Author: Clayton McLain Memorial Museum

The Museum’s Annual General Meeting gives the Board an opportunity to share the past year’s activities with the community. Most of CMMM’s supporters are residents, or former residents of the Cut Knife area. The museum wouldn’t have been established 52 years ago, and wouldn’t still be here today, without the care and commitment of this community, past and present.

On Sunday, March 26 at 3pm the Museum Board will meet in the Cut Knife Community Centre. Come listen in to a review of the museum’s activities from April 2022 to the present. Maybe, you’ll be inspired to join us as a volunteer. There are so many committees to choose from: exhibits and displays, research, buildings maintenance, event planning, fundraising, community outreach…

Click VOLUNTEERS POWER THE CMMM to learn more.

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CLICK THROUGH FOR INFO ABOUT THE CMMM BOARD
1. This Report is Talking about Us
2. With or Without Makes a Difference
3. Why We Do It

~ Debbie M.

The last bit of info I’m going to pull from the Saskatchewan Nonprofit Partnership‘s 2022 report is the motivations that prompt people to volunteer. The reasons identified by the survey’s respondents are varied, often overlap with each other, and they generally differ according to age group. Summarized, they look like this:

• 75% of respondents want to contribute to their community;
• 72% of respondents are interested in a particular cause;
• 36% of respondents hope to improve their own well-being;
• 31% of respondents want to meet new people, and
• 11% of respondents want to improve their job prospects.

VOLUNTEERISM IN SASKATCHEWAN AND THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19, SASK NONPROFIT

If you’re floating the idea of taking a seat on the CMMM’s Board of Trustees, rest assured: No one will be asking, “What’s your motivation?” We will be asking you to attend Board meetings, and to help with some of the hands-on activities, as you’re able. We look forward to hearing your voice at the Board table, both questions and suggestions. We look forward to fresh energy and brave new ideas. You will be welcomed.

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Chris Schoular’s comments were presented in the previous post, With or Without Makes a Difference. Below are Randy Strelioff’s, Colton Stapley’s, and Debbie MacLeod’s replies to, “Why do you volunteer with the Museum?”

RANDY S.

Like Chris, my ancestors came from the soil, though not in this part of Saskatchewan. The Museum is a way to honour and respect those who came before. It’s a bonus that the history and artifacts are so darned interesting.

Personally, I feel it’s important that I stay productive since I retired. The Museum gives me an opportunity to do that.

I agree totally with Chris that the quality of your community is a reflection of the amount of effort you put into it. The nice things in a community don’t happen by chance. Nice things happen because people care and put the work in. The tax base can support the essentials but it’s volunteers that improve the quality of life for people.

COLTON S.

I volunteer with the museum because it’s something that I want to be here when I’m retired. I’d like to be able to enjoy it and dedicate a larger portion of my time to it. I want to make sure the stories from our town continue to be told. If I don’t help out with it now, there is that much less of a chance that the museum will still be here at that point in time. So, I guess I volunteer in the present to make sure that myself and others will have the ability to enjoy and promote the museum in the future .

DEBBIE M.

My maternal grandparents were immigrants to Alberta: one homesteaded with her family in the Ukrainian block east of Edmonton, then married an English veteran who had come over via the 1919 Soldier Settlement Act. Together, they farmed west of St. Paul. I grew up listening to family stories about homesteading and farming.

Many of the CMMM’s stories are similar to the ones I heard, and they resonate with me. The stories may seem local in nature, but many of the elements in them are universal. Preserving local histories is like saving the threads that connect individuals, communities, and generations. I volunteer because I feel the heritage buildings, the artifacts in them, and the archival items in the museum’s possession are all important pieces of the stories, and I hope we’re able to preserve all of it far into the future.

The current Board has about 3 weeks to find a few more people interested in joining us as a Trustee. If you have any questions, or would like more information, see below.

CLICK THROUGH FOR INFO ABOUT THE CMMM BOARD
1. This Report is Talking about Us
2. With or Without Makes a Difference
3. Why We Do It

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Sunday, March 26 at 3pm at the Cut Knife Community Centre, 205 Orton Street. In addition to reviewing the Annual Report and Financial Report, the CMMM will be electing Board Trustees.

