Whistler-Blackcomb representative would be there to put forward interests of the large segment of the population employed by the mountains, not the company itself.
"There have been two very significant changes," said Milstein, who hopes to step down as chair at the next election.
"One is that we no longer have stakeholder organizations. Now there are groups in the community that we go to who we know represent key sectors of the community and we have asked them to find someone that they are going to offer up to us that our board will accept or not accept. They will represent the views of that segment of the community. They don’t represent that organization, they don’t represent that segment, they can represent those views."
Rob Schwartz, general manager of Millennium Place is excited about creating a membership.
"This is a very unique place to be a member of," said Schwartz.
"I can’t think of any other organization in Whistler where you could become a member and truly impact the community in any number of ways.
"You look at how this community will be changing over the next seven years and what better time to get involved to help shape it than now."
Vice-chair of the MY Place Society Jane Milner agreed.
"I think there are all kinds of reasons to become a member," said the long-time Whistler resident and former CEO of the North Shore Credit Union.
"I think first of all you support what your interests are, you support what your family does.
"So say you are a parent of a teen and your kid uses the teen centre, then I think that is a huge reason to become a member."
To join drop by Millennium Place or call them at 604-935-8410. If you have volunteered a certain number of hours you are already eligible for membership. If not there will be a $25 membership fee.
MY Place also just received its tax number so receipts can be issued.
The society is also getting ready to re-launch its capital campaign to work on the outstanding $2.2 million debt for the building.
"What we would like to see is a larger group, particularly people in the business community, starting to get involved and say, ‘let us help you get this debt killed,’" said Milstein.
In August council answered an urgent financial plea from Maurice Young Millennium Place with a $150,000 cheque to help with cash-flow problems.
The municipality agreed to give the centre a $50,000 grant in aid. That money was to cover operating shortfalls from the past year and was also to be used for deposits for performances in the coming year.
A further $100,000 was to be given to MY Place in the form of a loan to paid back over the next 12 months.
This is the first time MY Place, which melds churches, community facilities and theatre performances into one venue, has asked for financial help from the municipality for operating costs. The municipality guaranteed a $3.5 million short-term mortgage and provided an emergency loan to cover construction costs.
MY Place costs roughly half a million dollars to run every year.
Revenues over the course of the 2002-03 season were $295,000, which is an increase of 35 per cent from the year before. Measures were also taken to attack overhead costs of the operation, which were reduced 35 per cent last year.
The money from the municipality will cover the current operating expenses.
The 2003-04 budget projects a deficit of $61,000 as more grants and sponsors come on board.
MY Place has been operational for two years. It cost over $7 million to build. The bulk of that money was raised through fundraising efforts.
The centre was designed to, "challenge, engage, stimulate (the) community to explore (its) imagination and to develop (its) creativity, spiritual and intellectual awareness."