• Trustee terms are 2 years
• Meetings once a month on the 4th Monday evening

It is essential we have a full slate of Board Members so we can maintain seasonal museum operations, initiate and complete new projects, and so much more. Each person brings something different to the table including their personal skill set, their interests and experience. Without a full Board, the museum is merely existing. If you’d like to find out a bit more, visit the Volunteer page here and/or email us at cmmmcutknife@gmail.com.

The CMMM celebrated its 50th Anniversary a few years ago. Let’s all work to insure its success for another 50 years.

~ Debbie M.

I joined the Board for a couple of reasons. One, my family has donated articles to the museum, and I felt it was time to do my part. My grandparents broke the sod and settled here, so the museum’s history is my history.

Secondly, I feel it’s incumbent upon everyone in communities to volunteer whatever time they can. It’s essential to a community’s existence. Maybe people don’t feel that connection to a museum, maybe it’s not personal enough to them, or there just isn’t enough people to go around. I don’t know. Is volunteering becoming obsolete? Service clubs would say yes. 

Chris Schoular, Volunteer, Clayton McLain Memorial Museum, Cut Knife Elks

Chris is referring to the trend of decreasing volunteer participation identified by the Saskatchewan Nonprofit Partnership in their 2022 report Volunteerism in Saskatchewan and the Impacts of Covid-19. As mentioned in This Report is Talking About Us, in the 5 years prior to Covid-19, volunteer participation had dropped across Canada by approximately 35%. There are many reasons for this, including an aging population, time constraints, shifting priorities, financial and health reasons, etc., but the challenges impacting organizations like the CMMM are serious.

WITHOUT

The Museum is fortunate to have a solid, hardworking group of volunteers who participate in the seasonal work bees, and have helped ready the new building for moving day. However, in all honesty, we are just treading water, right now. When new opportunities arise, or unforeseen events occur, we have to let things go, and it kills us to do that. Summer 2022 was especially difficult because we didn’t have any applicants for the summer employment position, and most of the Trustees we do have, are employed full-time. Without enough Board members, here is some of what we had to let happen:

• The Museum remained closed for the 2022 Canada Day weekend.
• Angie, the Assistant Curator, worked alone the entire summer cataloguing as many artifacts as possible in between leading hour-long tours for visitors.
• The Museum closed a few weeks early when Angie had to leave before the summer was finished.
• We had to pass over the Federal Government’s Student Work Placement Program, Propel, because no one was available to research and write the proposal or, if successful, to supervise and mentor a post-secondary student.
• We had to pass over the Community Services Recovery Fund, which targeted nonprofit organizations that wanted to modernize or adapt their systems and services, because that application needed a team to put it together.

WITH

We don’t have to imagine what we could do with a Board of 10 or 12 Trustees and a half dozen committee members. We only have to look through past editions of the Cut Knife Courier or scroll through the blog to see what’s possible. With a strong Board and a committed group of volunteers, we would be able to:

• Host workshops and speakers; run an afternoon summer camp for children;
• Research and publish projects like Atton’s Lake – a Summer Meeting Place, Cut Knife and Districts School Sites & Points of Interest, and Cut Knife Town Centre;
• Participate in tourism partnerships;
• Fundraise – remember Ladies Night Out?
• Celebrate Canada Day and Heritage Day with fireworks, a dance, a play, or a meal, and
• Deal with unforeseen circumstances OR opportunities as they presented themselves.

The current Board has about 3 weeks to find a few more people interested in joining us as a Trustee. If you have any questions, or would like more information, see below.

CLICK THROUGH FOR INFO ABOUT THE CMMM BOARD
1. This Report is Talking about Us
2. With or Without Makes a Difference
3. Why We Do It

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Sunday, March 26 at 3pm at the Cut Knife Community Centre, 205 Orton Street. In addition to reviewing the Annual Report and Financial Report, the CMMM will be electing Board Trustees.

• Trustee terms are 2 years
• Meetings once a month on the 4th Monday evening

It is essential we have a full slate of Board Members so we can maintain seasonal museum operations, initiate and complete new projects, and so much more. Each person brings something different to the table including their personal skill set, their interests and experience. Without a full Board, the museum is merely existing. If you’d like to find out a bit more, visit the Volunteer page here and/or email us at cmmmcutknife@gmail.com.

The CMMM celebrated its 50th Anniversary a few years ago. Let’s all work to insure its success for another 50 years.

~ Debbie M.